Here is Judit Polgar's first — shocking — victory against a grandmaster, the Russian Lev Gutman, back in 1987. It is an astonishing game by any standards, but that the player of the white pieces was an 11-year-old is something I still find almost unfathomable. The notes are taken from Polgar's autobiographical recollections, 25 years on. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Be2 Be7 7.f4 a6 8.f4 a6 9.Be3 Qc7 10.a4 Nc6 11.Qe1 Nd7 12.Qg3 Bf6 13.Rad1 Rb8 14.Nxc6!? (As a kid, I could not resist the temptation of the sacrificial attack initiated with this move)...bxc6 15.e5! (Clearing the e4 square for my knight and opening the d- and f- files for my rooks)...dxe5 16.Ne4! (Threatening Rxd7 followed by Nxf6+)...Be7 17.f5 exf5 18.Bh6 g6 19.Rxf5! (You can imagine my excitement at this stage: this was my fifth attacking move in a row!)...Rb4! 20.Bd3 f6 21.Rdf1 Rxe4 22.Bxf8 Kxf8 (Black wins material, but his King is exposed) 23.Bxe4 gxf5 24.Bxf5 Nb6 (I am sure Gutman considered my next move impossible) 25.Bxh7! Be6 (It would have been dangerous for Black to accept the implied Bishop sacrifice. After 25...Bc5+ 26.Kh1 Qxh7 27.Rxf6+ Ke8 28.Qxe5+ Qe7 29.Qxe7+ Kxe7 30.Rxc6 I concluded that White has good winning chances. Black's pieces are hanging) 26.Be4 (I had a feeling that somewhere around this moment Gutman lost his confidence, realising that the girl sitting in front of him would keep creating problems)...Nd5 27.Qh4 Nf4 29.Qh8+ Bg8 30.Rd1! (After he weakened the defence of the d7 square I immediately spotted the possibility of invading his position with Bf5 followed by Rd7)...Ne6? (Black should have aimed for counterplay with 29...Qb6+ 30.Kh1 Qf2!) 30.Kh1! (Threatening Bh7 without needing to fear Bc5+)...Bd8 31.Bf5 Nd4 32.Bh3! Qf7 33.c3 Qb3 34.Qh6+ Ke7 35.Rf1! Ne6 36.Qxf6+ Kd6 37.Bxe6!... and Gutman resigned, since after 37...Bxf6 38.Bxb3 Bxb3 39.Rxf6+ the ending is a trivial win for his young opponent. Amazing.
Puzzle: In this position, from a game in 1989 against the Danish grandmaster Lars Bo Hansen (Black), the 12-year-old Polgar played 32.Kh4!? As she writes: “It is as if I am closing my eyes and running due to fear of the check on g2. In fact my far from obvious idea was to take the g5 square under control, in order to create the threat of mate. Can you see the idea?” Well, can you? Solution: Grandmaster Hansen couldn’t. He played 32...Qxg2? after which Judit uncorked the stupendous 33.Qg7+!! After spending some time to recover his composure, Hansen resigned. If 33...Kxg7 34.Rfxf7+ Kh8 35.Rh7+ Kg8 36.Rbf7 is checkmate, since the Bishop on c5 guards f8; but the point of Polgar’s diabolically cunning 32.Kh4 is that after 33...Kxg7 34.Rff7+ Kh6 35.Rh7 is also checkmate, as the White King now blocks his fellow monarch’s escape.
