Judit Polgar
All the World Chess Champions are men, so here’s one from the other half of humanity, and a fine Appendix to the list of guys that ever joined the ‘Vera Menchik Club’.
Judit Polgar was strongest woman chess player ever. She never became World Champion, and was never interested in becoming World Women’s World Chess Champion (a title held by her two sisters, Susan and Sofia). She was in the world top ten and improving when she retired.
Opening
In 2003, Polgár scored one of her best results: an undefeated clear second place in the Category 19 Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, just a half-point behind future World Champion Viswanathan Anand, and a full point ahead of then-world champion Vladimir Kramnik. She devised this TN over the board.
Middlegame
For Polgar, chess is the attack, so I’ve shown some of her best and best-known, but her imposition of a classic good-N-bad-B on Anand is very classy, with a glorious finish.
The trapper trapped!
Someone commented on this next one, it’s like exchange chess: no time to count the pieces, the initiative is everything!
Endgame
Like all top GMs, the endgame is a strength of Polgar, but may not be noticed among the maulings…
This is just about space, but in a position with just one pair of pieces, and you could argue that White has the worse Bishop!
PS “She has fantastic chess talent, but she is, after all, a woman. It all comes down to the imperfections of the feminine psyche. No woman can sustain a prolonged battle.” Garry KASPAROV
PPS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1r#Kasparov_touch-move_controversy
PPPS
That was the first time a woman had beaten the World Champion, although in 2006 she took Topalov outside a couple of times and filled him in, when he was the top-rated player and FIDE champion.