Judit Polgár

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This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.
The native form of this personal name is Polgár Judit. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Judit Polgár
Photo by Gennadiy Titkov
Full nameJudit Polgár
Country Hungary
TitleGrandmaster
FIDE rating2682
(No. 46 on the January 2010 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating2735 (July 2005)

Judit Polgár (born July 23, 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history.[1] In 1991, she achieved the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 15 years and 4 months. She was, at that time, the youngest person ever to do so. Polgár is ranked number 46 in the world on the January 2010 FIDE rating list with an Elo rating of 2682, the only woman on FIDE's Top 100 Players list, and has been ranked as high as eighth.

Background

Judit Polgár is Jewish, and from Budapest. Members of her family perished in the Holocaust.

She and her two older sisters, Grandmaster Susan and International Master Sofia, 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 Klara educated their three daughters at home, with chess as the specialist subject. However, chess was not taught to the exclusion of everything else. Each of them has several diplomas and speaks four to eight languages. Their father also taught his three daughters the international language Esperanto.

The rest of Judit's family eventually emigrated (Sofia and her parents to Israel and later to Canada, Susan to New York), but she remained in Hungary and married Gusztáv Font, a veterinary surgeon from Budapest, whom she met through his caring for her dog.[2]

Career

Polgár has always preferred not playing the women's specific division events, making it clear from the beginning that she wanted to become the true World Champion of Chess regardless of gender.

Trained in her early years by her sister Susan (who ultimately became Women's World Champion herself) Polgár was a prodigy from an early age. She first defeated an International Master (Dolfi Drimer) at age 10,[3] and a Grandmaster (Vladimir Kovacevic) at age 11.[4]

Judit Polgar qualified as a Grandmaster in December 1991, aged 15 years 4 months, at the time the youngest ever. In 1993 she confirmed her status as one of the world's leading players, narrowly failing to qualify for the Candidates Tournaments at the rival FIDE and PCA Interzonal tournaments.[5][6]

In 1994 she suffered a controversial defeat at the hands of then-world champion Garry Kasparov, the highest-rated chessplayer of all time. Kasparov changed his mind after making a losing move and then made another move instead. According to chess rules, once a player has released a piece s/he cannot make a different move, so Kasparov should have been made to play his original move. However, Polgár did not challenge this because she says there were no witnesses and an arbiter was not around. She was also unaware at the time that the re-move was caught on tape by a television crew. The tournament director was criticised for not forfeiting Kasparov when the videotape evidence was made available to him.[7] However, she won a rapid chess game against Kasparov in 2002 and her official score stands at +1 -11 =3 with Kasparov.

On the January 1996 FIDE ratings list, Polgár's 2675 rating made her the number 10 ranked player in the world,[8] the only woman ever to enter the world's Top Ten.

In 2003, Polgár scored one of her best results: an undefeated clear second place in the Category 19 Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, just a half-point behind future World Champion Viswanathan Anand, and a full point ahead of then-world champion Vladimir Kramnik.[9]

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 ranked the world's number one woman player again.[10]

Polgár returned to chess at the prestigious Corus chess tournament on January 15, 2005, scoring 7/13. 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, Bulgaria, 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 became the first woman to play for a World Championship, at the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. However, she had a rare disappointing performance, coming last out of the eight competitors. Nigel Short criticised her poor opening repertoire, and some speculated that taking a year off to have a baby may have left her rusty, despite her strong performances in two tournaments earlier in the year.

She did not play at the 2006 Linares tournament because she was pregnant again. On July 6, 2006, she gave birth to a girl, Hanna.

In October 2006, Polgár scored another excellent result: tied for first place in the Essent Chess Tournament, Hoogeveen, Holland.[11] She scored 4.5 out of 6 in a double round robin tournament that included two wins against the world's top-rated player, Veselin Topalov.

In May-June 2007 she played in the Candidates Tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. She was eliminated in the first round, losing 3.5-2.5 to Evgeny Bareev. In November the same year she took part in an historic event, the "Liga de Campeones" tournament, played in Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain. That tournament was conceived to put together all the living active world chess champions, plus Polgár. She managed to score 50 percent, finishing third.

In January 2008 she competed in the Corus Wijk aan Zee tournament, scoring a respectable 6.0/13.

