CHESS

Three sisters

Raymond Keene

It is somewhat surprising for me that until recently there has been no book in English on the three prodigious Polgar sisters from Budapest, the third of whom, Judith, has recently become the world's youngest-ever grandmaster. Now, howev- er, this gap in the literature has been filled by the former British Ladies' champion, Cathy Forbes. The Polgar Sisters: Training or Genius? (Batsford, £10.99) is an excel- lent account of the girls' games, and although not privy to the arcane mysteries of Polgar pere's training methods, Cathy Forbes makes her own views perfectly clear, having studied the Polgars first hand and even played against them.

Zsuzsa Polgar — Azmaiparashvili: Dortmund 1990.

1 Ra8+ Kxa8 2 Rxc8+ Ka7 3 c6+ Rxe3 4 fxe3 Black resigns.

Gauglitz — Sofia Polgar: Budapest 1984.

Sofia, the middle sister, is a highly intelligent girl who could turn her hand to anything, and it happens to have been chess, though there are doubts that she will stick with the game for much longer. Zsuzsa, the eldest, has achieved everything that training can, though, given that she has practised chess almost from the cradle, she has achieved grandmasterdom no more rapidly than most of her GM colleagues.

Judith Polgar — Mathe: Wisconsin 1990.

1 Qxf7+ Black resigns on account of 1 . . • Qxf7 2 Rxf7 Kxf7 3Bc4+ and mate next move.

Judith Polgar — Hansen: Vejstrup 1989.

Judith, on the other hand, is a surprising exception. She really has a genius for the game which transcends any possible train- ing. Zsuzsa and Sofia can be explained away by rote and application. Judith can- not.

A pleasing feature of the book is the large number of attractive combination finishes by all three girls. The diagrams below give six of their finishes.

In his candidates semi-final against Kar- pov, Nigel Short lost the first game, drew the second and has every prospect of winning in the adjourned third game to level at 11/2-11/2.

Judith Polgar — Angelova: Thessaloniki Olym- piad 1988.

1 Qxf8+ Black resigns viz. 1 . . . KxfS 2 13h6+ Kg8 3 Re8 mate.

Tisdall — Judith Polgar: Reykjavik 1988.