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Judit Polgar Cracks Anand's Najdorf

Lovely game and surprisingly sloppy from Anand. 11. .. Bxb3? just seems to begging for the d5 knight vs dark bishop stuff that Najdorf nightmares, and this game, are made of! It'd probably be melodramatic to give it a ?? but that's such a weird move!

Lovely game and surprisingly sloppy from Anand. 11. .. Bxb3? just seems to begging for the d5 knight vs dark bishop stuff that Najdorf nightmares, and this game, are made of! It'd probably be melodramatic to give it a ?? but that's such a weird move!

I first stepped through the game slowly to try to get an understanding of what might be discussed in the video. There's an incredible amount of shuffling around that players at my level are hard pressed to understand, but I guess that's why they're Judit and Vishy and I'm not. The analysis in the video is clearly correct, she had to see that before ever playing 54 Qe3+, because the only other explanation is she "blundered" her way into a winning 15 ply tactic... which is not likely :)-

Furthermore, while the computer sees 54...Bg5 as a critical mistake, she also had to have strongly considered this as a candidate move. Was she just fishing for him to make an error like that, giving the opponent many options? What was her response to the computer move of Kg7, or was she simply expecting the game to end in a draw?

Fascinating game. Thanks for covering it!

I first stepped through the game slowly to try to get an understanding of what might be discussed in the video. There's an incredible amount of shuffling around that players at my level are hard pressed to understand, but I guess that's why they're Judit and Vishy and I'm not. The analysis in the video is clearly correct, she had to see that before ever playing 54 Qe3+, because the only other explanation is she "blundered" her way into a winning 15 ply tactic... which is not likely :)- Furthermore, while the computer sees 54...Bg5 as a critical mistake, she also had to have strongly considered this as a candidate move. Was she just fishing for him to make an error like that, giving the opponent many options? What was her response to the computer move of Kg7, or was she simply expecting the game to end in a draw? Fascinating game. Thanks for covering it!

This game is really easy to explain! Here are the key moments where the game transitions between 'phases' :

  1. .. Bxb3. Up until here the game was just a typical Najdorf with a position that's been reached many times with good overall results for black. But Bxb3 is a blunder that's never been played at a high level besides here. By getting rid a key defender of the d5 square, he greatly weakens his control over that square, which Judith immediately hops exploiting. Notice how literally every single one of her moves is geared towards the d5 square and removing the remaining defenders of it. She wants that square, and Anand can't stop here from getting it!

  2. c4 - Judith has given an excellent demonstration of exploiting a classic weak d5 in the Najdorf, and now has a strategically winning position. What is black supposed to do with his dark bishop? Even if we ignore the huge weakness on d6, the only diagonal with a future is a7->f1, but getting there is tough and even on that diagonal there are various tactical and strategic issues with the most desirable squares - d4 and c5. So his future rests in a mostly passive defense in an unpleasant position. In the mean time Judith will work on putting her pieces their absolute best squares.

  3. Qd1 - Judith has maneuvered all of her pieces to their absolute best squares. Look at each piece. Can you find a better square for any of them? They're all perfectly placed. But of course in this position the only weaknesses for black are d6 and a5, both of which black can easily defend. So the next phase of the game is to try to provoke a new weakness. With each new weakness created, it becomes more and more difficult for black to keep his defense together.

  4. New weaknesses have been created and black's position has many weaknesses and entry points (h file, 7th rank, 8th rank) and more. White can even aim for a winning endgame, because black's weaknesses remain weak even as pieces leave the board. But in exchange for all of this black has now finally has real chances for some dangerous counterplay if Judith gets sloppy. At this point it just becomes a mixture of creativity and calculation - there is no real overriding theme, other than that Judith did not get sloppy!

