Breaking Into the Top

From Dylan McClain's chess column at the New York Times:

Polgar May Get Some Company as a Woman in the Elite Ranks

By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
Published: July 22, 2007

A nagging question over the years has been: Why aren’t there more good players who are women?

Since the World Chess Federation began ranking players more than 40 years ago, only one, Judit Polgar of Hungary, has been in the top 100.

Some men, notably Garry Kasparov, the former champion, have suggested that women do not have the psychological makeup (meaning aggressiveness) or intellectual capacity to play high-level chess.

Late last year, a study in Psychological Science concluded that that was not necessarily true. It said a likely reason for the dearth of good women players was that not enough of them played competitive chess.

The study was by Christopher F. Chabris, a research associate in the psychology department at Harvard, and Mark E. Glickman, an associate professor of health policy and management at Boston University.

“If you look at boys and girls who started at roughly the same playing strength,” Professor Glickman said, “if you look at them at the start and follow them over time, there tends not to be a difference.”

Still, it is puzzling that Polgar has stood alone for so long. At long last, however, she may be about to get some help in the battle of the sexes. Humpy Koneru, a 20-year-old from India, may be poised to break into the elite ranks. She is now the No. 2 woman in the world, one of just 10 to earn the title of grandmaster, which she did at 15 years 2 months, three months younger than Polgar was when she earned the title. Over the last 18 months, she has played a number of strong tournaments against men, including the second section of the elite Corus tournament in 2006, with good results.

Two weeks ago, in a field with 13 grandmasters, she tied for first at the Kaupthing Open in Luxembourg with Hannes Stefansson of Iceland. Going into the last round, she was in a six-way tie for first, but beat Sebastian Siebrecht of Germany. How’s that for lack of aggression?

After 3 Nf3, Siebrecht had a few options as Black, but steered the game into a Benoni opening, showing he was spoiling for a fight.

Koneru and Siebrecht showed that they knew recent theory, playing more than 20 moves that followed the course of recent games, in particular a 2001 encounter between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov, which ended in a draw.

Siebrecht should have removed his king from in front of Koneru’s rook with 22 ... Kh8. Koneru’s 29 Rf1 was not the most accurate, as Siebrecht could have played 29 ... Qb2. Instead, 29 ... Qd5 opened the critical a2/g8 diagonal for White’s bishop.

Still, the position was not fatal. After 30 f5, Siebrecht could play 30 ... c4, when 31 Bc4 is met by 31 ... Rf5.

But 30 ... Ref7 was a critical error. Even after 31 ... Rf5 32 Rh4 Kg8 33 Rg1 Qb7 34 Bc3, Black is losing.

Siebrecht fell on his sword with 33... Be4 rather than play out a most likely hopeless position with 34 ... Qg2 35 Kg2 Bc2.