18th April, 2003

AFTER her superb start to the Hunguest Hotels Super Chess Tournament
taking place in Budapest, Judit Polgar's unbeaten run was finally halted
in round five, as her 'Battle of Budapest' duel with Peter Leko had the
nation abuzz.

Polgar came face to face with world title challenger Peter Leko in a
match up that lived up to all its expectations. There were no-holds
barred as both Hungarian superstars went for the jugular in a very wild
Sicilian Sveshnikov, which Leko won to move himself into contention for
first. The result allowed Nigel Short, having a renaissance of sorts by
producing his best chess in recent years, to draw level with Polgar; and
with Leko now just a half point behind the joint leaders, the race is
now on between the top three to the finish.

One of the reasons for the event being staged in Budapest is to help
fine-tune Leko's final preparations for his forthcoming world title
challenge with Vladimir Kramnik, in the first defence of his title since
dethroning Garry Kasparov in November 2000. Einstein Plc (who owns the
rights to the world crown once held by Kasparov) has yet to officially
announce the specifics of the match; though speculation is mounting that
one could be imminent.

During the opening ceremony, Hungarian Prime Minister Dr. Peter
Medgyessy, in an effort to help boost Leko's chances of winning the
world crown in his home town, heavily hinted to the press that he was
doing "everything he possibly can" to bring the match to the Hungarian
capital to give their man home advantage.

Einstein are believed to be at an advanced stage of negotiations with
the Hungarian government, and an announcement could be made for a $1.2
million title match between Kramnik and Leko by the end of the month,
which is likely to be a 12-game match with a start date of mid June -
and almost certain to clash with the rival $1 million FIDE title match
in Buenos Aires between Garry Kasparov and Ruslan Ponomariov.

Standings after round 5: 1-2 N Short (England), J Polgar (Hungary)
3.5/5; 3 P Leko (Hungary) 3; 4-5 S Movsesian (Slovakia), B Gelfand
(Israel) 2.5; 6-10 C Lutz (Germany), F Berkes (Hungary), P Acs
(Hungary), V Korchnoi (Switzerland), Z Almasi (Hungary) 2.

J Polgar - P Leko
Hunguest Hotels, (5)
Sicilian Sveshnikov
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e5 6 Ndb5 d6 7 Bg5 a6 8 Na3
b5 9 Bxf6 gxf6 10 Nd5 f5 11 Bd3 Be6 12 Qh5 Rg8 13 g3 Rg5 14 Qd1 Bxd5 15
exd5 Ne7 16 Nxb5 Qb6 17 Na3 Qxb2 18 Nc4 Qc3+ 19 Kf1 Rd8 20 Rb1 e4 21 Be2
f4 22 Rb3 Qf6 23 gxf4 Qxf4 24 Ne3 Bg7 25 Bxa6 Nf5 26 Ng2 Qe5 27 h4 Rg6
28 Rhh3 Kf8 29 Qb1 Bf6 30 h5 Rg8 31 Be2 Nd4 32 Rbe3 Bg5 33 Qb6 Re8 34
Reg3 f5 35 Nh4 Nxe2 36 Kxe2 f4 37 Rb3 f3+ 38 Kf1 Qxd5 39 Nxf3 Qc4+ 40
Rd3 exd3 41 Qxd6+ Be7 42 Qh6+ Rg7 43 Rg3 dxc2+ 44 Kg2 Qc3 0-1

JOHN B HENDERSON