The Lady is a Champ
In
the past few years things have gotten tougher on Judit Polgar's annual trip
to Hoogeveen, Netherlands. The champion's slot has gone from the likes of Spassky
and Smyslov to world class players Khalifman and Karpov. Jan Timman has given
way to Van Wely and Ivan Sokolov. Even the junior champions are getting tougher.
Shaked and Sadvakasov were both rated under 2500. This year Aronian weighed
in at 2649!
In fact, this quaint annual event turned into one of the strongest tournaments
of 2003 with a 2689 average Elo. For the third time Polgar was the top seed
in the event and she lived up to her billing by taking clear first by a full
point. It wasn't easy, however. She was tied with Aronian going into the final
round and locked up the tournament by beating him in a complicated game.
That win made it a clean sweep with the white pieces for Polgar. She lost to
Sokolov in the fifth, but none of her competitors could muster more than a single
victory. Sokolov and Aronian both failed to distinguish themselves and finished
even. At least Sokolov had the consolation of beating Polgar in a fantastic
sacrificial game. Karpov lost twice and failed to win a game to end up in the
cellar. He has played very little classical chess in the past few years, instead
becoming a rapid specialist.
1st Essent Report •
2nd Essent Report • Official
Site (Dutch)
Replay all games online and download PGN
Polgar started with a bang by dealing Karpov one of his most devastating losses
ever, as we saw in our first report. She finished strongly as well, although
her win over Aronian was made much easier when the young Armenian blundered
into this position.
Black
has just played his queen to c4 and was hoping to get rid of the b and d-pawns
with a quick draw. It won't take you long to find White's winning shot. It probably
didn't take Polgar more than a second to see 29.Rc1! would win the exchange
after 29...Qxd3 30.Rxc8+ Kh7 31.Bc2, pinning the queen against the king.
Aronian preferred to play on with rook and bishop for the queen after 29...Qxc1
30.Bxc1 Rxc1 but couldn't deal with all the threats after 31.d6!
and he resigned a few moves later.
That decisive last-round game gave Judit Polgar another great 2003 result and
added even more rating points to her current career high. The next list could
see her recapture her old position as the top-rated Hungarian by passing Peter
Leko.
Photo from official site.