Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian
chess grandmaster, widely regarded as the
strongest female
chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
player of all time.
In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the youngest to have done so, breaking the record previously held by former world champion
Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
. She was the youngest player ever to break into the
FIDE
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...
top 100 players rating list, ranking No. 55 in the January 1989 rating list, at the age of 12.
Polgár is the only woman to have been a serious candidate for the
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...
, in which she participated in
2005
2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
; she had previously participated in large, 100-player-plus knockout tournaments for the world championship. She is also the only woman to have surpassed 2700
Elo, reaching a peak world ranking of No. 8 in 2004 and peak rating of 2735 in 2005. She is the only woman to be ranked in the top ten of all chess players, first reaching that ranking in 1996. She was the No. 1 rated woman in the world from January 1989 until her retirement on 13 August 2014.
She has won or shared first in the chess tournaments of
Hastings
Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...
1993, Madrid 1994, León 1996,
U.S. Open 1998, Hoogeveen 1999, Sigeman & Co 2000, Japfa 2000, and the Najdorf Memorial 2000. Polgár is the only woman to have won a game against a reigning world number one player, and has defeated eleven current or former world champions in either rapid or classical chess:
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...
,
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (, ; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 ...
,
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
,
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...
,
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilyevich Spassky (; January 30, 1937 – February 27, 2025) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigra ...
,
Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov (; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who was the seventh World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidates Tournament, Candidate for the World Chess Championship on ...
,
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; ; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion.
Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE ...
,
Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...
,
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Olehovych Ponomariov (; born 11 October 1983) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was FIDE World Chess Champion from 2002 to 2004 and is the youngest holder of the title at the age of 18 years and 104 days, though the title was split ...
,
Alexander Khalifman, and
Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
On 13 August 2014, she announced her retirement from competitive chess. In June 2015, Polgár was elected as the new captain and head coach of the Hungarian national men's team. On 20 August 2015, she received Hungary's highest decoration, the Grand Cross of the
Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary
The Order of Saint Stephen () is an order of chivalry founded in 1764 by Maria Theresa. In 1938, Miklós Horthy took the rights and activities of Grand Master as Regent of Hungary. The name of the Order changed to the Royal Hungarian Order of ...
. In 2021, Polgár was inducted into the
World Chess Hall of Fame
The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) is a nonprofit collecting institution in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1984, it features chess exhibits, engages in educational outreach, and maintains a ...
. In September 2024, Judit Polgar was awarded the FIDE100 Award as the best female player, recognized as the world's top chess competitor in her time. The award is given to a player who has contributed to the development of chess both through play and promotion of the game, who has set a good example to other players and, preferably, who has gained recognition beyond the chess world.
Early life
Polgár was born on 23 July 1976 in Budapest to a
Jewish-Hungarian family. Polgár and her two older sisters, Grandmaster
Susan
Susan is a feminine given name, the usual English version of Susanna or Susannah. All are versions of the Hebrew name Shoshana, which is derived from the Hebrew ''shoshan'', meaning ''lotus flower'' in Egyptian, original derivation, and severa ...
and
International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
Sofia
Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...
, were part of an educational experiment carried out by their father,
László Polgár, in an attempt to prove that children could make exceptional achievements if trained in a specialist subject from a very early age.
"Geniuses are made, not born," was László's thesis. He and his wife Klára educated their three daughters at home, with chess as the specialist subject. László also taught his three daughters the international language
Esperanto
Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
. They received resistance from Hungarian authorities as home-schooling was not a "socialist" approach. They also received criticism at the time from some Western commentators for depriving the sisters of a normal childhood.
Traditionally, chess had been a male-dominated activity, and women were often seen as weaker players, thus advancing the idea of a Women's World Champion. However, from the beginning, László was against the idea that his daughters had to participate in female-only events. "Women are able to achieve results similar, in fields of intellectual activities, to that of men," he wrote. "Chess is a form of intellectual activity, so this applies to chess. Accordingly, we reject any kind of discrimination in this respect." This put the Polgárs in conflict with the
Hungarian Chess Federation of the day, whose policy was for women to play in women-only tournaments. Polgár's older sister, Susan, first fought the bureaucracy by playing in men's tournaments and refusing to play in women's tournaments. In 1985, when she was a 15-year-old International Master, Susan said that it was due to this conflict that she had not been awarded the Grandmaster title despite having made the norm eleven times.
Career
Polgár rarely played in women-specific tournaments or divisions and has never competed for the Women's World Championship: "I always say that women should have the self-confidence that they are as good as male players, but only if they are willing to work and take it seriously as much as male players." While László Polgár has been credited with being an excellent chess coach,
[ Pandolfini, chess author and coach, writes: "Judit Polgár is simply the strongest female chess player in history."] the Polgárs had also employed professional chessplayers to train their daughters, including Hungarian champion IM Tibor Florian, GM
Pal Benko, and Russian GM
Alexander Chernin.
Susan Polgár, the eldest of the sisters, 5½ years older than Sophia and 7 years older than Judit, was the first of the sisters to achieve prominence in chess by winning tournaments, and by 1986, she was the world's top-rated female chess player.
Initially, being the youngest, Judit was separated from her sisters while they were in training. However, this only served to increase Judit's curiosity. After she had learned the rules, they discovered Judit was able to find solutions to the problems they were studying, and she began to be invited into the group.
One evening, Susan was studying an endgame with their trainer, a strong
International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
. Unable to find the solution, they woke Judit, who was asleep in bed and carried her into the training room. Still half asleep, Judit showed them how to solve the problem, after which they put her back to bed.
László Polgár's experiment would produce a family of one international master and two grandmasters and would strengthen the argument for
nurture over nature, as well as prove women could be chess grandmasters.
Child prodigy
Trained in her early years by her sister Susan, who ultimately became Women's World Champion, Judit Polgár was a
chess prodigy
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a square board consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to ...
from an early age. At age 5, she defeated a family friend without looking at the board. After the game, the friend joked: "You are good at chess, but I'm a good cook." Judit replied: "Do you cook without looking at the stove?"
However, according to Susan, Judit was not the sister with the most talent, explaining: "Judit was a slow starter, but very hard-working." Polgár described herself at that age as "obsessive" about chess. She first defeated an International Master,
Dolfi Drimer, at age 10 and a grandmaster,
Lev Gutman, at age 11.
Judit started playing in tournaments at 6 years old, and by age 9 her rating with the Hungarian Chess Federation was 2080. She was a member of a chess club in Budapest, where she would get experience from master level players.
In 1984 in Budapest, Sophia and Judit, at the time 9 and 7 years of age, respectively, played two games of blindfold chess against two masters, which they won. At one point the girls complained that one of their opponents was playing too slowly and suggested a clock should be used.
