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Polgar beats Navara 6-2

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage
Polgar beats Navara 6-2Judit 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.

Resigns

The handshake after Navara lost on time in game 4



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
Cez Chess Trophy 2010 | Match score


Game viewer



Game viewer by ChessTempo


Judit Polgar

Judit Polgar, still going strong



David Navara

David Navara, showing imaginative chess once again

Photos © Prague Chess Society, more here



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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.

Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.

Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.

As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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