Judit Polgár

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Judit Polgár (born July 23, 1976) is a Hungarian chess player. By far the strongest female chessplayer in history,[1][2][3] she is ranked number thirteen in the world in the April 2007 FIDE rating list with an Elo rating of 2727, the only woman on FIDE's Top 100 Players list, and has been ranked as high as number eight. Polgár has defeated almost all the world's top players, including former world #1 Veselin Topalov, and won a rapid chess game against Garry Kasparov, the former world champion and highest-rated chessplayer of all time.[4] She achieved the title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1991 at the age of 15 years and 4 months, beating the previous record for youngest Grandmaster, set by Robert James "Bobby" Fischer in 1958. (Her record was subsequently broken by fellow Hungarian Péter Lékó.)

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[edit] Background

Judit Polgár comes from a Jewish background in Budapest. Members of her family perished in the Holocaust, and her grandmother was a survivor of Auschwitz. She and her two older sisters, Grandmaster Zsuzsa and International Master Zsófia, 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.

The rest of Judit's family eventually emigrated (Zsófia and her parents to Israel, Zsuzsa to New York), but she remained in Hungary and married Gustav Fonts, a veterinary surgeon from Budapest.

[edit] Career

Judit has always preferred men's events, making it clear from the beginning that she wanted to become the true World Champion of Chess. Her steady rise through the ranks of the world's chess elite in recent years has made many believe that she might indeed achieve this lofty goal. Polgár has defeated almost all the world's top players. Her peak FIDE rating was 2735 on the July 2005 rating list.

Trained in her early years by her sister Zsuzsa (who ultimately became Women's World Champion herself) Judit was a prodigy from an early age. She first defeated an International Master (Dolfi Drimer) at age 10,[5] and a Grandmaster (Vladimir Kovacevic) at age 11.[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.

On the November 1995 FIDE ratings list, Polgár's 2676 rating made her the number 10 ranked player in the world,[8] the first woman ever to enter the world's Top Ten.

In 2003, Judit 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 Indian star Viswanathan Anand, and a full point ahead of 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 Zsuzsa reactivated her playing status during this period and temporarily became ranked the world's number one woman player again.

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, Judit scored another excellent result: tied for first place in the Essent Chess Tournament, Hoogeveen, Holland.[10] 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.

[edit] 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

[edit] Literature

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

[edit] References

  1. ^ Peak Average Ratings at chessmetrics.com
  2. ^ chessbase.com
  3. ^ Article about the World Blitz championship in The Hindu
  4. ^ http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/event/rusrow02/r2.html.
  5. ^ Judit Polgar vs Dolfi Drimer at chessgames.com
  6. ^ Judit Polgar vs Vladimir Kovacevic at chessgames.com
  7. ^ http://www.controltheweb.com/polgar/#controversy.
  8. ^ Usenet post from 1995
  9. ^ FIDE profile of Judit Polgár
  10. ^ Essent 2006: Mamedyarov, Judit Polgar are the winners

[edit] External links

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