Hou Yifan beats Judit Polgar in an historic encounter

by ChessBase
1/31/2012 – They had never met before, over the chessboard. In round seven of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festiva the strongest female player of all time, Hungarian GM Judit Polgar, 35, rated 2710, had black against the current Women's World Champion Hou Yifan of China, 17 years old and rated 2605. In a tense struggle the younger lady prevailed. Commentary by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

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The 2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is taking place from Tuesday, 24th January to Thursday, 2nd February 2012 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The event is the tenth in the series held on the Rock, the second to be sponsored by Tradewise Insurance with technical support by Gibtelecom. The rate of play: 40 moves in 100 minutes plus 20 moves in 50 minutes plus 15 minutes for all remaining moves with 30 seconds per move added from the start.

"There will be an historic clash at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Masters in Round 7," wrote a bulletin reporter with a sense of tradition ("an historic"). "Women's World Champion Yifan Hou (China), rated 2605, will play white against Judit Polgar (Hungary), 2710, the highest-ever rated woman player in the history of the game. They have never previously met, as Judit doesn't play in women only events, and it is some years since she played in an open tournament."


Hou Yifan and Judit Polgar before their game in round seven. Both had 4.5/6 points.


The handshake...


... and the first moves – Judit goes for an attacking Sicilian...


...and the game soon turns into a Taimanov.

The memorable summit game was annotated for us by GM Alejandro Ramírez Álvarez of Costa Rica

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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 Nge7 A relatively rare move, overshadowed by the much more popular alternatives 6... Qc7 and 6... d6. It's possible that Judit wanted to take her young oponent out of preparation as early as possible. The move makes a lot of sense, the idea is usually to follow with 7... Nxd4 and 8... Nc6. 7.Bf4 Not the most common but not new by any means. The B immediately targets the weakness on d6. Ng6 8.Nxc6 bxc6 9.Bd6 This is the only way of justifying White's play. Now White has a nice clamp on the d6 square, but on the other hand she must keep it in order to prevent the freeing move d5. Bxd6 10.Qxd6 Qe7 This is the most natural move, immediately trying to break the d6 bind. 10...Qb6!? Attacking both b2 and f2 is also a possibily, as it is slightly uncomfortable to defend both. Black can follow with Qb8 to dismantle the blockade. 11.0-0-0 Judging by the amount of time the World Champion took on this move, it is clear she was unfamiliar with this line. However she continues playing the strongest moves. Qxd6 12.Rxd6 Ke7 13.Rhd1 Nf4 14.Bf3 Rb8 14...Nd5!? At first, it looks like 14. Bf3 was designed to prevent this move, but it may be fully playable regardless. 15.exd5 Kxd6 16.dxc6+ Kc7 17.cxd7 Bb7 18.Bxb7 Kxb7 And we have a very interesting position, which hinges on basically one thing: is the d7 pawn very strong or very weak? Black has a very simple plan of Rd8 (either) and Kc7 or c6 and capturing the intruder, and White must make haste to bring it support. I don't pretend to analyze this fully for this report, but here is a sample variation: 19.Ne4 Rhd8 20.Nc5+ Kc6 21.b4 a5 22.a3 axb4 23.axb4 Rab8 24.c3 Rb5 25.Kb2 Rxc5 26.bxc5 Kxc5 27.Kb3 Rb8+! and since the R can keep the king away from b3, Black will play Kc6 and collect d7, with a draw. 15.R6d2 g5 Actually, this is the game's novelty. Previously 15...e5 16.Na4 Rd8 17.Nc5 a5 was okay for Black in Orsini, A-Kovalyov, A La Plata, Argentina 2008. However I'm sure White's play can be improved. 15...d5 16.g3 Ng6 is playable, but Judit preferred her pawn on g5, keeping a bind on the kingside. 16.Na4 This move targets the square that will be weakened the most after d5: c5. Black is close to equality, but not quite there yet. She still has some problems with weak pawns and a bad B on c8. d5 17.g3 Ng6 18.Re1 Kf6 19.Bh5 Rb4 20.Nc3 20.Nc5?! Rc4 is nothing. 20...d4?! I think it is this move that starts Black's real headaches. It was not necessary to create so many weaknesses. The more patient a5 was good, as White hadn't shown any real threats. 20...a5 21.a3 Rb8 and Black is even closer to equality. 21.e5+ Nxe5 22.Ne4+ Ke7 23.Nxg5 Retreating the N on e5 is not as obvious as it seems. h6?! A strange move as it just gifts a pawn away. 23...Ng6? 24.f4!± With the huge threat of f5. Black has a bad position here. 23...Nc4? 24.Rxd4 is completely over. 23...f6 was probably the best move. 24.b3 The N on g5 isn't really under attack. Rd8 25.f4 and the position must favor White. But Black still has chances to hold. 24.Nxe6 Bxe6?! 24...Kxe6 25.f4 f6 26.fxe5 fxe5 27.b3!± And I don't see how Black can stop a3 followed by Rxd4 (for example, Rd8 and Kd6 are met with c3). However this was still the lesser of two evils. 25.Rxe5 White has won a clean pawn. On top of that she has a better pawn structure and better piece coordination. Black must desperately try to hold on to all of her remaining pawns. But this proves to be a futile task. Rd8 26.f4?! Giving Black a glimmer of hope. 26.Be2 Was a finisher, as now the a6 pawn is weak and Ra5 will be very strong. White can follow with f4 first, but now the b5 square is not available for the R. 26...Rb5 27.Rde2 Kf6 28.Bf3 c5 29.a4 Rb4 29...Ra5 30.b3 Leaves the rook in a terribly awkward position. This is unplayable. 30.Rxc5 Rxa4 31.b3 Rb4 32.Be4! with the correct idea in mind - relocating the bishop to the f1-a6 diagonal. Bg4 33.Re1 Rd6 34.Bd3+- A simple glance is enough to evaluate the position. White is up a pawn and has the better structure, with a safer king and better pieces. Black won't hang on for too much longer. Bd7 35.Ree5 Be6 36.Kd2 Rbb6 37.Ra5 Rbc6 38.Ra4 Rb6 39.Re4 Bf5 40.Rexd4 A second pawn has fallen, as it was inevitable, and the rest is a breeze for Yifan. Re6 41.Bc4 Rec6 42.Ra5 Bc8 43.Bd3 Be6 44.Rd8! The Chinese prodigy is relentless. Not only is she up material, she is making sure to tie Black's pieces up as securely as she can. Rd8 takes away a lot of key squares from Black's pieces, as we will see soon. Bc8 45.Rad5 Be6 46.Rh5 Kg7 47.f5 and the bishop is trapped. A solid effort by Hou Yifan who was completely merciless after Polgar's weakening d4 push. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Hou,Y2605Polgar,J27101–02012B46Gibraltar7


