Notable Games
Lev Polugaevsky
13 celebrated games · 712 in the full archive
◈The games that made the legend
Polugaevsky – Petrosian · 1960 · 1–0
USSR Championship 1960: a 24-move demolition of the famously impregnable Tigran Petrosian — 11.d5! rips open the centre and 16.Bxf7+ 17.Ne6! wins decisive material, three years before Petrosian took the world title.
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Polugaevsky – Nezhmetdinov · 1961 · 1–0
Omsk 1961: three years after Nezhmetdinov's famous queen-sacrifice immortal against him, Polugaevsky beats his old trainer in the Benoni and wins the RSFSR Championship outright.
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Spassky – Polugaevsky · 1961 · 0–1
USSR Championship 1961: with Black in the Queen's Indian, Polugaevsky weathers a fierce kingside pawn-storm and outplays the young Boris Spassky, eight years before Spassky became World Champion.
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Polugaevsky – Maslov · 1963 · 1–0
A textbook King's Indian Attack: Polugaevsky rolls the h-pawn up the board, sacrifices with 26.Be6! and hunts the black king down to a forced mate.
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Polugaevsky – Geller · 1967 · 1–0
A 22-move miniature against the elite theoretician Efim Geller: 9.e5 and 15.c6! tear open the King's Indian, and the knight tour 19.Nd7/20.Nxf8 wins decisive material.
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Polugaevsky – Tal · 1969 · 1–0
USSR Championship 1969, ranked by Kasparov among Polugaevsky's finest: armed with home analysis prepared with Spassky — reaching move 25 from memory — he beats the great attacker Mikhail Tal at his own game with 19.Bxh7+ and a crushing kingside hunt.
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Polugaevsky – Bilek · 1969 · 1–0
Anderssen Memorial 1969: a crisp Symmetrical English in which 14.Nd5 and the central break win a piece, finished off with 30.Bxf6 and 32.Bd5+.
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Polugaevsky – Ivkov · 1969 · 1–0
Belgrade 1969: a pure positional squeeze — Polugaevsky trades queens early, marches his king to b3 and rolls the kingside pawns until Borislav Ivkov's game collapses.
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Polugaevsky – Mecking · 1971 · 1–0
From Polugaevsky's victorious Mar del Plata 1971: a marathon technical win over Henrique Mecking, decided only when both sides queen a pawn and 58.Qf7+/59.Qf8+ wins the queen ending.
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Polugaevsky – Portisch · 1973 · 1–0
Petropolis Interzonal 1973: on the road to the Candidates, Polugaevsky outplays Lajos Portisch in a queenless Réti, his rooks and knight overrunning the queenside (19.Nxa7, 39.Rxe6).
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Polugaevsky – Tal · 1980 · 1–0
Candidates quarterfinal 1980: 24.Nxd5! wins a pawn and Polugaevsky grinds it out to help eliminate former World Champion Mikhail Tal (+3−0=5) — a high point of his three Candidates campaigns.
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Polugaevsky – Torre · 1981 · 1–0
Moscow 1981, one of the most celebrated games of his career: in the sharp Semi-Slav he lets Torre win a whole rook (15…Bxh1) and replies with the astonishing 17.h4!! and 18.f4!! — a positional rook sacrifice whose pawn chain leaves Black helpless, an idea he had prepared years in advance.
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Polugaevsky – Torre · 1984 · 1–0
London 1984: three years after their Moscow classic, Polugaevsky dismantles Eugenio Torre again — this time by direct assault, 19.Bxh7+! and 22.Rxg6+! ripping open the black king for a decisive attack.
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