Chess - The Scotsman 21/03/2012

The rumour mill went into overdrive last week about the prospect of a match between Hungary’s Judit Polgar, the greatest female player in chess history, and China’s Hou Yifan, the 18-year-old reigning women’s world champion.

The official-sounding announcement had the eight-game, mixed classical and rapid match being held in Beijing, starting September 26. But just as quick as the reports appeared on the Chinese chess blogs, they were being immediately shot down by Polgar, who through a statement said that the Beijing match was news to her and even went as far as denying even discussing a contract to play.

“If there is a real determination for such a historic clash, then I wait to hear about it in an appropriate way,” she wrote. For the past quarter of a century, there has not even been a challenger for Polgar’s crown; with Polgar on the edges of the world’s top ten and her rivals rarely closer than 200 places down the rankings. However, over the past year Hou has cut the gap considerably between herself and Polgar and the 18-year-old’s meteoric rise shows no sign of slowing.

At the Reykjavik Open last week, the Chinese golden girl finished half a point behind world No 7 Fabiano Caruana, having narrowly missed beating the Italian in their tense final round game. And today we have one of her best games in Reykjavik, where she demolishes Iceland’s best player, GM Hannes Stefansson.

Hou Yifan - H Stefansson

Reykjavik Open, (7)

Vienna Opening

1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 g3 d5 4 exd5 Nxd5 5 Bg2 Nxc3 6 bxc3 Bd6 7 Nf3 0–0 8 0–0 Nd7 9 d4 c6 10 Re1 exd4 11 cxd4 Nb6 12 Qd3 h6 13 c4 Bb4 14 Bd2 Bxd2 15 Nxd2 Qf6 16 a4 Bf5 17 Qc3 Rad8 18 a5 Nc8 19 Nb3 b6 20 Re5 c5 21 Rae1 cxd4 22 Nxd4 Bd7 23 c5 bxc5 24 Qxc5 g6 25 h4 h5 26 Ne2 Rfe8 27 Nf4 Rxe5 28 Rxe5 Qd6 29 Qc3 Ne7 30 Nd5 Be6 31 Nf6+ Kf8 32 Nh7+ Kg8 33 Nf6+ Kf8 34 Rc5 Nf5 35 Nh7+ Kg8 36 Nf6+ Kf8 37 Nd5 Kg8 38 Rc6 Qb8 39 Nf6+ Kf8 40 Rxe6! 1–0