This game is really easy to explain! Here are the key moments where the game transitions between 'phases' : 11. .. Bxb3. Up until here the game was just a typical Najdorf with a position that's been reached many times with good overall results for black. But Bxb3 is a blunder that's never been played at a high level besides here. By getting rid a key defender of the d5 square, he greatly weakens his control over that square, which Judith immediately hops exploiting. Notice how literally every single one of her moves is geared towards the d5 square and removing the remaining defenders of it. She wants that square, and Anand can't stop here from getting it! 22. c4 - Judith has given an excellent demonstration of exploiting a classic weak d5 in the Najdorf, and now has a strategically winning position. What is black supposed to do with his dark bishop? Even if we ignore the huge weakness on d6, the only diagonal with a future is a7->f1, but getting there is tough and even on that diagonal there are various tactical and strategic issues with the most desirable squares - d4 and c5. So his future rests in a mostly passive defense in an unpleasant position. In the mean time Judith will work on putting her pieces their absolute best squares. 34. Qd1 - Judith has maneuvered all of her pieces to their absolute best squares. Look at each piece. Can you find a better square for any of them? They're all perfectly placed. But of course in this position the only weaknesses for black are d6 and a5, both of which black can easily defend. So the next phase of the game is to try to provoke a new weakness. With each new weakness created, it becomes more and more difficult for black to keep his defense together. 44. New weaknesses have been created and black's position has many weaknesses and entry points (h file, 7th rank, 8th rank) and more. White can even aim for a winning endgame, because black's weaknesses remain weak even as pieces leave the board. But in exchange for all of this black has now finally has real chances for some dangerous counterplay if Judith gets sloppy. At this point it just becomes a mixture of creativity and calculation - there is no real overriding theme, other than that Judith did not get sloppy!

Vichy Anand went sloppy in that game.
How lond did he hold the World champion title?

Vichy Anand went sloppy in that game. How lond did he hold the World champion title?

I would be careful about passing too much judgment on Vichy for this game. The very reason why this blog was made is because this was an absolutely profound tactical combination to find, by any player at any level, much less to play this against a person who was at the top of the world rankings. I don't know how much people have studied Judit Polgar, her playing style and her games, but let me tell you she was no joke. She made it to number 8 in the world with fide going out of their way to try to stop her from playing in open tournaments. They did everything imaginable to suppress her sisters, there was a genuine fear of them, and for good reason. It may come as a surprise to some, but her sister to this day has no Grand Master title, in spite of having earned it honestly against legitimate open tournament competition. Fide was that against allowing women to play. She and her sisters blazed a trail, and just make no mistake about it. There's even a video where she played Magnus a couple years ago in some casual OTB Blitz on the street and beat him. Don't think for one minute that she was some opponent Anand should have run all over.

There is no reason to disparage Vichy in any way, I don't know how many of you would have found that over the board but let me tell you, I think it's a very small number. I would have quit calculating long before 8 plies. Even if you had defended it perfectly like stockfish you were still in for a draw. You would be far better served to simply appreciate that she found that tactical combination, 15 Plies out, and played it against the number one player in the world. That's the story to appreciate here.

And just so that everybody doesn't think she didn't know who she was playing, there are pictures of her sitting in a hotel room with Vichy when they were little kids. They were absolutely connected from their early days in chess, and respected each other on a level most people don't understand of respect. I have looked through literally thousands of top level chess games and this is a profoundly instructional game for anybody who truly appreciates chess. I don't care who won or who lost. If you look at the history of either of those two players, they both won and lost a gazillion games, whatever. Appreciate it for what it is just like the author intended.