In April 1986, 9-year-old Judit played in her first rated tournament in the U.S., finishing first in the unrated section of the New York Open, winning US$1,000. All three Polgár sisters competed. Susan, 16, competed in the grandmaster section and had a victory against GM
Walter Browne
Walter Shawn Browne (10 January 1949 – 24 June 2015) was an Australian-born American chess and poker player. Awarded the title Grandmaster (GM) by FIDE in 1970, he won the U.S. Chess Championship six times.
Early years
Browne was born to ...
, and Sophia, 11, finished second in her section, but Judit gathered most of the attention in the tournament. Grandmasters would drop by to watch the serious, quiet child playing.
She won her first seven games before
drawing
Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...
the final game. Although the unrated section had many of the weaker players in the Open, it also had players of expert strength who were foreign to the United States and had not been rated yet. Milorad Boskovic related a conversation with Judit's sixth-round opponent, a Yugoslav player he knew to be a strong expert: "He told me he took some chances in the game because he couldn't believe she was going to attack so well." Not able to speak English, her mother interpreted as she told a reporter her goal was to be a chess professional. When the reporter asked her if she would be world champion one day, Judit answered: "I will try."
In late 1986, 10-year-old Judit defeated 52-year-old Romanian IM
Dolfi Drimer in the Adsteam Lidums International Tournament in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
, Australia.
Edmar Mednis
Edmar John Mednis (; March 22, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American chess player and writer of Latvian origin. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1980.
Biography
Mednis' family were refugees in 1944 during World War ...
said he played his best game of the tournament in beating Judit: "I was careful in that game... Grandmasters don't like to lose to 10-year-old girls, because then we make the front page of all the papers."
In April 1988, Polgár made her first International Master norm in the International B section of the New York Open. In August 1988, she won the under-12 "Boys" section of the
World Youth Chess and Peace Festival in
Timișoara
Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...
, Romania. In October 1988, she finished first in a 10-player
round-robin tournament
A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...
in London, scoring 7–2, for a half point lead over Israeli GM
Yair Kraidman. With these three results, she completed the requirements for the International Master title; at the time, she was the youngest player ever to have achieved this distinction. Both
Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
and
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
were 14 when they were awarded the title; Polgár was 12.
It was during this time that former world champion
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet and Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as Comparison of top chess players throughout history, one ...
said Polgár had the potential to win the World Championship.

Judit was asked about playing against boys instead of in the girls' section of tournaments: "These other girls are not serious about chess... I practice five or six hours a day, but they get distracted by cooking and work around the house."
In November 1988, Judit and her sisters, along with
Ildikó Mádl, represented Hungary in the Women's section of the
28th Chess Olympiad
The 28th Chess Olympiad (, ''I 28i Skakistikí Olympiáda''), organized by FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and a women's tournament, as well ...
in
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...
. The International Chess Federation would not permit the Polgárs to play against men in team competitions. Prior to the tournament,
Eduard Gufeld, Soviet GM and team coach for the Soviet women's team, dismissed the Polgárs: "I believe that these girls are going to lose a good part of their quickly acquired image in the 28th Olympiad... Afterward we are going to know if the Hungarian sisters are geniuses or just women!" However, the Hungarian women's team won the championship, which marked the first time it was not won by the Soviet Union. Judit played board 2 and finished the tournament with the highest score of 12½–½ to win the individual gold medal. She also won the brilliancy prize for her game against Pavlina Angelova.
In the January 1989 Elo rating list, at the age of 12, she was rated 2555, which was number 55 in the world and 35 rating points ahead of the Women's World Champion
Maia Chiburdanidze
Maia Chiburdanidze ( ka, მაია ჩიბურდანიძე; born 17 January 1961) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. She is the sixth Women's World Chess Champion, a title she held from 1978 to 1991, and was the youngest one until ...
. In the six months since the previous list, she had gained a remarkable 190 rating points. Judit's quiet and modest demeanour at the board
contrasted with the intensity of her playing style.
David Norwood, British GM, in recalling Judit beating him when he was an established player and she was just a child, described her as "this cute little auburn-haired monster who crushed you."
British journalist
Dominic Lawson wrote about 12-year-old Judit's "killer" eyes and how she would stare at her opponent: "The irises are so grey, so dark they are almost indistinguishable from the pupils. Set against her long red hair, the effect is striking."
Before age 13, she had broken into the top 100 players in the world and the ''
British Chess Magazine'' declared: "Judit Polgár's recent results make the performances of Fischer and Kasparov at a similar age pale by comparison."
British GM
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, columnist, coach and commentator who has been the FIDE Director for Chess Development since September 2022. Short earned the title of grandmaster at the ...
called Judit "one of the three or four greatest
chess prodigies in history".
However, Kasparov expressed early doubts: "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."
Later in life, however, after he had lost a rapid game against Polgár himself in 2002, Kasparov revised his opinion: "The Polgárs showed that there are no inherent limitations to their aptitude—an idea that many male players refused to accept until they had unceremoniously been crushed by a twelve-year-old with a ponytail."
In 1989, Polgár tied with
Boris Gelfand
Boris Abramovich Gelfand (; born 24 June 1968) is a Belarusian-Israeli chess player.
A six-time World Championship candidate (1991, 1994–95, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2013), he won the Chess World Cup 2009 and the 2011 Candidates Tournament, mak ...
for third in the OHRA Open in Amsterdam, earning her first Grandmaster norm.
By now, numerous books and articles had been written about the Polgár sisters, making them famous even outside of the world of chess. In 1989, American President
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
and his wife Barbara met with the Polgárs during their visit to Hungary.
Although not released until 1996, in 1990 a documentary about children playing chess, ''Chess Kids'', featuring Polgár, was filmed. The documentary did not include an interview with Polgár as her father required payment.
In 1990, Judit won the Boys section of the under-14 in the World Youth Chess Festival in
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Fond du Lac () is a city in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the southern end of Lake Winnebago and had a population of 44,678 at the 2020 census. The city forms the core of the Fond du Lac met ...
. Also in 1990, Judit and her sisters represented Hungary in the Women's Olympiad, winning the gold medal. It was the last women-only tournament in which Judit would ever participate.
In October 1991, Judit finished with 5½–3½, tied for third for fifth position with
Zoltán Ribli
Zoltán Ribli (born September 6, 1951 in Mohács) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster and International Arbiter (1995). He was twice a World Championship Candidate and three times Hungarian Champion.
A career in chess
As a youngster, he was tw ...
and
John Nunn
John Denis Martin Nunn (born 25 April 1955) is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and was form ...
, at a tournament in Vienna.
Grandmaster
In December 1991, Polgár achieved the
grandmaster title by winning the
Hungarian National Championship, at the time the youngest ever at 15 years, 4 months to have achieved the title. This beat Fischer's record by a month.
This made her both the first woman to be the youngest-ever grandmaster and the fourth woman to become a grandmaster (after
Nona Gaprindashvili
Nona Gaprindashvili ( ka, ნონა გაფრინდაშვილი; born 3 May 1941) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. Noted for her aggressive style of play, she was the women's world chess champion from 1962 to 1978, and in 1978 ...
