Polgár vs. Sokolov, Wijk aan Zee 2005

An attacking victory can look much simpler once the result is known. In this game, the mating finish available to White encourages us to read everything that preceded it as an inevitable march. It was not. Sokolov obtained activity, forced Polgár to reorganise and retained tactical resources even when his king was already under serious pressure.

The game was played on 29 January 2005, in the penultimate round of the main group at Wijk aan Zee, then known as Corus. The victory formed part of Judit Polgár’s return to competition. She finished with 7 points out of 13, sharing fourth place with Alexander Grischuk, Michael Adams and Vladimir Kramnik. Peter Leko won the tournament with 8.5 points: beating Sokolov was a valuable result within that performance, not a game that single-handedly decided first place.

The tension grew out of a closed centre that did not immobilise the rest of the board. Black sought entry routes on the queenside, and White had to respond there before developing an attack against the castled king. This changes the character of the victory: it was not simply a race between two independent plans. Each advance changed the opponent’s possibilities and required a fresh check of which pieces could leave their defensive duties.

The most revealing moment is 34.Kf1. In the middle of her offensive, Polgár moved her own king to take the sting out of a counterstroke. The move neither won material nor added an attacker; it prevented a threat against the queen from coming with check. The conclusion retained that combination of initiative and care: before regrouping the rook for the final blow, White had to defend her own king.

What the result does not prove

In A Game of Queens, Polgár questions her decisions on moves 17 and 28. That self-criticism prevents a victory from being mistaken for a demonstration of perfect play. The final attack retains its value, but it does not retrospectively make every earlier decision correct or reduce the opponent to a passive participant.

According to Polgár, an idea from an unplayed variation that she shared with Mihail Marin later inspired his victory over Julio Granda at Andorra 2012. That connection belongs to the history of the analysis, not to the score against Sokolov. Two different interests coexist here: how a difficult game was won, and what could be learned from it after play had ended.