JUDIT POLGAR, THE PRINCESS OF CHESS
Judit Polgar played in Hungary's Men Team (actually Open division) in the 2010 World Chess Olympiad at Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia held from Sept. 19-Oct. 04, 2010.
(Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
"GENIUSES ARE MADE, NOT BORN"
THE STRONGEST female player of all time, Judit Polgar, celebrated her 33rd birthday on July 23, 1976 in her native Budapest, Hungary.
A number of Judit's family members were killed in the Holocaust, and her grandfather was a survivor of Auschwitz.
Her father Laszlo and mother Klara believed that "geniuses are made, not born," and that it can be cultivated through hard work and discipline.
Laszlo read biographies of famous intellectuals and agreed with his wife that ordinary schooling would do nothing to further his plan, which was to make his daughters geniuses at something.
He decided to educate them at home. When his eldest daughter Zsuzsa, showed a glimmer of interest in chess, he immediately launched her into a full-time course of studying this king of games, eight to 10 hours a day. Her two younger sisters Zsofia and Judit also began studying chess at age 4.
Laszlo's experiment in manufacturing genius, a commentator said, was controversial -- and questionable, according to his critics.
Armed government officials once arrived at the door of their home in a attempt to "save" the Polgar sisters from what they saw as a potentially abusive situation.
In any case, by the time Judit was five years old, she was already beating her father at chess, and at age 9, she competed in the New York Open where she took first place among un-ranked players, winning seven games and drawing once.
At age 11, she earned the International Master title--younger than Fischer or Kasparov. At age 13, she was the world's under-14 champion for boys and FIDE's highest rated woman.
She then preceded to become the youngest Grandmaster ever at 15 years and 4 months (Fischer became GM when he was 15 and 6 months old in 1958).
In 1993 Judit defeated former world champion Boris Spassky 5.5 - 4.5 in a 10-game exhibition match and took home $120,000.
In 1998 she became the first woman to win the U. S. Open. In 1999, she reached the quarter-finals of the 1999 FIDE World Championship, which draw the participation of over 100 players from all over the world.
A year later, she won back to back tournaments in Bali, Indonesia and Malmo, Sweden. Her win in Bali was particularly notable as her competitors included former and present world champions. It was, according to commentators, the strongest performance yet by a woman.
Her sister Zsuzsa, or Susan, eventually became the women's champion while Zsofia, or Sofia, became the world's no. 7. (The Polgar sisters, incidentally, also speak English, Bulgarian, Esperanto, Spanish, German and Russian.)
Judit, however, refused to take part in women's events. She remains the only woman to have competed consistently with the top 20 players in the world, winning games against the best of the best, including Karpov, Anand and Kasparov.
Judit made gender division in chess obsolete. She demolished stereotypes and open the field for the next generation of women players.
Her achievements led to the much delayed acknowledgement that women chess players are capable of competing on an international scale among the men. She has, moreover, "brought charm and grace to the world of 64 squares."
Judit's style of play is aggressive. She is fiercely competitive. She plans each game by carefully analyzing her opponent's style, and formulating what she believes should be her appropriate strategy. Her flexibility is legendary.
Her numerous victims see her as either as a tigress that quickly goes for the kill, or an old fox that knows every trick of the game.
"Judit's attacks," says a male Grandmaster, "are the ultimate in terms of viciousness---surviving her attack is almost impossible. Her aggressive style is so intimidating that the most important thing is to remain calm... the worst part is that she exploits every tiny mistake you make."
In April 2003, Judit became the world's 10th highest rated chess player with an ELO of 2715. She became the first woman ever to enter the top 10. In that same year, Judit scored her greatest victory: an unprecedented clear 2nd place in the Category 19 Corus chess tournament in Wijk Ann Zee, the Netherlands, just half point behind Anand, and a full point ahead of classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik.
In 2004, she took some time off from chess to give birth to her son, Oliver. She returned to chess at the prestigious Corus tournament on Jan. 15, 2005, scoring 7/13.
In May she had another better-than-par performance at a strong tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria, finishing third. In July 2005, she was the world's no. 8.
In Sept. 2005, Judit became the first woman to play for the FIDE world championship. However, she finished last among 8 competitors.
Some blamed her poor opening repertoire while others speculated that taking a year off to have a baby could have left her rusty.
On July 6, 2006 Judit gave birth to her second child Hanna.
Ranked 17th in July 2006 with a rating of 2710, Judit still resides in Hungary, happily married to Gustav Fonts, a veterinary surgeon.
Judit's sister Sofia and her parents now live in Israel while Susan is a chess coach and writer in US -- and the captain of its now formidable woman's chess team.
Almost all of the chess puzzles being used in this column are from a book entitled "Chess" written by Judit's father, Laszlo.
Source: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 13 and 15
Volume 18 Issue 13
March 30 - April 05, 2009
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