,
Maia Chiburdanidze
Maia Chiburdanidze ( ka, მაია ჩიბურდანიძე; born 17 January 1961) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. She is the sixth Women's World Chess Champion, a title she held from 1978 to 1991, and was the youngest one until ...
and Polgar's sister Susan).
With this, Polgar also beat her sister Susan's record for youngest-ever female grandmaster, obtained earlier in January 1991, by over 7 years. Hungary, one of the strongest chess-playing countries, had all but one of their strongest players participate in that year's championship, as only
Zoltán Ribli
Zoltán Ribli (born September 6, 1951 in Mohács) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster and International Arbiter (1995). He was twice a World Championship Candidate and three times Hungarian Champion.
A career in chess
As a youngster, he was tw ...
was missing. Going into the last round, Polgár needed only a draw to achieve the GM title, but she won her game against GM Tibor Tolnai to finish first, with six points in nine games.
In 1992, Polgár tied for second, behind
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (, ; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 ...
at the Madrid International in Linares. She and Russian GM
Vladimir Epishin
Vladimir Epishin (born 11 July 1965 in Leningrad) is a Russian chess grandmaster.
Tournament play
He finished third in the 58th USSR Chess Championship in 1991. He won the 1987 St. Petersburg Championship. Other tournament successes include ...
finished with 5½–3½. In July 1992, she placed second in the Reshevsky Memorial in Manhattan finishing with four wins, five draws and no losses. In September 1992, Polgár participated in a tournament held in Aruba in which a team of senior men's players competed against a team of top women players. The men's team consisted of
Lev Polugaevsky,
Wolfgang Uhlmann
Wolfgang Uhlmann (29 March 193524 August 2020) was a German chess grandmaster. He was East Germany's most successful chess player between the mid-1950s and the late 1980s, reaching the 1971 Candidates Tournament. During his career, Uhlmann pla ...
,
Oscar Panno,
Efim Geller,
Borislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov (12 November 1933 – 14 February 2022) was a Serbian chess Grandmaster. As one of the most decorated players in the history of Chess Olympiad, Ivkov was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal t ...
and
Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov (; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who was the seventh World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidates Tournament, Candidate for the World Chess Championship on ...
. The women's team consisted of Judit and Zsuzsa Polgár,
Pia Cramling, Chiburdanidze,
Ketevan Arakhamia
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (née Arakhamia; born ) is a Georgian (former Soviet Union)-born Scottish Chess Grandmaster.
Chess career
In 1985, she won the World Junior Chess Championship for Girls, held in Dobrna (and taking silver in Adelaide ...
and
Alisa Galliamova. The men won the tournament 39–33. The overall high scorer was Polugaevsky, 57 years old with Polgár, 16, finishing second with 7½–4½.

Polgár then tied for first in the
Hastings
Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...
tournament held over New Year's, 1992–93. Russian GM
Evgeny Bareev
Evgeny Ilgizovich Bareev (; born 21 November 1966) is a Russian-Canadian chess player, trainer, and writer. Awarded the FIDE Grandmaster title in 1989, he was ranked fourth in the world in the international rankings in 1992 and again in 2003, w ...
, at the time ranked eighth in the world, led going into tournament's last round, but was defeated by Polgár in their second individual game, allowing her to share first. Immediately following the Hastings tournament, Polgár played an exhibition match in February against former World Champion, Boris Spassky. She won the match 5½–4½ and won $110,000, the largest prize money to that point in her career. Polgár also participated in the Melody Amber tournament in Monaco which featured a blindfold tournament of 12 grandmasters. Anand and Karpov finished first, Ljubojević third, while Polgár finished in clear fourth with 6½ points from 11 rounds, ahead of other strong GMs such as
Ivanchuk,
Short,
Korchnoi and her sister Susan.
In 1993, Polgár became the first woman to ever qualify for an
Interzonal
Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the Ca ...
tournament. In March, she finished in a four-way tie for second place in the Budapest Zonal and won the tiebreaking tournament. She then confirmed her status as one of the world's leading players, narrowly failing to qualify for the
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The win ...
s at the rival
FIDE
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...
and
PCA Interzonal
Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the Ca ...
tournaments.
In the summer of 1993,
Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
stayed for a time in the Polgár household. He had been living in seclusion in
Yugoslavia
, common_name = Yugoslavia
, life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation
, p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia
, flag_p ...
due to an arrest warrant issued by the United States for violating the U.N. blockade of Yugoslavia with his 1992 match against Spassky. Susan Polgár met Bobby with her family and persuaded him to come out of hiding "in a cramped hotel room in a small Yugoslavian village".
During his stay, he played many games of
Fischer random chess
Chess960, also known as Fischer Random Chess, is a chess variant that randomizes the starting position of the pieces on the back rank. It was introduced by former world chess champion Bobby Fischer in 1996 to reduce the emphasis on opening prep ...
and helped the sisters analyse their games. Susan said, while he was friendly on a personal level and recalled mostly pleasant moments as their guest, there were conflicts due to his political views. On the suggestion of a friend of Fischer, a match of blitz chess between Fischer and Polgár was arranged and announced to the press. However, problems ensued between Fischer and László Polgár and Fischer cancelled the match, telling a friend who asked if the match would take place, "No, they're Jewish."
In the summer of 1994, Polgár had the greatest success of her career to that point, when she won the Madrid International in Spain. Against a field which included
Gata Kamsky,
Evgeny Bareev
Evgeny Ilgizovich Bareev (; born 21 November 1966) is a Russian-Canadian chess player, trainer, and writer. Awarded the FIDE Grandmaster title in 1989, he was ranked fourth in the world in the international rankings in 1992 and again in 2003, w ...
,
Valery Salov
Valery Salov (born 26 May 1964) is a Russian chess grandmaster who was ranked third in the world in 1995.
Competitive chess career
Salov was awarded the International Master title in 1984 and the Grandmaster title in 1986. He was the World u ...
and
Ivan Sokolov, she finished 7–2 and 1½ points ahead of second place. Her
performance rating
The PR (performance rating, P-rating, or Pentium rating) system was a figure of merit developed by AMD, Cyrix, IBM Microelectronics and SGS-Thomson in the mid-1990s as a method of comparing their x86 processors to those of rival Intel. The idea ...
for the tournament was 2778 against an opposition rated at 2672.
In October 1994, she played in a tournament in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
which was a tribute to an ailing Polugaevsky. Eight grandmasters participated, all considered contenders for the world championship: Karpov, Anand, Salov, Ivanchuk, Kamsky, Shirov, Ljubojević and Polgár. The tournament was unusual as Black in each game was required to play a
Sicilian Defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves:
:1. e4 c5
The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. The opening 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for Whi ...
, since Polugaevsky was considered the all-time authority on the opening. This was to Polgár's advantage as it was her favourite. Against the elite competition she finished tied for third with Ivanchuk.
