Judit Polgár

Judit Polgár, Mainz 2008
Surname	Judit Polgár
Association	Hungary
Born	July 23, 1976 Budapest , Hungary
title	International Master (1988) Grand Master (1992)
Current  Elo rating	2675 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2735 (July 2005)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Judit Polgár [ ˈjudit ˈpolgaːr ] (born July 23, 1976 in Budapest ) is a former top Hungarian chess player . She is considered to be the strongest woman in chess history and so far is the only one who has made it into the top ten of the (men's) world rankings .

Life

Like her two older sisters Zsófia and Zsuzsa, she was encouraged by her father László Polgár at a very early age , privately instructed and trained by him without attending public schools . When asked about her unusual career, she explains in retrospect: “You don't wonder why you should learn chess when your two big sisters hardly do anything else. It came to me so naturally how to learn to walk. "

In 1988 and 1990, she was the only girl in the field to win the youth world championship in the U12 and U14 age groups (1990 in Fond du Lac before Jemelin ). In early 1992 FIDE awarded her the title of Grand Master (GM). She achieved the last required norm at the age of 15 years and 4 months. She improved Bobby Fischer's record by a month.

Judit Polgár (left in the picture) and Zsófia Polgár at the Chess Olympiad 1988 in Thessaloniki / Greece

Judit Polgár has only taken part in women's chess competitions three times in her entire career : in 1986 at the U16 girls' world championship in Río Gallegos , where she won the bronze medal at the age of ten, and at the women's chess Olympiads in Thessaloniki in 1988 and in Novi Sad in 1990 , which she won both with her sisters Zsófia and Zsuzsa and Ildikó Mádl .

As a teenager, she made the decision to only take part in men's tournaments. Her comment on this in retrospect: “It was logical. I wanted to learn from the best, and they weren't women. ”In contrast to her sisters, she hasn't participated in women's tournaments since then , but - as the first woman ever - actually played exclusively against men.

In 1993 she beat former world champion Anatoly Karpov in a quick game , in 2002 she succeeded for the first time against Garry Kasparov . The world class player Nigel Short , who lost to her several times, said of Polgár: "She is a killer and smells the mate 20 moves in advance".

As the first woman in history, she played at the FIDE World Championship 1997/1998 in Groningen directly in a competition for the FIDE world chess title, but after a bye in the first round she failed in the second round to Zoltán Almási . At the FIDE World Championships in Las Vegas in 1999 , she reached the quarter-finals and lost there against the eventual winner Alexander Chalifman . In 2001 she came third at the European Championships in Ohrid , but was eliminated from Vadim Milov in the second round of the World Championships in Moscow .

At the beginning of 2003 her Elo number exceeded the 2700 mark for the first time, so she was in 13th place in the world rankings .

After a baby break, