CHESS
Supergirl
Raymond Keene
udit Polgar (the twelvejyear-old victrix of the Hastings Challengers) and Zsuzsa, her twenty-year-old sister, have generally been reckoned • the most promising mem- bers of the supremely talented Hungarian family. Now, however, the middle sister, Zsofia, has achieved a result in a Rome tournament which suddenly eclipses the feats of her siblings. Jon Levitt, the British repreientative in Rome, was kind enough to send me this eye-witness report: 'The result of fourteen-year-old Zsofia Polgar at the open tournament recently concluded in Rome was truly staggering. She scored 81/2/9 against a strong field including five Grandmas- ters (four of them Russian!) and two Interna- tional Masters. Her other two opponents were unrated but the result of 61/2/7 against average- rated opposition of 2500 measures as no less than a 2930 result on the Elo scale, Arguably the best tournament result achieved by anybody ever. When you consider that Zsofia's rating is itself only 2295 you realise just how incredible this result is — the statistical probability being of the order of one in several million.
'Finally, some comments on Zsofia's games. In a number of them she gets bad/losing positions but as soon as they swing her way she never lets go of her advantage. She seems very strong at calculation and tactics.'
Zsofia Polgar — Alexander Chernin: Rome, February; Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Ne6 5 NO Qc7 6 Be2 Nf6 7 0-0 Be7 8 Be3 0-0 9 f4 d6 10 Khl a6 11 Qel Na5 12 Qg3 Nc4 White's next move appeais somewhat bucolic. The normal treat- ment would be to exchange Black's intrusive
knight on c4 and then centralise the white queen's rook. 13 Bel b5 14 a3 Qb6 15 Rdl Bb7 16 b3 Na5 17 Bf3 Rac8 18 Bb2 Rfd8 The Soviet Grandmaster has attained the kind of smooth deployment of his forces which conventionally indicates a Black advantage in the Sicilian Defence. His 18th move was, however, careless, and should have been replaced by a precaution such as 18 . . . g6. Now White seizes her chance
Position after 19 Nd5
with a bold display of tactics. 19 Nd5 (Diagram) NxdS Black, who had clean overlooked White's 19th move coup, has no choice, for 19 . . . exd5 loses outright to 20 Nf5. 20 Nxe6 g6 21 NxdS QxdS 22 exd5 Rxc2 Chernin is utterly lost, material down and with a smashed position. 23 Rabl Bh4 24 Qh3 Bc8 25 Bg4 Bxg4 26 Qxg4 Nxb3 27 g3 Be7 28 f5 a5 29 fxg6 hxg6 30 Qh3 Rxb2 31 Rxb2 a4 32 Rf2 Nc5 33 Rdfl f5 34 g4 Ne4 35 Rg2 Black resigns. Zsofia Polgar — Mihai Suba: Rome, February; Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 Nf6 4 Nc3 cxd4 5 Nxd4 e6 6 Be2 a6 7 0-0 Bel 8 Be3 Qc7 9 f4 0-010 Qel b5 11 a3 Bb7 12 Bf3 Nbd7 13 Qg3 Nc5 Once again, the Black player has emerged from a Silician De- fence with a seemingly fine position. Neverthe- less, the Sicilian is full of pitfalls for both sides, particularly tactical. ones. The end game struc- tures tend to favour Black, but as Siegbert Tarrasch was wont to exclaim: before the end game, the gods have placed the middle game. 14 f5 e5 15 Nb3 Na4 16 Nxa4 bxa4 17 Nd2 RfcS Black evidently decided not to face the com- plications attendant upon 17 . . . Qxc2. 18 c4 Bc6 19 Bh6 Bf8 20 Bg5 Nd7 21 f6 g6 22 Qh4 RcbS 23 Bg4 Qb6+ 24 Khl Qxb2 Anything but this. Suba, the Romanian Grandmaster who defected to England last year, has overlooked the danger to his king implied by White's 26th move. 25 Bxd7 Bxd7 26 Bh6 d5 This is a desperate course, but White was threatening to trade on f8 and proceed with Qh6, weaving a mating net around the black king. 27 BxfB Qxd2 28 Radl Qe3 29 Rdel Qd2 30 Bh6 Qa5 31 exd5 Re8 32 Be3 Kh8 33 Bh6 Qc5 Black could have tried 33... Kg8 but then 34 Bg7 still wins. 34 Re4 Threatening Bg7 followed by Qxh7+ and Rh4+ . 34. . . Kg8 35 Bg7 Black resigns If 35 . . . h5 36 Qg5 wins.
All three Polgar sisters should be seen in action together in a Grandmaster tourna- ment sponsored by Granada Leisure to be held in Manchester in June. This will be the first such all-play-all GM tournament to be held in Manchester since Dr Tarrasch won there in 1890.
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