J. POLGAR, MAMEDYAROV LEAD ESSENT TOURNAMENT

Judit Polgar and Shakhryar Mamedyarov lead the Essent supertournament with 2.5 points out of 3 games. This is a 4-player tournament, with 2 games in each round. The first four games were decisive, which is extremely rare in top-level chess, and the two games yesterday were drawn. Today is a rest day, and the games resume on Thursday.

Perhaps we should not be surprised at the amount of "bloodiness" in this tournament, considering who is playing! Hungary's Judit Polgar (see picture) is universally considered the strongest female player of all time, and has been in the elite of world chess for more than a decade. In 1992 she broke Bobby Fischer's record to become (at that time) the youngest International Grandmaster of all time. Fischer's record had stood since 1958.

In Round 2 Judit annihilated the former FIDE World Champion, Veselin Topalov, in a very sharp Sicilian Najdorf. Topalov was basically crushed by move 20 and staggered on until move 39 when he was forced to resign.

The 2-time World Junior Champion Shakhryar Mamedyarov in turn KO'd perennial strong grandmaster Ivan Sokolov, who plays for the Netherlands.

The leaders, Polgar and Mamedyarov drew in Round 3, as did Topalov and Sokolov.

To see the games and info from the official website (English version), click here.