C29 Video Chess Tutor 5/3/96 Polgar V Shirov 1996 (Modern Defense) Melody Amber Blindfold Tournament

Hi everybody. This time, I have another game from that blindfold tournament in Monte Carlo. I was hoping to be able to use a game from one of the later rounds, but they were all too long to show in thirty minutes, so instead, this is a game from round one.

This is going to be the game that Judit Polgar had with Alexey Shirov. I know I show a lot of games from the Polgar Sisters; but this time it is just a coincidence. This is the only other short game from that tournament that I could find. It does have some interesting tactics though, so I think you will like it.

Judit has white and starts with pawn to e4. That is common enough; but Alexey is try something a little different. He answers with pawn to g6. This is the beginning of the Modern Defense. I don't care for this move; but Alexey is a Grandmaster, as is Judit, so it can't be all that bad.

As I said on the last show, the players in this tournament had twenty seconds to make a move; and they couldn't see the pieces. That makes me wonder how Alexey is imagining the board. Do you think he sees the board like this, or with the black pieces at the bottom? I guess it doesn't matter.

Anyway, Judit next plays pawn to d4. After this, she has open diagonals for both of her bishops. She is getting much better control of the board. When Alexey puts his bishop on g7, he gets a nice diagonal for his bishop; but he still looks cramped to me.

The black bishop aims at a white pawn in the center; but the white queen defends it, so Judit can ignore that attack for now. Here she moves her knight to c3, aiming at a circle of light squares. It doesn't seem likely that she wants to move to one of those squares yet; but Alexey plays pawn to c6 anyway. I think he is preparing to move his knight to f6. If he had done that now though, I bet Judit would have chased it away with a pawn.

Next, Judit moves her other knight to f3. Her pieces have a lot more mobility than Alexey's now. She doesn't have any immediate threats; but she will have, if Alexey doesn't try to slow her down. His move, pawn to d6, might not look like it does; but it gives his other black bishop an open diagonal, and it puts some pressure on the e5 square.

No doubt Judit would like to keep the other black pieces shut in; and her move bishop to g5, is designed to do just that. That pins the black e-pawn against the queen. Alexey can turn This threat around though. His move is queen to b6. That unpins the black pawn and attacks two white pawns. Judit has two defenders for her pawn in the center; but her b-pawn is up for grabs.

Now Judit could defend that pawn and attack the black queen at the same time, by moving her knight to a4. However, a knight really doesn't belong on the edge of the board, so she moves her rook to b1 instead. That takes care of one pawn; but Alexey has a way to go after the other one again. Now he brings his bishop out to g4. That pins down one of the white knights against the queen. Since that knight was helping to guard the white d-pawn, Judit will have to find something else to take its place.

Alexey has two black pieces aiming at Judit's d-pawn, so she retreats her bishop to e3. That rather sets up a discovered attack on the black queen as well. That probably won't amount to much, but it is worth keeping an eye on the diagonal between the bishop and the black queen. For now though, Alexey can attack. Here he takes the white knight on f3 with his bishop. This makes sense, because Judit will have to recapture there with a pawn.

Now Judit could take the black bishop with her queen; but she really needs to keep her queen where she is, to defend her pawn in the center, so she recaptures on f3 with her pawn. If the pawn couldn't do that, her queen would have been overworked. Well, . . Judit has saved her pawn; and now Alexey tries knight to d7. That doesn't help the knight a lot; but it helps to control some dark squares, and it lets one rook get out of its corner.

That makes sense; but I'm not sure why Judit moves her queen to d2. I suppose she does that to set up a battery of queen and bishop on the diagonal; but as things stand, she still needs both her queen and bishop to hang onto her d-pawn. On the other hand, I think I must be missing something, because Alexey decides to retreat his queen to c7. Having an enemy bishop staring at your queen is not very comfortable; but I'm not sure this was necessary.

Next, Judit plays pawn to b4. What do you want to bet that she wants to push it again? Now moving the black queen makes more sense, since a pawn battle would probably give the white rook a better shot at the queen.

Alexey still has to get his other knight out, so he moves it from g8 to f6. Although the knight can't do much from there, at least this move opens the other side of Alexey's back rank, so he will be able to castle to either side after this.

Judit thinks that he wants to castle kingside, so she plays pawn to h4 here. The funny thing is Alexey castles to the kingside anyway. That seems odd. It looks like he is jumping out of the frying pan. Judit has several pieces aimed at that corner of the board; and normally it is not wise to castle into an enemy attack. Alexey has nerves of steel.

Judit next plays bishop to d3. One of her own pawns blocks the bishop from joining in an attack on the black king; but that could change easily enough. That is until Alexey shoves his pawn out to e5. He does that to block the white e-pawn from getting out of the bishop's way. Maybe Judit should have moved her own pawn before moving the bishop.

Next, Judit moves her remaining knight to e2. Why do you think she does that? At first, I thought she was shifting it over to join in the attack; but maybe she is defending her pawn again, so that her bishop won't be distracted from the attack.

In any case, Alexey now plays pawn to d5. Don't ask me what that is all about. This is getting too complicated. Usually, it is nice to trade pawns in front of the enemy king; but in this case, it is likely to open an enemy bishop.

This next part is interesting though. Now Judit shoves her pawn to h5. This is a sacrifice. Alexey has her outnumbered on h5; and he naturally takes the pawn with his knight. Judit knew he would do that. She just wanted a chance to get rid of the knight. Here she takes the knight on h5 with her rook. Although Alexey will recapture there with a pawn, this battle will leave the black defenses in a mess.

Judit has given up a rook and a pawn for a knight; but that was a very important knight. Her next move points that out. Now she has bishop to h6. Although Alexey could trade bishops after this, that doesn't bother Judit. That would just help the white queen to get closer to the black king. On the other hand, Alexey is in danger if he doesn't trade. He does have a saving move though. Here he takes the white pawn on d4 with his pawn.

"How does that help?", you might ask. I didn't understand that move right away either; but it really saves the day. Judit could threaten checkmate with queen to g5; but now that the black queen can move to e5, there wouldn't be much point in doing that.

Since that is the case, Judit moves her knight to g3 instead. She might have enough for a killer attack sometime soon anyway; . . But here comes the black knight to the rescue. Alexey's move is knight to e5. Do you see what he wants to do? Whether the white queen goes to g5 or not, Alexey would love to take the white pawn on f3. Then the black knight would have the white king and queen in a fork.

Of course Judit won't fall for that. She might be practically blindfolded; but she sees that she ought to move her king. Here she puts him on e2. That defends against the knight attack; and it prepares for sliding the white rook over in front of the black king.

So what will Alexey do now? His move is pawn to f5. This is a counter-sacrifice. Alexey is prepared to give up a pawn, because this move helps in a couple of ways. For one, it lets his queen defend his bishop; and it gives his rook a chance to attack. Many times the moving piece is the one to watch out for; but, as in this case, it often is just trying to get out of the way for other pieces.

Now I rather wonder about some other moves here; but Judit decides to take the black pawn on f5 with her knight. That looks reasonable; but it lets Alexey get rid of the knight. Just as Judit sacrificed her rook for a knight, here Alexey takes the white knight with his rook. Judit will recapture on f5 with a pawn; but after this, her king will look just as vulnerable as the black king. That is quite evident after Alexey's next move, rook to e8.

That sets up a very dangerous discovered check. As it stands, the black knight would be able to go anywhere safely, because the white king would be in check from the rook. That is why Judit now moves her king to f1. Even so, Alexey's next move creates another problem for her. Here he takes the white bishop on d3 with his knight.

Judit has a couple of ways to recapture on d3; but that is not the problem. The problem is that after the black knight moves, the black queen and rook have the white king in a crossfire. If the black queen could get to h1, Alexey would have Judit in checkmate. For that reason, Judit doesn't have time to take the knight. Her best bet is with a counter-attack, queen to g5. That lets the black knight escape; but at least it keeps the black queen busy defending against mate on g7.

