A Chess Goddess Teaches a Lesson

From The Week in Chess:

Ajedrez UNAM Quadrangular 2010
Mark Crowther - Saturday 20th November 2010

Judit Polgar, 2008 Sparkhassen.

The Ajedrez UNAM Quadrangular tournament takes place alongside the Ibero-American tournament. This is part of a huge chess festival which has Kasparov and Karpov giving simuls, a number of seminars and exhibitions. Vassily Ivanchuk lost to Judit Polgar on day one. Manuel Leon-Hoyos takes on Veselin Topalov in the second semi-final on day 2. I couldn't find a time control but it is safe to say it is some kind of rapid.

Here is the game in PGN. You can play through it here.

GM Polgar, Judit (2686) - GM Ivanchuk, Vassily (2764)
Ajedrez UNAM KO Mexico City MEX (1.1), 2010.11.19
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.h5 Bh7 8.Nf3 e6 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 Nf6 11.Bf4 Bd6 12.Bxd6 Qxd6 13.O-O-O Nbd7 14.Qe2 O-O 15.Ne5 Qc7 16.Rhe1 Rad8 17.f4 c5 18.dxc5 Nxc5 19.Qc4 Rc8 20.Kb1 Qb6 21.Qd4 Rfd8 22.Qf2 Nd5 23.Ne2 Qa5 24.a3 Ne4 25.Qh4 Nd2+ 26.Ka1 Ne3 27.Rc1 Nxc2+ 28.Rxc2 Rxc2 29.Qe7 Qc7 30.Qb4 a5 31.Qa4 b5 32.Ng3 Nf3 33.Nxf3 Ra8 34.Rh1 Qd6 35.Ne5 Qc7 36.Rd1 Rf8 37.Qc4 Qb6 38.Kb1 Rc8 39.Ne2 Rc1+ 40.Rxc1 Rd8 41.Ka1 Qc7 42.Re1 0-1

Ivanchuk is currently #7 in the world, at 2764.  It doesn't seem that long ago that Judit Polgar was also in the top 10 and also rated over 2700, but at that time there was only one player (Kasparov) rated over 2800!  Polgar, married and a mother of two, continues to reign as top female player in the world.  She is currently #49 on the top 100 list at 2686.  Nice to see her whomp some big butt :)  And I like Ivanchuk!  Go, Judit!

Final round of play in this elite Quad is November 21.  Current standings:

Ranking crosstable after Round 3

Rk.

Name

Rtg

FED

1.Rd

2.Rd

3.Rd

4.Rd

Pts.

TB1

TB2

TB3

1

GM

IVANCHUK Vassily

2764

UKR

2s1

2w0

2s½

2w0

1,5

4,5

1,5

2,25

2

GM

POLGAR Judit

2686

HUN

1w0

1s1

1w½

1s1

1,5

4,5

1,5

2,25

3

GM

TOPALOV Veselin

2786

BUL

4w

4s

4w

4s

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,00

4

GM

LEON HOYOS Manuel

2570

MEX

3s

3w

3s

3w

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,00

Annotation:
Tie Break1: Buchholz Tie-Breaks (variabel with parameter)
Tie Break2: Buchholz Tie-Breaks (variabel with parameter)
Tie Break3: Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break variable

Not sure what's going on there - it seems that Topalov and Leon Hoyos did not play their games, and according to results listed at Chess-Results.com, Judit won a R4 game against Ivanchuk!

Pairings/ResultsRound 4

Bo.	No.		Name	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	No.
1	4	GM	LEON HOYOS Manuel	0		0	GM	TOPALOV Veselin	1
2	2	GM	IVANCHUK Vassily	1½	0 - 1	1½	GM	POLGAR Judit	3

That would give Judit 2 wins over Ivanchuk (!!!).  What's more, she won against him both times playing the black pieces.

I checked at Susan Polgar's blog (she would have the latest information, it seems she is always on top of all the chess news) - she has this report.