JUDIT POLGÁR (1976-)
Photo: Wikipedia
Breaking world records and gender barriers since childhood, Judit Polgár is the premier female chess player of all time, earning the title of Grandmaster when aged only 15 – younger than when Bobby Fischer achieved the same feat. Along with her two older sisters, Polgár grew up in a Budapest household where their father carried out a bold educational experiment: declaring that “geniuses are made, not born”, he home-schooled all three of his kids with a focus on playing chess for hours every day, and then entered them in men’s chess tournaments to prove that women were equally capable in this supremely strategic game. While both of the elder Polgár sisters excelled in their training and competitions, Judit was a true prodigy who first defeated an International Master at age 10 and a Grandmaster at age 11, and was ranked among the planet’s top 100 players by age 12. Traveling to tournaments worldwide, she faced rampant sexism during her increasingly impressive career, but Polgárcontinually won contest after contest to become the only woman to ever qualify for a World Championship tournament and the only woman to win a game against a reigning world number-one player, as well as beat ten former champs. After retiring from competition in 2014, Polgár is now the captain and head coach of the Hungarian national men’s chess team.
Did you know that native Hungarians and scientists of Hungarian origin received a Nobel Prize on more than 20 occasions? Or that the Rubik’s cube is a Hungarian invention?