I would be careful about passing too much judgment on Vichy for this game. The very reason why this blog was made is because this was an absolutely profound tactical combination to find, by any player at any level, much less to play this against a person who was at the top of the world rankings. I don't know how much people have studied Judit Polgar, her playing style and her games, but let me tell you she was no joke. She made it to number 8 in the world with fide going out of their way to try to stop her from playing in open tournaments. They did everything imaginable to suppress her sisters, there was a genuine fear of them, and for good reason. It may come as a surprise to some, but her sister to this day has no Grand Master title, in spite of having earned it honestly against legitimate open tournament competition. Fide was that against allowing women to play. She and her sisters blazed a trail, and just make no mistake about it. There's even a video where she played Magnus a couple years ago in some casual OTB Blitz on the street and beat him. Don't think for one minute that she was some opponent Anand should have run all over. There is no reason to disparage Vichy in any way, I don't know how many of you would have found that over the board but let me tell you, I think it's a very small number. I would have quit calculating long before 8 plies. Even if you had defended it perfectly like stockfish you were still in for a draw. You would be far better served to simply appreciate that she found that tactical combination, 15 Plies out, and played it against the number one player in the world. That's the story to appreciate here. And just so that everybody doesn't think she didn't know who she was playing, there are pictures of her sitting in a hotel room with Vichy when they were little kids. They were absolutely connected from their early days in chess, and respected each other on a level most people don't understand of respect. I have looked through literally thousands of top level chess games and this is a profoundly instructional game for anybody who truly appreciates chess. I don't care who won or who lost. If you look at the history of either of those two players, they both won and lost a gazillion games, whatever. Appreciate it for what it is just like the author intended.

@V1g1yy In high level chess games the the final tactical finish is often a flourish and not how a game was "really" decided. By move 54 Anand has failed to achieve any counter-play (owing to careful play from Judith) and you have the sort of position where Judith can just endlessly prod Anand's position and he will keep having to find only-move after only-move just to survive. Humans will usually lose positions like this, one way or the other. For instance just follow one line with Lichess Stockfish level defense from here:

https://lichess.org/analysis/1R6/3q4/3r1bpk/p2Np2p/1p2P3/1P2QPP1/1P4K1/8_b_-_-_9_54?color=white

  1. .. Kg7 55. Ra8 Qb5 (only move) 56. Nc7 Rd3 (only move) 57. Qe2 Qd7 (only move) 58. Nd5 Rd4 (only move) 59. Rxa5

You find a bunch of only moves just to lose a pawn by force. And as you follow the line the eval just keeps getting worse and worse for black. It's probable that black is losing by force even with perfect play in the initial position. But since we're all human he'll just end up making a mistake long before the 'perfect' line. And when you look at some reasonable ways to miss those only moves, there are all sorts of beautiful ways to lose this game. That's largely because Judith's pieces are just too active and Anand's too passive!

@V1g1yy In high level chess games the the final tactical finish is often a flourish and not how a game was "really" decided. By move 54 Anand has failed to achieve any counter-play (owing to careful play from Judith) and you have the sort of position where Judith can just endlessly prod Anand's position and he will keep having to find only-move after only-move just to survive. Humans will usually lose positions like this, one way or the other. For instance just follow one line with Lichess Stockfish level defense from here: https://lichess.org/analysis/1R6/3q4/3r1bpk/p2Np2p/1p2P3/1P2QPP1/1P4K1/8_b_-_-_9_54?color=white 54. .. Kg7 55. Ra8 Qb5 (only move) 56. Nc7 Rd3 (only move) 57. Qe2 Qd7 (only move) 58. Nd5 Rd4 (only move) 59. Rxa5 You find a bunch of only moves just to lose a pawn by force. And as you follow the line the eval just keeps getting worse and worse for black. It's probable that black is losing by force even with perfect play in the initial position. But since we're all human he'll just end up making a mistake long before the 'perfect' line. And when you look at some reasonable ways to miss those only moves, there are all sorts of beautiful ways to lose this game. That's largely because Judith's pieces are just too active and Anand's too passive!