In September 1995, Polgár finished third with a score of 7–4 in the Donner Memorial in Amsterdam, behind
Jan Timman
Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known a ...
and
Julio Granda
Julio Ernesto Granda Zúñiga (born February 25, 1967) is a Peruvian chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and four-time champion of the Americas.
Career
Born in Camaná, he learned how to play chess at the age of five. In 1980 he won the Worl ...
, who tied for first, and ahead of
Yasser Seirawan
Yasser Seirawan (; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States Chess Championship, United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess au ...
,
Alexander Huzman,
Alexei Shirov,
Alexander Khalifman,
Alexander Morozevich and
Valery Salov
Valery Salov (born 26 May 1964) is a Russian chess grandmaster who was ranked third in the world in 1995.
Competitive chess career
Salov was awarded the International Master title in 1984 and the Grandmaster title in 1986. He was the World u ...
. She secured a clear third place with a 21-move win over Shirov in her last game. In the Antillean island of Aruba in November 1995, she played in a friendly match against
Jeroen Piket of the Netherlands, at the time one of the top players in Europe. Despite being closely matched in ratings, Polgár won the match 6–2.

In 1995, the
Isle of Lewis
The Isle of Lewis () or simply Lewis () is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides archipelago in Scotland. The two parts are frequently referred to as if they were separate islands. The t ...
chess club in Scotland attempted to arrange a game between Polgár and Nigel Short in which the famous
Lewis chessmen would be used. The Lewis chessmen is a chess set carved in the 12th century. However, the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
refused to release the set despite assurances that the players would wear gloves. Scottish member of parliament
Calum MacDonald pointed out that the set would be safe, especially as chess was not a contact sport. In the end, the Museum allowed the chess set to be displayed at the Isle of Lewis festival tournament, but they were not used in any games. Polgár won the double round-robin tournament of four GMs, scoring five points in the six games and winning both her games against Short.
Kasparov touch-move controversy
At
Linares 1994, Polgár lost a controversial game to the
World Champion Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
. The tournament marked the first time the 17-year-old Polgár was invited to compete with the world's strongest players. After four games she had two points.
During her game with Kasparov in the fifth round, Kasparov gradually outplayed her and had a clear advantage after 35 moves.
On his 36th move, the World Champion reportedly changed his mind about the move of a knight, and moved the piece to a different square. According to
chess rules, once a player has released a piece, the move must stand, so if Kasparov did remove his hand, he should have been required to play his original move. Polgár did not challenge Kasparov in the moment, because, she stated, "I was playing the World Champion and didn't want to cause unpleasantness during my first invitation to such an important event. I was also afraid that if my complaint was overruled I would be penalized on the clock when we were in time pressure." She did, however, look questioningly at the
arbiter, Carlos Falcon, who witnessed the incident and took no action.
The incident was caught on tape by a crew from the Spanish television company PVS, and the videotape showed that Kasparov's fingers had left the knight.
Tournament director
A tournament director (TD) is an official at a competitive sporting or gaming event, who typically perform a number of key functions. The extent of the tournament director's duties varies depending on the size of the tournament, the nature of the ...
Carlos Falcon did not forfeit Kasparov when this evidence was made available to him.
As U.S. chess journalist Shelby Lyman pointed out, in the majority of sports "instant replays" do not overrule a referee's original decision and chess is no exception.
[Lyman, Shelby (1 May 1994)]
"Kasparov's Hand Quicker Than Eye"
, ''Spartanburg Herald-Journal
The ''Spartanburg Herald-Journal'' is a daily newspaper, the primary newspaper for Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States.
History
The origins of the paper lie with ''The Spartan'', a weekly paper reportedly first printed in about 1842� ...
''. At the time the video had not been publicly released, at the request of tournament sponsor Luis Rentero,
but it is now availabl
on Youtube. At one point Polgár reportedly confronted Kasparov in the hotel bar, asking him, "How could you do this to me?"
Following this incident, Kasparov bluntly told an interviewer "... she just publicly said I was cheating. ... I think a girl of her age should be taught some good manners before making such statements." Subsequently, Kasparov refused to speak to her for three years.
Kasparov told reporters that his conscience was clear, as he was not aware of his hand leaving the piece. Although Polgár recovered by the end of the tournament, she went into a slump over the next six rounds, gaining only half a point.
The incident may also have had an effect on Kasparov, who turned out a subpar performance in the tournament.
Strongest female player ever
Polgár is generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time.
[Sources citing Polgár as by far the strongest female chess player of all time:
* note: The Associated Press story on Aug.17/18, 2003 on the Polgár–Anand match explicitly refers to Polgár with the words "by far the strongest woman chess player ever"
* note: explicitly uses "by far": "By far the strongest female player of all time".
*
*
*
*
* Malcolm Pein, British IM and Executive Editor of CHESS magazine, when speaking of A. Kosteniuk's victory over Hou Yifan for the Women's World Championship, said "Currently Judit Polgár is in another league from any other female player."
*
*
*
*
* Kavalek, GM in the top 100 players for 26 years, called Polgár, "the all-time best female player"
* Pandolfini, chess author and coach, writes "Judit Polgár is simply the strongest female chess player in history."
* The January 1996 FIDE ratings list was a landmark as Polgár's 2675 rating made her the No. 10 ranked player in the world, the only woman ever to enter the world's Top Ten.
* ] In January 1996, she became the only woman ever to be ranked in the top ten of all chess players. In August 1996, she participated in a very strong 10-player tournament in Vienna. There was a three-way tie for first between Karpov, Topalov and Boris Gelfand and a three-way tie for fourth between Kramnik, Polgár and Lékó. In December 1996, Polgár played a match in São Paulo against Brazil's champion Gilbert Milos. The four games were played at 30 moves an hour with 30 minutes for the remainder of the game. Polgár won two, drew one and lost one and won $12,000 in prize money.
In February 1997, she played in the Linares "supertournament" which Kasparov won by edging out Kramnik. Polgár finished in clear fifth position in the 12-GM tournament, ahead of Anand, Ivanchuk, Gelfand and Shirov. Her result was considered exceptional considering the strength of the tournament, average 2701, and she was praised for her tactical skills in her game against Ivanchuk. In April 1997, she played in the Dos Hermanas Chess tournament, a single-round robin category XIX event of 10 of the world's best players. She finished in sixth place with an even score of 4½–4½. In June 1997, she finished with an even score, 4½–4½, in the Madrid 10-player GM tournament won by Topalov. In July 1997, Polgár competed in the elite Dortmund International Tournament. She finished in fifth in the strong field of ten, ahead of players such as Anatoly Karpov.
In the tournament, she won playing with the black pieces against Veselin Topalov, at the time ranked fourth in the world. Topalov had the advantage until Polgár executed a deep positional sacrifice. In October 1997, she tied for second in a double round-robin tournament of four grandmasters in the VAM International Tournament in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands.
