Chess history in a nutshell 97 – Judit Polgár

There is much to be said about Judit Polgár (born on July 23, 1976) and her sisters, Susan and Sofia. Here, I will focus solely on Judit, the youngest of the three, as she is, so far, the first woman in the world to break through the traditionally male-dominated chess elite. She is the only woman to have entered the top 10 of the world rankings and has defeated nearly all former world champions at least once, and sometimes multiple times.

These include prominent names such as Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Veselin Topalov, and Viswanathan Anand, all classical world champions. Kasparov was defeated in an impressive rapid game, though Judit only managed to beat Kramnik in a blitz game. Even Magnus Carlsen once had to bow to her in a blitz game. Other former world champions like Boris Spassky, Vasily Smyslov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Alexander Khalifman, and Rustam Kasimdzhanov also lost games to her.

Judit Polgár (born on July 23, 1976) is widely regarded as the greatest female chess player of all time. In 1991, she achieved the grandmaster title at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at that time the youngest person to do so, breaking the record previously held by former world champion Bobby Fischer.

Polgár is the only woman to have been a serious contender for the World Chess Championship, participating in the tournament in 2005. She had earlier competed in major knockout tournaments for the World Championship involving more than 100 players. She is also the only woman to have surpassed the 2700 Elo rating, reaching a peak world ranking of #8 in 2004 and a peak rating of 2735 in 2005.

On August 13, 2014, she announced her retirement from competitive chess, though she is still frequently seen in live streams of major tournaments, where she demonstrates her deep insight during commentary sessions.

Her father, László Polgár, a psychologist, aimed to prove, together with his wife Klára, that children can achieve exceptional accomplishments if trained in a specialized field from a young age. "Geniuses are made, not born," was László's premise. He and Klára homeschooled their three daughters, initially focusing on mathematics and later specializing in chess.

László also taught his daughters Esperanto, the international language. Their approach faced opposition from Hungarian authorities, as homeschooling was not considered a "socialist" approach. Western commentators also criticized the Polgárs for allegedly depriving their daughters of a normal childhood.

To gain acceptance from the Hungarian Chess Federation, Judit and her sisters, along with Ildikó Mádl, represented Hungary in the women’s event at the 28th Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki in November 1988. The Hungarian women’s team convincingly won the championship, marking the first time it wasn’t won by the Soviet Union. Judit played on board 2 and finished with the highest score of 12½ out of 13, earning an individual gold medal for her board performance.

In Linares 1994, Judit Polgár made headlines during a controversial game against world champion Garry Kasparov. The then-17-year-old Polgár had been invited to compete against the strongest players in the world. In her fifth-round game against Kasparov, he gradually gained the upper hand and had a clear advantage after 35 moves. It was later revealed that Kasparov touched a piece and released it but then made a different move with it. Polgár did not protest at the time, but video footage recorded by a Spanish television crew clearly showed Kasparov letting go of the piece.

I personally had the chance to meet the Polgár family in the 1980s. Together with a few chess friends, we played a tournament in Kecskemét. There, we struck up a conversation with Klára and her eldest daughter, who was also participating and played against one of us. After the tournament, we were invited to Budapest to meet László and the younger daughters, Sofia (then 9) and Judit (then 7). An "iconic" photo was taken there, which I will show in this video.

We were warmly welcomed, and the family even offered us accommodation in their modest apartment. They vacated the girls’ bedroom to create sleeping spaces for us, while the family slept in the living room and their other bedroom. That was also when we first saw the famous wallboard with chess diagrams hanging in the girls’ room. László had installed a rack with numerous chess diagrams, which he updated weekly.

Each diagram focused on positions with relatively few pieces, designed to train memory functions in the developing brains of children. He particularly sought problems to practice checkmate patterns. Some examples are included in this video, along with their practical application in games. These are taken from his famous book "Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games". The young girls not only became familiar with these checkmate patterns but also developed skills that were highly useful during games, such as visualizing positions—an essential skill for any chess player.

At one point, someone suggested a game of blindfold chess. My chess friends weren’t eager, but I volunteered, thinking I could handle it since I had some experience during high school. I assumed she would play with a board while I would play blindfolded. I misunderstood. I was to play with a board against 7-year-old Judit, who would play without one. My worldview shattered. In the Netherlands, I was teaching 7-year-olds how a knight moves, and now I faced a 7-year-old playing blindfolded. Overconfident, I declared, "If she’s blindfolded, I will be too!"

Chairs were set back-to-back, and we played with a clock and moves translated between Hungarian and English. The game ended with laughter when I blundered my queen. A second game, where I used a board and Judit played blindfolded, ended similarly—with my defeat.

Later, I shared this story in the Dutch press, leading to invitations for the Polgárs in Holland and the West in general. Sporadically, I’ve kept in touch with Judit; a few years ago, we both gave lectures in Ghent (Belgium). I shared the story and photo with her via email. She found it amusing but didn’t remember much of it. I didn’t mention that in subsequent blitz games, we did manage to win a few matches against her. 😊

The diagram position is coming from a line in the analysis of the game J.Polgár-Mitkov. White had sacrificed a piece for two pawns and now tries to gain the piece back again. With her queen and rook she is attacking the (pinned) knight on f6. If that knight retreats, the knight on d8 will be lost. But first she must take into account the direct threat on g2. How should she solve this problem? Does she has to play g2-g3 or g2-g4 ? In the video we will discuss the right continuation for White.

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