The hero of Gibraltar 2012, with 5.5/7 and a 2823 performance: Chinese
women's world champion Hou Yifan, number two on the women's rating list.

Photos: Zeljka Malobabic © Tradewise Insurance Ltd.

Top standings after seven rounds

Rk.
  Ti. Name
FED
Rtg
Pts.
 Perf 
1
 GM Adams Michael
ENG
2724
6.0
2879.0
2
 GM Hou Yifan
CHN
2605
5.5
2823.0
3
 GM Short Nigel D
ENG
2677
5.5
2810.0
4
 GM Le Quang Liem
VIE
2714
5.5
2803.0
5
 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar
AZE
2747
5.5
2795.0
6
 GM Sasikiran Krishnan
IND
2700
5.5
2775.0
7
 GM Almasi Zoltan
HUN
2717
5.5
2768.0
8
 GM Movsesian Sergei
ARM
2700
5.5
2759.0
9
 GM Gopal G N
IND
2566
5.5
2733.0
10
 GM Dzagnidze Nana
GEO
2535
5.5
2708.0
11
 GM Negi Parimarjan
IND
2641
5.5
2700.0
12
 GM Laznicka Viktor
CZE
2704
5.0
2688.0
13
 GM Howell David W L
ENG
2603
5.0
2679.0
14
 GM Svidler Peter
RUS
2749
5.0
2677.0
15
 GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian
ROU
2650
5.0
2672.0
16
 GM Bologan Viktor
MDA
2680
5.0
2662.0
17
 GM El Debs Felipe De Cresce
BRA
2497
5.0
2647.0
18
 GM Shirov Alexei
LAT
2710
5.0
2646.0
18
 GM Koneru Humpy
IND
2589
5.0
2646.0
20
 GM Jussupow Artur
GER
2569
5.0
2617.0
21
 GM Akobian Varuzhan
USA
2617
5.0
2609.0
22
 GM Gustafsson Jan
GER
2643
5.0
2608.0
23
 GM Sutovsky Emil
ISR
2703
5.0
2599.0
24
 GM Zhu Chen
QAT
2472
5.0
2589.0
25
 GM Rapport Richard
HUN
2543
5.0
2582.0
26
 GM Salem A R Saleh
UAE
2505
5.0
2563.0
27
 GM Fier Alexandr
BRA
2603
5.0
2537.0
28
 GM Del Rio De Angelis Salvador
ESP
2531
5.0
2477.0

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