Judit Polgar- The queen of Chess
Hey everyone, welcome again, so today in this blog we will be talking about the chess queen. Can you guess who she is? Yes, most of you would have guessed it correctly. The goat of chess, Judit Polgar—all of us know her. And today we will be seeing her chess journey, so let's get started.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) Judit Polgar - The queen of chess
3) Kasparov touch move controversy
5) Fun facts about Judit Polgar
6) Conclusion
Judit Polgar - The queen of chess
Judit Polgar was born on 23 July 1976 in Budapest, Hungary. She is called and known as the strongest female player of all time. She achieved the Grandmaster title when she was just 15 years old in 1991. At that time she was the youngest player to do so by breaking the record of former world champion Bobby Fischer. She was also the youngest player on the FIDE top 100 chess rating list, with a ranking of 55 in the January 1989 list when she was just 12 years old. She is only the woman who has crossed the rating of 2700 Elo. She also secured world rank no. 8 in 2004 and reached the peak rating of 2735 in 2005. She was World No. 1 in the women's section from January 1989 until her retirement on 13 August 2014. Judit has two sisters, GM Susan Polgar and IM Sofia Polgar. Her parents decided that she could be the chess champion.
Judit began playing chess when she was 5; she was trained by her sister Susan. She started playing chess tournaments at the age of 6, and by the age of 9, her membership in the Hungarian Chess Federation was 2080. She used to play in chess clubs; once in 1984 in Budapest, Sophia and Judit, at the ages of 9 and 7, played two games blindfolded against two masters. And they won both games. At one point, the girls complained that the opponents were playing too slowly and suggested using clocks in matches. In April 1986, Judit played for the first time in a rated tournament at the age of 9, finishing first in the unrated section of the New York Open and winning $1,000. All three sisters competed in the tournament; Susan competed in the Grandmaster section and defeated GM Walter Browne. Sophia finished 2nd in her section, but Judit drew most of the attention grandmasters used to stop and watch her games. In April 1988, she made her first international master norm in the international B section of the New York Open in the under-12 "Boys" section in Romania. In October 1988, with her fabulous results, she got the first International Master title, and she was also the youngest player to achieve this title at the age of 12. Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov were 14 when they were awarded with this title, whereas Judit was 12. At this time, former world champion Mikhail Tal said that Polgar has the potential to win the world championship.
Judit was asked about playing against boys instead of playing with girls in a tournament. She replied, "These other girls are not serious about chess; I practice about five or six hours daily, but they get distracted because of cooking and housework.". In November 1988, Judit and her sister, along with Ildiko Madl, represented Hungary in the 28th Chess Olympiad Thessaloniki in the women's section, and their team won the tournament. Judit played on the 2nd board with the highest score of 12.5-0.5, winning a gold medal and also winning the brilliancy prize.
In 1989 ELO rating list at age of 12 she was rated 2555 which was no 55 in world.
Grandmaster
In December 1991 Judit achieved the Grandmaster title by winning Hungarian national championship. Also becoming youngest one to do so at that time by beating the record of Bobby Fischer by a month. This made her Youngest woman grandmaster and world fourth women grandmaster.
Kasparov touch move controversy
So I guess most of us know about this controversy. It was a game played between Judit Polgar and Garry Kasparov in 1994. Judit lost a controversial game against Garry Kasparov. Judit was invited to play against the strongest world players after 4 games. Judit score was two points. In the next 5th round, she was paired with Kasparov. Kasparov outplayed her and had a clear advantage after 35 moves. On move no. 36, Kasparov changed his mind about the knight move and moved the piece to a different square. And according to chess rules, if a player had released a piece, the move must stand, so if Kasparov did remove his hand, he should have been required to play his original move. Judit did not challenge Kasparov at that moment. She said, "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 penalised on the clock when we were under time pressure." She looked at the arbiter, which he saw but didn't take any action.
This incident was recorded by the Spanish Television Company, and in that recording it was clearly seen that the Kasparov finger had left the knight.
Here's the video link :- https://youtu.be/aw4g3iDrsNk?si=WI1yafXcfDCzPJbB
The position before the move in question. Allegedly, Kasparov played 36...Nc5?, which loses the exchange to 37.Bc6, quickly realised his error, and substituted 36...Nf8.
At one point Judit reportedly confronted Kasparov in hotel bar asking him " how could you do this to me". Kasparov 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. Kasparov refused to talk to her for three years.
Many times Judit was asked gender-related questions. Once she was GM Nigel Short wrote in a controversial column in 2015. Short wrote in a controversial 2015 column that "men and women’s brains are hard-wired very differently" and "rather than fretting about inequality, perhaps we should just gracefully accept it as a fact." Talking to Time magazine, she said, "We are capable of the same fight as any other man, and I think during the decades that I actively played chess, I proved it as well. It’s not a matter of gender; it’s a matter of being smart."
In a podcast, she said, "I've never spoken with a lady from the top who said, 'Yes, I believe that women can become just as good as guys because there is no difference.' There is a difference, but it's not the difference women and men have that would stop you from becoming a top-10 player, let's say."
Judit has played many tournaments among men's. And didn't stick only to the women's tournament. In a chess podcast, she said that she is not against women's tournaments.
She offered a idea of abolishing women's title such as WGM, WIM and WFM these are women's only title she said instead use IM,NM and GM title for both men and women. She also said "I thought that maybe it would be possible and it would be just a very good try to test it at least, to delete the women titles. I mean, why do we have women titles? Why don't you have a title for 2000, for 2200, for 2300, for 2400, for 2500, for 2600, for 2700? Isn't it much better to have the rating titles and not that it's women or men?"
Check this video out for more information:- https://youtu.be/M8qD1OL1NOA
1) Judit's mother taught her the chess moves, and her father was her first coach.
2) Judit's zodiac sign is Leo. When she was 8, her coach brought her wood-carved lion as a gift from Kenya. The lion figure became her mascot, and she used to take it with her to tournaments and place it on the table for years.
3) At the age of 8-9, she and Zso used to play a blitz chess game with the adult playing chess on Kulich Ghula Square (in Budapest, now Kalvaria Square) near their apartment. They would use their winnings to buy fruits from their nearby markets.
4) At the age of 10, she made it to the front page of The New York Times after finishing first in the New York Open among adult chess players in the unrated section. This was her first international success.
5) Judit's favourite move was a pawn move. White G4 or Black G5, she used to surprise her opponent's by this move in most unexpected situations. Causing some headaches to them.
6) As a child, she was rather superstitious, as no one was allowed to touch the winning pencil and black, red, and white winning sweater made by her mother.
7) In 1988, a 'kid team' represented Hungary at the chess Olympiad; at that time, Susan Polgar and Ildico Madl were 19, Sofia Polgar was just 14, and Judit was 12 years old, and she got 12.5 points out of 13 games. And the surprising thing is that their team won a gold medal ahead of the Soviet Union. This has been the youngest chess Olympiad champions team of all time.
8) She is the first girl in chess history to win the boys junior world championship (U12 in 1988 and U14 in 1990).
9) She defeated a family friend without even seeing the board. After the game, the friend joked, "You are good at chess, but I am good at cooking." She replied, "Do you cook without looking at the gas stove?
Judit Polgar is considered the strongest player in chess and the GOAT of chess. This was a small and brief blog on Judit Polgar and her outstanding chess journey. It was fun writing this blog, if you have read till last or have read some parts. Thanks for reading; it meant a lot. It would be great if you would rate this blog on a scale of 1-10. And please give me suggestions regarding this blog, like how it can be further improved. Thanks for reading 😊😊
See you again.
