Judit Polgar and Chigorin Teach Us Chess

In the games of Mikhail Chigorin there are so many instructive and creative ideas! He was definitely a pioneer, a trail blazzer!

So many and varied are his contributions to opening theory! The King's Indian Defense literally owes its existence to him!

Recently, looking at the 3rd volume of Judit Pogar Teaches Chess, titled "A Game of Queens", I came upon a game which reminded me of one of Chigorin's games....both games were in different openings, but in both games Polgar and Chigorin, in the middlegame, achieved a harmony and cooperation between their pawns and pieces, which has echoes of each other written all over it!

By the way, I highly recommend Judit Pogar's books. They are superbly written, and each game analyzed move by move is a Master Class. Worth every penny!

The Chigorin game is the 3rd game of his match with Tarrasch from 1893. Once again, it is a novel idea (5...Nd7 in the Steinitz Ruy with Black), which later became the basis for the Keres variation in the Chigorin Ruy (...Nd7). But more about that evolution later (another post!).

Here we will enjoy the echoes of positional understanding between two great players: Mikhail Chigorin and Judit Polgar.

The game and comments are taken from Jimmy Adams's book, "Mikhail Chigorin, The Creative Genius". It is one of the best chess books I will ever own, with many of the games commented by Chigorin himself, or by great players of his era, such as Steinitz, Tarrasch and others! This game is found on page 532.