Polgar beats Navara 6-2

Judit Polgar defeated David Navara 6-2 in the 2010 Cez Chess Trophy rapid match. On Friday she won games four and five, and then lost the sixth. On Saturday she won once more, and drew the last game. Games 4-8 with brief annotations.

This year the Cez Chess Trophy, the traditional rapid match in Prague, was played between Judit Polgar from Hungary and Czech GM David Navara. The match took place April 22-24 and consisted of eight games (25 minutes for a game with an increment of 10 seconds per move). Venue was the Michna Palac in Prague. More information can be found in our first report.

After starting with 2.5-0.5, Polgar continued strongly, but not without luck. In the fourth game the position was about equal for a long time, and on move 52 Navara even won a pawn. However, as analysis shows, instead of taking it, Black could have created a mating net. To make matters worse, despite the 10 seconds increment on each move, the local hero exceeded the time limit on move 66, still a pawn up.



Navara reacted well and played creatively in a very intersting fifth game, with pawn sacrifices all over the place in the early middlegame. An ending with rook and queen for both sides arose which should have ended in a draw but allowing 27...Qxf3 and especially 34...g3 was playing with fire. And so with a score of 4.5-0.5 Polgar had already decided the match.

Game six was about level all the time, but suddenly the rook ending was becoming slightly more comfortable for Navara. Polgar's resignation looks a bit premature, and could be interpreted as an act of courtesy. In game seven Navara's bishop sacrifice was another example of his creativity. He ended up with a queen and a passed pawn against Rook, Bishop and Knight for Polgar. As the passed pawns soon turned out to be doomed, Polgar won this one as well.

Like the first, the last game of the match ended in a draw. In general it was clear that Polgar was the stronger player, but Navara showed what he's capable of too. We're still a fan of his chess.

Cez Chess Trophy 2010 | Match score

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Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC