China, of course, was the heavy favorite in the men’s team competition, and the gold medal it won in the event was its 182nd. The Philippines received the silver after a .5-3.5 trashing at the hands of the Chinese. Filipino GM Wesley So drew with GM Wang Yue on the top board but GM John Paul Gomezbowed to GM Wang Hao while GMs Darwin Laylo and Eugene Torre lost to GM Zhou Jianchao and GM Ni Hua. (Probably more traumatic to the kababayans was the 71-81 loss of the Philippine basketball team to Qatar. Our basketball crazy nation ended in sixth place — the P.I.’s worst finish in 44 years.) The Chinese also won the gold in the women’s team event.
Still, the Philippine men’s chess squad performed well. So & Co. beat Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and India en route to the gold medal match against the Chinese. Not bad at all.
Game of the week. IM Malcolm Pein, who annotates our featured partie, says Judit Polgar is “showing signs of recapturing some of her old sharpness” after “a period of relative inactivity during which she had two children.” The world’s strongest female player recently defeated Ivanchuk and Topalov in rapid matches at a chess festival in Mexico. It was a four-player knockout match-tourney.In their duel, Polgar lost the first game to Ivanchuk of Ukraine but won twice and drew once. Toppy faced Mexican GM Manuel Leon Hoyos (2570) whom the former FIDE champ trounced 3.5-0.5. In the final match, however, the Bulgarian superstar was crushed by his Hungarian opponent, 0.5-3.5. Ranked No. 1 in the world as recently as 14 months ago, Toppy is now No. 5. His controversial manager, Silvio Danailov, said in a recent interview that Topalov married a few months ago and was “enjoying life a little bit,” adding, “He is not motivated to play tournaments right now.” The New York Times’ Dylan Loeb McClain says Topalov “may also be suffering from a sort of psychological hangover after losing a grueling world championship match in April and May to Viswanathan Anand. He has not really played well since.” Indeed.
Here is Judit against Toppy in, says Pein, “one rather nice King’s Gambit.”
White: J. Polgar(2686)
Black: V. Topalov (2786)
King’s Gambit
Mexico City 2010
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 d5 4.exd5 Qh4+ 5.Kf1 (Moving the king early in the King’s Gambit is usually a price worth paying, the enemy queen becomes exposed) 5…Bd6 (5…f3!? 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.Bxd7+ Nxd7 8.Nxf3) 6.Nf3 Qh5 7.Nc3 Ne7 8.d4 0-0 9.Kf2 Nd7 10.Re1 Nb6 11.Bb3 Nexd5 12.Nxd5 Nxd5 13.c4 Ne3 14.Bxe3 fxe3+ 15.Rxe3 Bf5 16.c5 (The position is about equal) 16…Bf4 17.Re7 Bg4 18.Re4 Qf5 (18…Bxf3 19.Qxf3 Qh4+ 20.Kf1 Qxh2 21.Rxf4 Qh1+ 22.Kf2 Qxa1, note that in this line21.Rae1 Bg3 22.Qxf7+ Rxf7+is check) 19.Bc2! Bh5?(Blundering a piece, 19…Rad8 20.Qd3 Bxf3 21.Qxf3 Rxd4!) 20.Re5 Bxf3 21.Kxf3 Qf6 22.Rf5 Qh6 23.Rxf4 Rae8 24.Qd3 f5 25.h4 Re4 26.Qd2 Re7 27.Re1 and 1-0.
Puzzler.
White: Qa8, Nd5, Bg5, Kh7
Black: Ke5
White to play and mate in three.
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