"There has long been a lively debate about who is the strongest player of all", wrote GM Robert Byrne in his ''New York Times'' column of 26 August 1997. "Prominent candidates are Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Jose Raul Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine or Emanuel Lasker. But there is no argument about the greatest female player: she is 21-year-old Judit Polgár."

In January 1998, she played in the category XVII event, the Hoogovens in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, in which 14 of the world's top grandmasters participated. She finished in the middle of the pack, tied for sixth–tenth position with Karpov, Topalov and Jeroen Piket and an even score of 6½ points in thirteen games. Polgár handed co-winner Viswanathan Anand his only loss of the tournament. In June 1998 in Budapest, Polgár played an eight-game match of "action" chess, which is 30 minutes for the entire game, against Anatoly Karpov. She won the match 5–3 by winning two games with the remaining ending in draws. At the time Karpov was the
FIDE World Champion. In August 1998, Polgár became the first woman to ever win the U.S. Open, which was held at the Kona Surf Resort in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. She shared the tournament victory with GM Boris Gulko as each scored 8–1. Typical of her aggressive style was her victory against GM Georgi Kacheishvili in which she sacrificed her queen for the attack. In October 1998, Polgár won the VAM four-grandmaster tournament in Hoogeveen, Netherlands by 1½ points over Jan Timman.
In November 1998, Polgár played in the Wydra Memorial Rapid chess tournament in Israel. She tied for first with Viswanathan Anand as both scored 11½ out of the 14 games. Anand won the tournament in a tie-break game over Polgár.
In the two years since Polgár became the first woman to ever break into the top 10, her rating had dropped. Although she was in the top 20, this had the effect of her being invited less frequently to the strongest tournaments.
In October 1999, Polgár participated in the four-player GM section of the VAM Chess tournament in Hoogeveen, Netherlands. Jan Timman led early in the tournament, but Polgár staged a comeback scoring 3 points in the last 4 games to share first place. Anatoly Karpov finished in third and Darmen Sadvakasov fourth.
In January 2000, Polgár had, for her, a disappointing result in a tournament in Pamplona, Spain, which was won by Nigel Short. She finished with only 4 points from 9 games, tied for 6–7 place with Jan Timman, who had also played below his rating. Polgár had another disappointing result later in the month in the category XVIII tournament in Corus Wijk aan Zee which was won by Kasparov. She did not win a game until the 11th round and finished with 5 points in 13 games, tied with Victor Korchnoi for 11–12 position among the fourteen GMs. However, in the European Teams Championship in Batumi, Georgia, also in January, she won the gold medal playing Board 2, scoring 6½–2½.
In April and May 2000, Polgár won one of the strongest tournaments ever held in Asia. The Japfa Classic in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, was a category XVI event of 10 players which included Alexander Khalifman–at the time FIDE world champion– and Anatoly Karpov–his predecessor. Going into the last round four players, Polgár, Khalifman, Karpov and Gilberto Milos were tied, but Polgár won her game over Brazilian GM Milos while Khalifman and Karpov played against each other in a draw. Polgár finished clear first with 6½–2½, winning the $20,000 first place prize money. At the end of May, she won the Sigeman & Company International Tournament in Malmö, Sweden. She finished the four-player double round-robin tournament scoring 4 points, with Jan Timman at 3½ with Ulf Andersson and Tiger Hillarp-Persson finishing in that order. In June 2000, she played in the GM Tournament Mérida, State of Yucatán, finishing in second place a half point behind Alexei Shirov.
In September 2000, she shared first place in the Najdorf Chess Festival with
Viktor Bologan, ahead of Nigel Short and Anatoly Karpov.
In October and November, she represented Hungary playing board 3 in the 34th Chess Olympiad. While the Hungarian team narrowly missed winning the bronze medal, Polgár finished 10/13 for the second highest points total of any player in the Olympiad and a rated performance level of 2772.
In late February and early March 2001, Polgár played in the elite Linares double round-robin invitational of six of the world's strongest players. The tournament was Kasparov's triumph as he scored 7½ points in 10 games. The other five participants, Polgár, Karpov, Shirov,
Grischuk and
Lékó all finished with 4½ for second and last position. However, Polgár drew both her games with Kasparov, the first time in her career she had done this under tournament time controls. In March 2001, she reached the semifinals of the ''World Cup'' rapid play tournament in Cannes. She made it to the final four from the 16 grandmasters in the tournament. She lost the semifinal match to Evgeny Bareev, who in turn lost to Kasparov. In a quarterfinal playoff blitz game, she forced
Joël Lautier, France's strongest player, to resign in 12 moves when she won his queen which resulted in the audience of several hundred bursting into applause.
In June 2001, Polgár finished fourth in the European Championship in Ohrid, Macedonia, a 13-round
Swiss-system tournament
A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor (team or individual) does not play all the other ...
of 143 Grandmasters and 38 IMs. In October 2001, she tied for first with GM Loek van Wely in the Essent Tourney in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands.
Making history
In September 2002, in the ''
Russia versus the Rest of the World Match'', Polgár finally defeated Garry Kasparov in a game. The tournament was played under rapid rules with 25 minutes per game and a 10-second bonus increment per move. She won the game with exceptional positional play. Kasparov with black chose the
Berlin Defence instead of his usual
Sicilian, and Polgár proceeded with a line which Kasparov had used himself. Polgár was able to attack Kasparov's king (which was still in the centre of the board) with her rooks, and when he was two pawns down, Kasparov resigned.
The game helped the World team win the match 52–48. Upon resigning, Kasparov immediately left by a passageway barred to journalists and photographers. Kasparov had once described Polgár as a "circus puppet" and asserted that women chess players should stick to having children. Polgár called the game "one of the most remarkable moments of
ercareer".
The game was historic as it was the first time in chess history that a female player beat the world's No. 1 player in competitive play. An interview with Polgár including video of the match was included in the BBC Witness radio program in 2016.
In October and November 2002, Polgár played on second board (with Péter Lékó on first) for Hungary in the 35th Chess Olympiad. While not having the stunning performance as she had in the 2000 Olympiad, she helped Hungary attain the silver medal for the event. While the Hungarians had the best win–loss record of the tournament as a team and lost only a single game of the 56 they played, they had won most of their matches by 2½–1½ scores, while the Russian team won gold as they piled up the points. However, Hungary gave the gold-winning Russian team its only defeat. Polgár's fourth-round game against Azerbaijan's
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Shahriyar Hamid oglu Mammadyarov (; born 12 April 1985), known internationally as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster. he is Azerbaijan's highest rated chess player. His personal best rating of 2820 makes him the sixth-h ...
included a brilliant 12.Nxf7, drawing his king into the center of the board.
