Judit Polgár (born July 23, 1976) is a Hungarian chess
player. Easily the strongest female chessplayer in history, she was ranked
number fourteen in the world in the January 2006 FIDE rating list with an ELO
rating of 2711, the only woman on FIDE's Top 100 Players list. 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.
Biography
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Judit Polgár comes from a Jewish family background in Budapest, Hungary. (A
number of her family members were killed in the Holocaust, and her grandmother
was a survivor of Auschwitz). She and her two older sisters (Zsuzsa (GM) and
Zsófia (IM)) 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. László 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 Judit remained in Hungary and married Gustav
Fonts, a veterinary surgeon from Budapest.
Judit Polgár is considered the strongest female chessplayer of all time. Trained
in her early years by her sister Zsuzsa (who ultimately became Women's World
Champion herself, and is still the second strongest female player in the world),
Judit has always preferred men's events, making it clear from the beginning that
she wants 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 wonder
whether she might not achieve this lofty goal. Polgár has defeated almost all
the world's top players, including former world champion Garry Kasparov,
considered by many to be the strongest chessplayer of all time.
On the April 2003 FIDE ratings list, Judit Polgár 2715 rating made her the
number 10 ranked player in the world, the first woman ever to enter the world's
Top Ten. That same year, Judit scored her greatest victory: an undefeated clear
2nd 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.
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, now known as Susan, reactivated her playing
status during this period and temporarily became ranked the world's number one
woman player again.
Judit 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. She also gained points in
the July 2005 FIDE rating list. This enabled her to retain her spot as the 8th
ranked player in the world.
In September 2005, Polgár became the first woman to play for the World Chess
Championship title, see 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.
Play Through Over 1000 Judit Polgár Games