Judit Polgar ain't KIDding
Table of Contents
- The Legend
- Vladimir Epishin vs Judit Polgar
- Vadim Ruban vs Judit Polgar
- Alexei Shirov vs Judit Polgar
- David Garcia Ilundain vs Judit Polgar
- Julio Granda Zuniga vs Judit Polgar
- Magnus Carlsen vs Judit Polgar
- Conclusion
Judit Polgar, born on the 23rd of July 1976 in Budapest Hungary, is by far the strongest female chess player of all time and one of the strongest chess players in the history of the game. Judit together with her two sisters, Sofia and Susan, who are also incredibly accomplished chess players, were trained from a very young age by their father, Laszlo Polgar. The whole post could be a list of Judit's achievements, but that post would be too long, so I will mention just a few: Judit got her GM title at the age of 15 years old, breaking Fischer's record, she made it to the top 10 best chess players in the world, and she defeated up to 11 world chess champions including Kasparov, Karpov, Anand, Carlsen, and others. She is known to be an extremely aggressive, tactical, and dynamic player who is never afraid to sacrifice and enter complicated positions, where she would outcalculate her opponents.
One of Judit's favorite weapons with Black was the King's Indian Defense ("KID"), and I can assure you she was not KIDding when she played this defense. In this post, I will analyze six attacking games she won by playing this defense, the last one against none other than Magnus Carlsen! Since the KID is a very aggressive and dynamic defense, it perfectly matched her playing style. The KID is a hypermodern defense, where black lets white get the whole center to strike it later. Below, you can see the common scheme that black can play against virtually any line. Black's idea is to strike back in the center with e5 (or c5, but this transposes to Benoni-like positions) taking nice control of the central squares.
Vladimir Epishin vs Judit Polgar
This game was played in Dos Hermanas, near Sevilla, in the south of Spain. Although I am a very proud Catalan, I must admit I have a soft spot for that region since part of my family is originally from there. Their typical food brings me a lot of nostalgia. I don't know if it was the food that inspired Judit, but I am sure it helped in playing such a remarkable attacking game:
The following is truly an attacking masterpiece by Judit Polgar, where she shows no fear by advancing the pawns in front of her king for the attack. Especially instructive is how she uses all of her pieces to attack the enemy king, something we should always remember to do. This is actually my favorite game in this post, so enjoy!
Wow! What a game. Unfortunately, not all games will be as exciting as the previous one. The following game is more of a maneuvering kind of game, where Judit defeats the Latvian-Spanish legendary player Alexei Shirov. Shirov has a very similar playing style to Judit, a very tactical, sharp, and dynamic style. Sadly for him, he was not "Fire on the board" in this game, but he rather got burned.
David Garcia Ilundain vs Judit Polgar
The following is a rapid game played in the beautiful city of Oviedo in the north of Spain. In my opinion, the regions with the best food in Spain are the northern regions, so it is safe to assume that Judit ate pretty nice food during her stay. Although the food is great and the cities are gorgeous in the north, it constantly rains. I guess that's the price to pay for beautifully green fields. Now that we have immersed ourselves in the atmosphere surrounding the game, let's take a look at it:
Julio Granda Zuniga vs Judit Polgar
Judit defeats the Peruvian legend Julio Granda Zuniga in this game with a devastating attack. Out of the six games analyzed in this post, I think this one best captures the spirit of Judit's playing style: pure dynamic, aggressive, and attacking style with no fear of sacrificing material for activity or checkmate. We have seen other demolishing attacks in this post, but featuring well-known positions in the KID, where there are well-known plans and ideas. In this game, we see sacrifices emanating from Judit's genius tactical vision in a position that, to the best of my knowledge, is less well-known than in previous games.
Magnus Carlsen vs Judit Polgar
In this last game, Judit defeats none other than Magnus Carlsen in a rapid game, according to many the best chess player in the history of the game. This game was played in Mexico in 2012 just before Magnus Carlsen achieved the world chess champion title for the first time against Anand, but he was already ranked first player in the world at the time of this game. In short, there is no need to highlight the great accomplishment such a victory is, so enjoy the game:
All good things must come to an end. I hope you enjoyed these six incredible games by Judit Polgar in the King's Indian Defense. As I said at the beginning, she is one of the best chess players in the history of our game and, by far, the strongest female chess player of all time. Judit has been, is, and will continue to be a great inspiration for female chess players around the world, and I hope this post may contribute to her legacy.