Judit Polgar Drops a Game to Pietro's Community in Budapest

Judit Polgar’s annual festival in Budapest has a habit of being comfortable for the host, so this year’s result stands out. At the 12th Global Chess Festival, held September 26 in the Hungarian National Gallery, she scored 3.5-1.5 against five communities: three wins, a draw and a loss.

Twelve months earlier she had swept the same format 6-0. Perhaps the communities, with supporters around the world chipping in, are simply getting better at this.

How the simul worked

Each community put a player at the board and relied on supporters around the world for move suggestions and analysis, via Twitch or a similar platform. That turns the exercise into something closer to consultation play than a classic simul, where one master faces a row of lone amateurs.

The clocks were not symmetrical. Polgar had 110 minutes against the teams’ 50, with a 10-second increment after every move for both sides. Anna Rudolf, an IM, hosted the live stream.

Even a generous time edge is thin when she is playing five games at once against crowds of helpers who can pool ideas.

The loss

Her only defeat came against the “Pietro Chess” community, which belongs to Pietro Checkmate (Pietro Silke Balerna). Streamer “Sadistic Tushi” (Tushar Anand) was present and gave Pietro the suggestion 15…0-0!, which set the tone of the game.

The idea was a second pawn sacrifice. Black gave up the material to catch Polgar’s king in the center, a plan where the extra pawns matter less than the lead in development and the open lines.

It took a voice from outside the board to find it, which is a good illustration of why community simuls can bite harder than the old format.

The rest of the day

Polgar began with a blindfold game against GM Gergely Antal, a Hungarian who played on the country’s second team at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest a couple of years ago. It ended in a draw.

Her older sister, IM Sofia Polgar, was guest of honor. Sofia joined Judit and GM Krisztian Szabo in the Master Relay Simul, in which masters took turns continuing each other’s games.

Erno Rubik, inventor of the Rubik’s cube, made the ceremonial first move of the simul. He also presided over the RubikChess Tournament, open to the public. Teams of two played a Swiss with 10 minutes on each team’s clock: one partner played chess while the other solved a 3x3 cube.

Backing and theme

Morgan Stanley sponsored the festival, whose theme this year was “Critical Thinking.” Zoltan Tanacs, the new Hungarian Minister of Science and Technology, attended, a sign of local institutional support.

Polgar’s 3.5-1.5 will not trouble anyone’s record, and she has not said how she will approach next year’s edition. But a 6-0 followed by a result with a real loss suggests the communities are getting better at playing together, and the 13th festival may be tougher still.