@OhNoMyPants Those only moves actually look pretty easy to find, all except Kg7 which I'm certain I wouldn't have played. Countless times I've heard strong players say we should give the opponent ways to go wrong. I don't think they want us to give ourselves ways to go wrong too, but that's generally what happens when I complicate things. It's just as complicated for me as it is for my opponent. I look at this game and that's kind of what I see both of them doing. Both with her early unorthodox knight retreat and also with his (inexplicable) Bxb3. It just seems they were both trying to throw curve balls at each other, and then after a long period of shuffling around, he made the decisive mistake of blocking/ counterattacking with the bishop. Maybe I'm alone on this opinion but I just can't fault not seeing that Tactical sequence.

There is no question in my mind that when he did that Bishop trade he knew very well that it could be a problem later. I would call it ill advised, but I wouldn't call it sloppy, because he did it intentionally. And I'm pretty sure he knew it was ill-advised when he played it. Judit had already shown she was not interested in initiating that trade, so I can't imagine why he wanted to relieve that tension on the very next move. I have not looked at the game with an engine at all, so I don't know what dangers there were. Perhaps he thought there was a tactical sequence coming if he didn't trade the bishops, or maybe he was just trying to confuse her with a seldom played move. I've seen high level players do all kinds of stuff that "breaks the rules", and it works. Here obviously it didn't.

@OhNoMyPants Those only moves actually look pretty easy to find, all except Kg7 which I'm certain I wouldn't have played. Countless times I've heard strong players say we should give the opponent ways to go wrong. I don't think they want us to give ourselves ways to go wrong too, but that's generally what happens when I complicate things. It's just as complicated for me as it is for my opponent. I look at this game and that's kind of what I see both of them doing. Both with her early unorthodox knight retreat and also with his (inexplicable) Bxb3. It just seems they were both trying to throw curve balls at each other, and then after a long period of shuffling around, he made the decisive mistake of blocking/ counterattacking with the bishop. Maybe I'm alone on this opinion but I just can't fault not seeing that Tactical sequence. There is no question in my mind that when he did that Bishop trade he knew very well that it could be a problem later. I would call it ill advised, but I wouldn't call it sloppy, because he did it intentionally. And I'm pretty sure he knew it was ill-advised when he played it. Judit had already shown she was not interested in initiating that trade, so I can't imagine why he wanted to relieve that tension on the very next move. I have not looked at the game with an engine at all, so I don't know what dangers there were. Perhaps he thought there was a tactical sequence coming if he didn't trade the bishops, or maybe he was just trying to confuse her with a seldom played move. I've seen high level players do all kinds of stuff that "breaks the rules", and it works. Here obviously it didn't.

@V1g1yy I think this game, more than anything, demonstrates that in chess we're all human. Even at the highest level people will make mistakes of their own accord. And so long as you play good positional chess, you'll be able to take advantage of those mistakes. And in this game there was essentially zero shuffling. Each move has a very clear logical point behind it.

Even Bxb3 does! In looking up the timeline of this game, it turns out that this entire line was fairly rare back then and 11. .. h6 was played 100% of the time mostly to enable Nfd7. 11. .. Nfd7 is a well known blunder owing to 12. Bxe6 fxe6 13. Ng5 and black is losing. Anand probably knew all of this but 11. .. h6 is quite ugly and does nothing for black's development. So we get a clear logical argument for Anand's novelty, but whose fatal flaw is a positional misevaluation of the d5 square!

Judith's 15. Ne1 was also completely logical. That's a common idea in these sort of positions. In this exact game, it was played most immediately to simply protect c2, because black was threatening to win a pawn with b4. But the positional basis for the move is headed to d5, either via d3->b4->d5 or as in the game, c2->e3->d5.

In the ending the point is not the difficulty of find those moves, but in discarding all other possibilities. This is made doubly so that when you consider the 'best' line, at the end you're left in a position where you're losing material and white still has an ongoing attack. Voluntarily going in for that sort of line is exceptionally difficult for any player at any level. And if turns out that the best line is also losing by force, which seems probably, then it may not even be the practically best choice.