That is an expensive way to survive however. Judit has lost a bishop; and now Alexey can pull his knight back to e5. If he can hang onto this advantage, he will be in the driver's seat.

Judit has one ace up her sleeve though. Now she can push her pawn to f6, attacking the black bishop that is pinned down by her queen. Maybe she can break even after all; . . But look at this. Alexey has a great move. It is knight takes pawn on f3. What is so great about that? It is a fork. From there, the knight doesn't just aim at the white queen. It also threatens to go to d2. That would be another two-pronged attack on the white king and rook, so this move qualifies as a two-pronged attack as well.

The white queen and bishop both cover the d2 square; but there really are too many dangers to take care of them all. queen takes bishop almost works; but Judit tries to hang on in a different way. She takes the black pawn on h5 with her queen. . From there, the queen defends the white bishop and the rest of The h-file; and the bishop stops the black knight from going to d2. There is even one more little detail to notice here. Now the white queen aims at both the black knight and the rook.

Well, it looks like Judit has everything covered. She even has three black pieces under fire. How can Alexey deal with that? What do you think of rook to e5? I must admit, I don't think I could have found that move in twenty seconds, blindfolded or not. That is amazing.

That leaves Judit with little choice but to take the black knight on f3 with her queen. Maybe that doesn't look like much of a defeat; but after this, Alexey will be able to take the white bishop with his bishop. Just a couple of moves ago, three of his pieces were in mortal danger; but he has escaped by trading even, a knight for a bishop. He has kept his advantage of an extra bishop, and even has an extra pawn now.

This must be exasperating for Judit. Here she puts the black king in check, by moving her queen to g3; but Alexey can simply move his king to f8.

I think Judit is running out of stuff to throw at him. There doesn't seem to be much of a point to her next move, pawn to b5. In any case, Alexey takes the pawn with his pawn.

Judit could retaliate and take the black pawn with her rook; but that would be very painful after queen to c4, check, so she moves her queen to a3 instead. . . That is check; but it shouldn't be much of a problem. Alexey just moves his king to f7.

Now what can Judit do? Here she tries queen to h3. . . That has a couple of threats; but the skewer on the black bishop and pawn in the h-file isn't that dangerous. At least, Alexey doesn't think so. He grabs the white pawn on c2 with his queen, threatening the white rook in the process. . .

But look here. He has left his back door open. Queen to d7, check, could be a problem. . . Alexey has to be careful about letting Judit get a fork on his king and rook; and he has to worry about the white pawn too. He is almost forced to take the pawn with his king.

After Alexey takes the pawn though, Judit has a couple of ways to harass the black king. Her move now is queen to d8, check. . . Naturally, Alexey doesn't want to fall into a perpetual check, going back and forth; but he can eventually move his king to safety. First, he moves his king to f7.

Judit doesn't have much, other than queen to d7, check. . . That could pay off perhaps, if Alexey blocked with his rook; but he retreats his king to g8.

That is going to leave Judit with only a couple of possibilities. Her next move is queen to d8, check again; but after Alexey blocks the check with his bishop, Judit won't have another good check.

After bishop to f8, Judit has to shift to defense. Her rook is still under attack from the black queen, so she plays rook to b3. . . That sets up a rather nasty check from g3; but Alexey can go on the attack now. His move is queen to c1, check. . .

Judit has only one possible move now. She has to move her king to g2. . . Even after she moves there though, she is not out of the woods. Now Alexey has rook to g5, check. His queen guards the rook from the white queen, so Judit doesn't have much choice.

Judit could block the rook with her own rook; but she decides to resign. There isn't really much point in going on. If she had blocked with her rook, I think Alexey would have traded rooks and then looked for a way to trade queens. His extra bishop and pawns eventually would have won the game anyway.

Well, I thought that was pretty exciting. Judit looked like she has some good threats on the black king for quite a while; but Alexey was able to find some really cute moves that turned the tables on her. I thought they both played very well, considering that neither one could see the pieces and had only twenty seconds for each move. I wish I could play like that.

Well, that is all there is for today. Until next time, good luck and have fun! Here is another script and game from this series.