The Polgar Challenge

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, at 15 years old one of India’s most exceptional young players, emerged as the winner of the Polgar Challenge, an online event between 20 of the world’s brightest talents which took place earlier this month. It was the opening event of the $100,000 Julius Bär Challengers Chess Tour, and Praggnanandhaa earned himself a qualifying spot in the next Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event, alongside Carlsen and others.

The mixture of ten male and ten female players gave the event an interesting spin. The top two women were both from China: Lei Tingjie and Zhu Jiner scored 10/19. The examples below show each get the better of a sharp tactical exchange.

Lei Tingjie–Nurgyul Salimova
Polgar Challenge, April 2021

Strategically, Black is busted. The queenside pawns are weak, while White controls the only open file. But her next move is a crucial resource. 25… Nxf4! 26 Nc6! 26 exf4? Qxd4+ and Black wins the c1 rook by force, e.g. 27 Kh1 Qe4+ 28 Kg1 Qe3+ 26… Nh3+ This very nearly works, but in fact 26… Qc7 27 exf4 Qxf4 28 Qf1 Qxg5+ 29 Kh1 Re8 was preferable, as Black has full compensation for the knight. 27 Kg2 Qd7 28 Kxh3 f4+ So tempting, but in fact 28… Re8 might well have saved the game in practice. It would take exceptional composure to find White’s strongest moves, e.g. 29 Kg3! Rxe3+ 30 Kf2 Qe8 31 Qxd5! This invites Re2+ 32 Kf1 Qe3 but now comes the counterattack: 33 Qd8+ Kg7 34 Qf6+ Kg8 35 Ne7+ Qxe7 36 Rc8+ and wins. 29 Kh4 The only move, as 29 Kg2 Qg4+ is disastrous. 29… h5! 30 h3 Capturing en passant with 30 gxh6 exposes the White king too much: 30… Re8 leads to a winning attack.