JUDIT POLGAR!
Judit Polgar is an amazing genius of the chessboard. In the following game, she crushes Shirov in dazzling style in 29 moves from the Black side of a Sicilian!
I am taking the time to post this game wih Judit Polgar's comments, as an example of her excellent teaching style. She makes me love chess more! Can Carlsen write and teach like her? Other great teachers like her include Tal, Bronstein and Gufeld, in my opinion.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Alexei Shirov-Judit Polgar
Buenos Aires (Sicilian theme) 1994
Comments by Judit Polgar:
Opening theme tournaments have been out of fashion for more than a century. When Joop van Oosterom (about whom I have spoken in the first volume) invited me to the Buenos Aires Sicilian-themed tournament I could not have been more delighted: I was happy to play this opening with either color!
We stayed in Buenos Aires for nearly a month. This was an eight-player double round-robin event, with fourteen rounds and five free days, but we were invited to travel to Argentina eight days earlier for acclimatization purposes. As a chess lover, Joop was not only keen for his tournaments to produce entertaining games, but was also concerned about the participant's comfort and wellbeing. All the players flew first-class from Amsterdam and stayed at a great hotel in Buenos Aires. The tournament conditions were excellent not only for the players, but also for the numerous spectators.
Miguel Najdorf was a popular figure in Argentina and he made chess respected in his country. At the time of this tournament he was 84 years old, but still very active and he came to visit the tournament on several occasions.
Opening theme tournaments have been out of fashion for more than a century. When Joop van Oosterom (about whom I have spoken in the first volume) invited me to the Buenos Aires Sicilian-themed tournament I could not have been more delighted: I was happy to play this opening with either color!
We stayed in Buenos Aires for nearly a month. This was an eight-player double round-robin event, with fourteen rounds and five free days, but we were invited to travel to Argentina eight days earlier for acclimatization purposes. As a chess lover, Joop was not only keen for his tournaments to produce entertaining games, but was also concerned about the participant's comfort and wellbeing. All the players flew first-class from Amsterdam and stayed at a great hotel in Buenos Aires. The tournament conditions were excellent not only for the players, but also for the numerous spectators.
Miguel Najdorf was a popular figure in Argentina and he made chess respected in his country. At the time of this tournament he was 84 years old, but still very active and he came to visit the tournament on several occasions.
Judit Polgar
Any chess player knows that opening ceremonies and drawing of lots can be tedious affairs. They usually take place at the very time when players are trying to focus on the tournament and have no patience for such formalities. This was hardly the case with this tournament, which featured an original way of drawing lots.There was a tango show (what else?) with eight couples of professional dancers. A secret number had been assigned to each couple.
When the show was over, my male colleagues could invite any of the ladies to dance, while I was in the enviable position of taking my pick from all the male dancers. After the dance, the ladies took the secret numbers out of their decolletage, while my dance partner revealed the number hidden in his wallet. These would be our tournament starting numbers.
The tournament had a surprise winner, Valery Salov, who was invited as a last-minute replacement for Polugaevsky. Unlike the other players (Karpov, Shirov, Kamsky, Anand, Ljubojevic, Ivanchuk and myself) Salov was not an experienced 1.e4 player and had virtually no time to prepare. These apparently unfavourable circumstances seem to have had a positive impact on Valery, allowing him to play free of any pressure.
Alexei Shirov