In November 2008, Polgár played the number 2 board for the Hungarian open ("men's") team in the 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden, finishing 3.5/8.

Playing style

Polgar is known for an aggressive playing style, preferring openings like the Sicilian and, while a solid positional player, excels in tactical positions.[12] She has also spoken of appreciating the psychological aspect of chess. She has stated preferring to learn an opponent's style so she can play intentionally against him versus playing “objective” chess.[13] In an interview regarding playing against computers she said, “Chess is 30 to 40 per cent psychology. You don't have this when you play a computer. I can't confuse it."[14]

Illustrative games

Polgar-GM Ferenc Berkes, Budapest 2003

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.Nf3 O-O 8.Qd2 Nd7 9.O-O-O Be7 10.Bd3 b6 11.Neg5 h6 12.Bh7+ Kh8 13.Be4 hxg5 14.g4 Rb8 15.h4 g6 16.hxg5+ Kg7 17.Qf4 Bb7 18.Rh7+ Kxh7 19.Qh2+ Kg8 20.Rh1 Bxg5+ 21.Nxg5 Qxg5+ 22.f4 Qxf4+ 23.Qxf4 Bxe4 24.Qxe4 1-0

Polgar-Kasparov, Russia vs. The Rest of the World match, Moscow 2002

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 h6 10.Rd1+ Ke8 11.h3 Be7 12.Ne2 Nh4 13.Nxh4 Bxh4 14.Be3 Bf5 15.Nd4 Bh7 16.g4 Be7 17.Kg2 h5 18.Nf5 Bf8 19.Kf3 Bg6 20.Rd2 hxg4+ 21.hxg4 Rh3+ 22.Kg2 Rh7 23.Kg3 f6 24.Bf4 Bxf5 25.gxf5 fxe5 26.Re1 Bd6 27.Bxe5 Kd7 28. c4 c5 29.Bxd6 cxd6 30.Re6 Rah8 31.Rexd6+ Kc8 32.R2d5 Rh3+ 33.Kg2 Rh2+ 34.Kf3 R2h3+ 35.Ke4 b6 36.Rc6+ Kb8 37.Rd7 Rh2 38.Ke3 Rf8 39.Rcc7 Rxf5 40.Rb7+ Kc8 41.Rdc7+ Kd8 42.Rxg7 Kc8 1-0

Literature

  • Forbes, Cathy (1992), The Polgar Sisters: Training or Genius?, Henry Holt & Co., ISBN 0805024263
  • Hurst, Sarah (2002), Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld, Russell Enterprises, ISBN 1888690151
  • Karolyi, Tibor (2004), Judit Polgar, the Princess of Chess, Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-8890-5
  • Polgar, Susan; Truong, Paul (2005), Breaking Through : How the Polgar Sisters Changed the Game of Chess, Everyman Chess, ISBN 1857443810
  • Shahade, Jennifer, Chess Bitch: Women In The Ultimate Intellectual Sport, Siles Press, ISBN 189008509X
  • Polgár, Judit; Kepes, András (2008). Matt a férfiaknak (Checkmate to Men) English translation due 2009.

References

  1. ^ "Judit Polgar: 'I can work myself into the top ten again'". ChessBase. 2007-11-11. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  2. ^ Allott, Serena (Jan. 16, 2002). "Queen Takes All". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved Dec. 7, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Judit Polgar vs Dolfi Drimer".
  4. ^ "Judit Polgar vs Vladimir Kovacevic".
  5. ^ 1993 Biel FIDE Interzonal Tournament, Mark Weeks' Chess pages
  6. ^ 1993 Groningen PCA Qualifying Tournament, Mark Weeks' Chess pages
  7. ^ "The Kasparov touch-move controversy".
  8. ^ FIDE Top 10 1970-1997
  9. ^ "FIDE profile of Judit Polgár".
  10. ^ Why Judit Polgar was not on the ratings list January 14, 2005
  11. ^ "Essent 2006: Mamedyarov, Judit Polgar are the winners".
  12. ^ "Anand describes Polgar's playing style". Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  13. ^ "Polgar interview speaking of psychology in chess". Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  14. ^ "Polgar quote in Independent on computers in chess". Retrieved 2009-07-27.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Judit Polgar.
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