@V1g1yy I think this game, more than anything, demonstrates that in chess we're all human. Even at the highest level people will make mistakes of their own accord. And so long as you play good positional chess, you'll be able to take advantage of those mistakes. And in this game there was essentially zero shuffling. Each move has a very clear logical point behind it. Even Bxb3 does! In looking up the timeline of this game, it turns out that this entire line was fairly rare back then and 11. .. h6 was played 100% of the time mostly to enable Nfd7. 11. .. Nfd7 is a well known blunder owing to 12. Bxe6 fxe6 13. Ng5 and black is losing. Anand probably knew all of this but 11. .. h6 is quite ugly and does nothing for black's development. So we get a clear logical argument for Anand's novelty, but whose fatal flaw is a positional misevaluation of the d5 square! Judith's 15. Ne1 was also completely logical. That's a common idea in these sort of positions. In this exact game, it was played most immediately to simply protect c2, because black was threatening to win a pawn with b4. But the positional basis for the move is headed to d5, either via d3->b4->d5 or as in the game, c2->e3->d5. In the ending the point is not the difficulty of find those moves, but in discarding all other possibilities. This is made doubly so that when you consider the 'best' line, at the end you're left in a position where you're losing material and white *still* has an ongoing attack. Voluntarily going in for that sort of line is exceptionally difficult for any player at any level. And if turns out that the best line is also losing by force, which seems probably, then it may not even be the practically best choice.

Yes, we're all human, some of us more than others! Lol.

What I mean by "Shuffling" is, Judit captured a rook on d5 move 20. There was no subsequent capture till she captured a pawn on move 43. That's an eternity for no captures in a chess game with 2 rooks, 2 queens, 14 pawns and 2 minor pieces left on the board, and a bunch of tension. That sort of thing doesn't happen in lower level chess. That is the main thing that struck me when I first looked at the game was, holy smokes, is anybody going to make something happen here? On top of that, the majority of those moves were not something I would be likely to play. At least not from the white side. The black side could possibly be considered "Easier" just due to the fact you're trying desperately to hold the position together and have fewer choices. Imo, it was starting to look like zugzwang for black during much of that. His back to back king moves illustrate how options were becoming fewer by the minute.

I'm not a strong player and I never will be, but I have enough understanding to appreciate the ideas in a game like this, even if they're not something I could find without someone telling me to do it, and why. Imo, growth in chess amounts to how much better a person gets at seeing nuanced ideas, and how little advantage they're able to see and quantify between two different moves. I have a video in mind where 3 people of 20xx/GM/GM levels play out the same position against stockfish and compare their moves to what Magnus did from that position in the OTB game. Nobody played the same moves, and all 3 were different from each other!

Yes, we're all human, some of us more than others! Lol. What I mean by "Shuffling" is, Judit captured a rook on d5 move 20. There was no subsequent capture till she captured a pawn on move 43. That's an eternity for no captures in a chess game with 2 rooks, 2 queens, 14 pawns and 2 minor pieces left on the board, and a bunch of tension. That sort of thing doesn't happen in lower level chess. That is the main thing that struck me when I first looked at the game was, holy smokes, is anybody going to make something happen here? On top of that, the majority of those moves were not something I would be likely to play. At least not from the white side. The black side could possibly be considered "Easier" just due to the fact you're trying desperately to hold the position together and have fewer choices. Imo, it was starting to look like zugzwang for black during much of that. His back to back king moves illustrate how options were becoming fewer by the minute. I'm not a strong player and I never will be, but I have enough understanding to appreciate the ideas in a game like this, even if they're not something I could find without someone telling me to do it, and why. Imo, growth in chess amounts to how much better a person gets at seeing nuanced ideas, and how little advantage they're able to see and quantify between two different moves. I have a video in mind where 3 people of 20xx/GM/GM levels play out the same position against stockfish and compare their moves to what Magnus did from that position in the OTB game. Nobody played the same moves, and all 3 were different from each other!