By early 2003, Polgár had worked her way back into the top 10 rated players in the world. In 2003, Polgár scored one of her best results: an undefeated clear second place in the Category XIX
Corus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Ste ...
in
Wijk aan Zee
Wijk aan Zee (; ) is a village on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk, the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament (formerly called the Corus chess tournament or the Hoogove ...
, Netherlands, just a half-point behind future world champion
Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...
and a full point ahead of then-world champion
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...
. One of the highlight games of the tournament was Polgár's fourth round crushing victory over Anatoly Karpov. She played a novelty in the opening which she devised over the board. The game lasted 33 moves with Karpov down two pawns and his king exposed. Polgár admitted to "enjoying herself" by the end of the game. In April 2003, Polgár finished second in The Hunguest Hotels Super Tournament in Budapest behind Nigel Short. She appeared headed for a first-place victory in the tournament, but lost her game against compatriot Péter Lékó. In June 2003, Polgár finished tied for third with Boris Gelfand, in the Enghien-les-Bains International Tournament in France, scoring 5½–3½, behind Evgeny Bareev who won the tournament and GM Michael Adams. In August 2003, Polgár played an eight-game rapid chess match in Mainz, Germany against Viswanathan Anand, billed as the "Battle of the Sexes". After six games each player had won three games. Anand won the final two games to win the match. In October 2003, Polgár won the 4–grandmaster Essent tournament in Hoogeveen, Netherlands. In one of her games against Karpov, he blundered, allowing Polgár to utilize a
famous double bishop sacrifice first employed by Emanuel Lasker against Bauer in 1889.
In 2004, Polgár took some time off from chess to give birth to her son, Olivér. She was consequently considered inactive and not listed on the January 2005 FIDE rating list. Her sister Susan reactivated her playing status during this period and temporarily became the world's No. 1 ranked female player again.
Polgár returned to chess at the prestigious
Corus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Ste ...
on 15 January 2005. The tournament, which was now considered by some as the most important in Europe, was won by fellow Hungarian
Péter Lékó while Polgár scored 7/13 to tie for fourth with Alexander Grischuk, Michael Adams and Kramnik. She was therefore relisted in the April 2005 FIDE rating list, gaining a few rating points for her better-than-par performance at Corus. In May she also had a better-than-par performance at a strong tournament in
Sofia
Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
, finishing third. This brought her to her highest ever rating, 2735, in the July 2005 FIDE list and enabled her to retain her spot as the eighth ranked player in the world.
In September 2005, Polgár once again made history as she became the first woman to play in the final stages of the
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...
qualification; she had previously participated in large, 100+ player knockout tournaments for the world championship, but this was a small 8-player invitational. However, she performed poorly, coming last of the eight competitors. However, in her game against Veselin Topalov, Polgár pushed the eventual tournament winner and world champion to a seven-hour marathon before succumbing.
She did not play at the 2006 Linares tournament because she was pregnant again. On 6 July 2006, she gave birth to a girl, Hanna.
Polgár participated in the FIDE world blitz championship on 5–7 September 2006 in Rishon Le Zion, Israel. Blitz chess is played with each player having only 5 minutes for all moves. The round-robin tournament of 16 of some of the strongest players in the world, concluded with Alexander Grischuk finally edging out Peter Svidler in a tie-break to win the tournament. Polgár finished tied for fifth/sixth place, winning $5,625 for the three-day tournament. Polgár tied with Boris Gelfand with 9½ points and won her individual game against Viswanathan Anand, at the time the world's No. 2 player. In October 2006, Polgár scored another excellent result: tied for first place in the Essent Chess Tournament, Hoogeveen, the Netherlands. She scored 4½ out of 6 in a double round-robin tournament that included two wins against the world's top-rated player,
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; ; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion.
Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE ...
. In December 2006, Polgár played a six-game match of blindfold rapid chess against former FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov. Topalov won the match 3½–2½ with two wins to Polgár's one. Nearly 1,000 spectators attended the event.
In May–June 2007 she played in the
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The win ...
for the
FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. She was eliminated in the first round, losing 3½–2½ to
Evgeny Bareev
Evgeny Ilgizovich Bareev (; born 21 November 1966) is a Russian-Canadian chess player, trainer, and writer. Awarded the FIDE Grandmaster title in 1989, he was ranked fourth in the world in the international rankings in 1992 and again in 2003, w ...
. Some chess pundits said she was "poorly prepared" for the tournament; she had played less chess in the last three years as she gave birth to her two children. However, she was still credited with the most beautiful attack of the tournament in her fifth game victory.
In July 2007, Polgár played in the Biel Chess Festival which was won by 16-year-old
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...
. Polgár finished the 9 round tournament at 5–4 in a four-way tie for third to sixth place. A highlight game for her was actually a draw. Polgár was playing an endgame of knight against knight and two connected passed pawns of Alexander Grischuk, but she was able to eliminate both pawns. In October 2007, Polgár played in the Blindfold World Cup in Bilbao, Spain. Polgár finished in fourth place of the six players with three wins, four losses, and three draws. The tournament was won by Bu Xiangzhi of China, whose only loss was to Polgár. In November 2007, she took part in ''Chess Champions League – Playing for a Better World'' in Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain a tournament to raise funds for equipment for a Hospital in
Mbuji-Mayi,
DR Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
. Polgár finished tied for third in the strong six-player tournament and handed tournament winner Veselin Topalov his only loss.
In January 2008 she competed in the strong Corus Wijk aan Zee tournament, scoring a respectable 6/13 and tied 9–11 in the 14 player tournament. In November 2008, Polgár had a terrible result in The World Chess Blitz Championship in Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan, finished last of the 16 players with only 2½ points. In November 2008, Polgár played the number 2 board for the Hungarian open ("men's") team in the
38th Chess Olympiad
The 38th Chess Olympiad (), organized by FIDE and comprising an open and a women's tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place from 12 to 25 November 2008 in Dresden, Germany. There were 146 teams ...
in
Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
, finishing 3½/8.
In November 2009, Polgár participated in the FIDE World Cup at Khanty Mansiysk in Siberia. Polgár made it to the third round of the knockout tournament until she was eliminated by tournament winner Boris Gelfand. She handed Gelfand his only loss of the tournament.
Return to competition
In 2010, Polgár began her return to competitive chess and would play more than she had in recent years. In March 2010, Polgár played a four-game match against GM Gregory Kaidanov at Hilton Head, South Carolina. It was required that each game begin with the Sicilian Defense. The match was drawn with each player winning two games. In April 2010, Polgár played an eight-game rapid chess match against Czech GM
David Navara which was part of the ČEZ Chess Trophy 2010 festival of the Prague Chess Society. Despite slightly higher ranking, 2708 to Polgár's 2682, Navara lost the match 6–2. Polgár participated in the rapid chess tournament of the Presidential Chess Cup in
Baku
Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
, Azerbaijan from 29 April to 1 May 2010. She finished with one win, two losses and four draws, tied for fifth position in the eight-player round robin. The tournament finished with a three-way tie for first with the winner, Kramnik, being decided by Elo over Mamedyarov and Kamsky. In June 2010, it was reported Polgár was assisting GM
Zoltán Almási in training for the Olympiad.
