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


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

Links

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