In September and October 2010, Polgár played 3rd board for the Hungarian Men's team in the
39th Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The team finished in fourth place, losing the Bronze medal to Israel on tie-break. Playing more in 2010 than in recent years, Polgár finished fourth overall among Board three players with a 6/10 score. The highlight for the Hungarian Men's team was a fifth-round victory over Russia I. In November 2010, Polgár won the four-player rapid tournament which was held to celebrate the
National University of Mexico's 100th anniversary. Polgár won a close opening match against Vassily Ivanchuk. She then crushed Veselin Topalov, a former world champion and ranked No. 1 in the world in 2009, 3½–½ to win the tournament.
On 2 April 2011, Polgár finished in a four-way tie for first in the European Individual Chess Championship in Aix-les-Bains, France. The tournament, featuring 393 players of which 167 were Grandmasters, was won by Russian
Vladimir Potkin on tie-break; GM
Radosław Wojtaszek won the silver, while Polgár placed third, winning the bronze. Polgár was praised for her creative attacks and endgame technique. Polgár became the first woman ever to finish in the top three of the male championship. Continuing Polgár's return to competitive chess, in July 2011 she participated in the 39th Greek Team National Championship, scoring 3½ out of 4 games. Also in July 2011, Polgár played Board 3 for Hungary in the World Team Championships. Hungary finished in fifth place of the ten teams and individually Polgár finished sixteenth of the fifty players.
In September 2011, Polgár competed in the
Chess World Cup
The FIDE World Cup is a major chess event organized by FIDE, the international governing body.
History
Three different formats have been used:
*In 2000 and 2002, it was a multi-stage tournament, with a group stage consisting of 24 players in fo ...
, a 128-player tournament with a large prize fund and qualification to the top three for the World Championship cycle. Polgár made it to the final 8 players before she was eliminated by
Peter Svidler. A highlight for Polgár was her elimination of the tournament's No. 1 seed and world's fifth highest rated player,
Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin (born 12 January 1990) is a Russian chess grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and politician. A chess prodigy, he previously held the record for the world's youngest ever grandmaster, having qualified for the title a ...
. In October 2011, Polgár took part in the Unive 2011 competition. She finished last in the elite four-player Crown group, losing games to
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...
and
Anish Giri
Anish Kumar Giri (; ; born 28 June 1994) is a Dutch chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on ...
.
In September 2011, Polgár finally returned to "Super GM" status with a FIDE rating of 2701 and by November she had raised it to 2710 and ranked 35 in the world.
To begin 2012, in January Polgár competed in the Tradewise Gibraltar tournament, finishing with 7 points in 10 games. For the first time in 22 years since she lost to
Nona Gaprindashvili
Nona Gaprindashvili ( ka, ნონა გაფრინდაშვილი; born 3 May 1941) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. Noted for her aggressive style of play, she was the women's world chess champion from 1962 to 1978, and in 1978 ...
in the
1990 Chess Olympiad, Polgár lost a classical game to a female player as Women's World champion
Hou Yifan won their individual game and tied for first before losing the playoff to Nigel Short.
In 2013, Polgár received the FIDE
Caïssa Award, as Polgár was considered the best female player of 2012. This award, designed and executed by artisans of the
Lobortas Classic Jewelry House, was presented on 2 October 2013 during the 84th FIDE Congress in Tallinn.
On 5 October 2013, Polgár played
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, columnist, coach and commentator who has been the FIDE Director for Chess Development since September 2022. Short earned the title of grandmaster at the ...
in the eighteenth edition of Chess.com's Death Match. The final score was 17½-10½ in Polgár's favour. They played 28 games in total, separated into three stages of increasingly faster time controls, the first being 5+1, the second 3+1 and finally 1+1. Polgár later remarked on her Facebook page that "it was great fun to play against Nigel..." Nigel in turn tweeted in jest, "Such bad chess. I should go and hang myself..."
In 2014, in the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship, she came 26th in the Blitz championship and 56th in the Rapid championship.
On 13 August 2014, she announced in the London newspaper ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' her retirement from chess at the highest level.
Playing style
While having a strong understanding of positional play, Polgár excels in tactics and is known for an aggressive playing style, striving to maximize the initiative and actively pursuing complications.
The former world champion
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
wrote that, based upon her games, "if to 'play like a girl' meant anything in chess, it would mean relentless aggression." In her youth, she was especially popular with chess fans due to her willingness to employ wild gambits and attacks. As a teenager, Polgár has been credited with contributing to the popularity of the opening variation King's
Bishop's Gambit. Polgár prefers aggressive openings, playing 1.e4 as White and the
Sicilian or
King's Indian Defence
The King's Indian Defence (or KID) is a common chess opening. It is defined by the following moves:
: 1. d4 Nf6
: 2. c4 g6
Black intends to follow up with 3...Bg7 and 4...d6 (the Grünfeld Defence arises when Black plays 3...d5 instead and ...
with black, but she has also said her opening choices will also depend upon her trainer.
Jennifer Shahade, writer and two-time U.S. women's chess champion, suggested that the influence of Polgár as a role model may be one of the reasons women play more aggressive chess than men. Describing an individual encounter with Polgár, former U.S. Champion
Joel Benjamin said, "It was all-out war for five hours. I was totally exhausted. She is a tiger at the chessboard. She absolutely has a killer instinct. You make one mistake and she goes right for the throat."
Polgár is especially adept at faster time controls. When she was still young, ''
Der Spiegel
(, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' wrote of her, "her tactical thunderstorms during blitz games have confounded many opponents, who are rated higher."
Polgár has spoken of appreciating the
psychological aspect of chess. She has stated preferring to learn an opponent's style so she can play intentionally against that player rather than playing "objective" chess. In her 2002 victory (at 25 minutes time control) over Kasparov, she deliberately chose a line Kasparov had used against
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...
, employing the strategy of forcing the opponent to "play against himself". Kasparov's response was inadequate and he soon found himself in an inferior position.
In an interview regarding playing against
computers
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ('' computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', ...
she said, "Chess is 30 to 40% psychology. You don't have this when you play a computer. I can't confuse it."
Chess professional

"You have to be very selfish sometimes", said Polgár in speaking of the life of a professional chess player. "If you are in a tournament, you have to think of yourself—you can't think of your wife or children—only about yourself."
When asked in 2002 if she still desired to win the world championship she said, "Chess is my profession and of course I hope to improve. But I'm not going to give up everything to become world champion; I have my life."
Polgár said she did not have a permanent coach, although she had help from GM
Lev Psakhis or GM
Mihail Marin.
She said she rarely used a
second
The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
and when she traveled to tournaments, it was usually her husband who accompanied her.
Polgár said she changed how she prepared for tournaments. "I make more use of my experience now and try to work more efficiently so that my efforts aren't wasted", she said in 2008.
Concentrating on her two children left Polgár with little time to train and play competitively and her ranking dropped from eighth in 2005 to the mid 50s in 2009. She played in the
2009 Maccabiah Games
The 18th Maccabiah Games (), were held in July 2009. According to the organizing committee these were the largest games held yet. These Games were the world's fifth-largest sporting event, behind the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, World Poli ...
in Israel and was named the Outstanding Female Athlete of the Games. Polgár remained the only woman in the top 100 until
Hou Yifan reached rank 86 in August 2014, just before Polgár played her last rated game in September 2014 and dropped off the top 100 list due to inactivity a year later. Polgár is still the only woman to have ever made the top 50. Comparing motherhood to playing chess, Polgár has said that a chess tournament now "feels like a vacation".
When asked why she came back to chess after taking time off to care for her children, she said, "I cannot live without chess! It is an integral part of my life. I enjoy the game!"
Despite being the highest-rated woman for twenty-five years, Polgár never competed for the women's world championship. In a 2011 interview she was asked about this possibility. Polgár said that in the past she has never been interested in competing for it, but in recent years "the mentality of a couple of the women players has changed". Polgár said that for her to consider competing it would have to be a challenge and "if I get an extremely nice offer just to play for the title".
Polgár authored a series of children's books on chess, ''Chess Playground''. Her sister Sofia provided illustrations.
In March 2013 she was awarded the Commander's Cross with Star of
The Hungarian Order of Merit, one of Hungary's highest awards, "for her worldwide acknowledged life achievement as an athlete, for promoting the game of chess and for her efforts to promote the educational benefits of chess". In August 2015, she received
The Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen, the highest state
Order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
...
of Hungary.
Personal life
In August 2000, Polgár married Hungarian veterinary surgeon Gusztáv Font.
They have two children, a boy named Olivér (born 2004) and a girl named Hanna (born 2006). While Judit remained in Hungary, her sisters and parents eventually emigrated: Sofia to Israel, Susan to the United States, and her parents to Israel and the United States.
Several members of Polgár's family were murdered in
the Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
; her grandmother was a survivor of
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
.
Notable games
J. Polgár vs. V. Anand, Dos Hermanas 1999 Sicilian Defense: Scheveningen Variation. Delayed Keres Attack Perenyi Gambit (B90) · 1–0 Former trainer for the Polgárs, IM Tibor Károlyi, called this the most beautiful game ever played by a woman.
Judit Polgár vs. Ferenc Berkes, Hunguest Hotels Super Chess Tournament 2003 · French Defense: Classical. Burn Variation Main Line (C11) · 1–0 Polgár's opponent falls for a clever , expecting her to play 14.Bxa8 and he would reply with 14...g4, but she springs 14.g4
Alexey Shirov vs. Judit Polgar, Buenos Aires ARG 1994 · Sicilian Defense: Paulsen. Normal Variation (B45) · 0–1 Polgár uses a to break up Shirov's pawn front. She used only 48 minutes to win this game.
* Judit Polgár vs. Nigel Short, 1994 New York PCA/Intel-GP Rapid knockout tournament. 1–0. In the Steinitz variation of the French Defense, Short seemingly has a crushing attack in the opening, sending Polgár's king on a walk. However, Short's attack runs out of steam, and Polgár recovers quickly, leaving Short's pieces constricted and his own king exposed.
Polgár vs. Garry Kasparov, Russia vs. The Rest of the World match, Moscow 2002 Spanish Game: Berlin Defense. l'Hermet Variation (C67) · 1–0 Polgár makes history when, for the first time ever, a woman defeats the world's No. 1 chess player in a game.
The Judit Polgar Chess Foundation
The Judit Polgar Chess Foundation developed two educational programs. One is Chess Palace for primary school children (grades 1–4) and the other one is Chess Playground for pre-school children. The aim is to improve various skills (problem solving, strategical thinking, etc.) with the help of chess. The systematic rules of chess are used to process the knowledge of general subjects as well (math, language, etc.). The program is very successful in Hungary and it is part of the Hungarian National Curriculum. At the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair the Chess Palace book series received the special prize of the Best European Learning Materials Awards (BELMA).
Books
* ''Judit Polgar: How I Beat Fischer's Record'' (in English, German, French, Hungarian)
* ''Judit Polgar: From GM to Top Ten'' (in English, German, French, Hungarian)
* ''Judit Polgar: A Game of Queens'' (in English, German, French, Hungarian)
Educational chess exercise books for pre-school children and methodological resources for teachers (in Hungarian):
* ''Kalandozások a sakktáblán'' (''Adventures on the Chessboard'')
* ''Sakklépések'' (''Chess Moves'')
* ''Sakk és matt'' (''Check and Mate'')
Educational chess books, and exercise books for elementary school children and methodological resources for teachers (in Hungarian):
* ''Sakkpalota'' (''Chess Palace''), series 1–4.
Awards
* Hungarian Chess Player of the Year (in 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1998–2003, 2005–2012, and 2014)
* 8-time
Chess Oscar winner – for annual performance: in 1988, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, and 2002 Female Chess Player of the Century: 2001
* FIDE Caissa Award (the newly established "Chess Oscar"): 2012
* The
Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (Budapest, 2003)
* The
Commander's Cross with Star of the Hungarian Order of Merit (Budapest, 2013)
* Prima Primissima (Budapest, 2014)
* a Member of the Association of Immortal Hungarian Athletes (Budapest, 2014)
* The
Hungarian Order of St. Stephen (Budapest, 2015)
* Best European Learning Materials Award – for the Chess Palace Program (Frankfurt, 2015)
* Honorary Citizen of Budapest (Budapest, 2016)
* James Joyce Award from the UCD Literary & Historical Society (Dublin 2017)
* ECU European Golden Pawn, "European Chess Legend" (Monte Carlo, 2019)
* Honorary Doctor of the University of Physical Education (Budapest, 2020)
* Inducted into the
World Chess Hall of Fame
The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) is a nonprofit collecting institution in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1984, it features chess exhibits, engages in educational outreach, and maintains a ...
(Saint Louis, 2021)
* FIDE ICON Award (Chennai, 2022)
* FIDE100 Award, Best Player – Woman (Budapest, 2024), Best Female Chess Player of All Time
See also
*
List of Jewish chess players
References
Notes
Literature
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
2012 KC-Conference with Judit Polgar for CrestBook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polgar, Judit
1976 births
Living people
Chess Grandmasters
Female chess grandmasters
Chess Olympiad competitors
Maccabiah Games chess players
Commander's Crosses with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (civil)
Hungarian female chess players
Hungarian chess players
Jewish chess players
Maccabiah Games competitors for Hungary
Competitors at the 2009 Maccabiah Games
Chess players from Budapest
World Youth Chess Champions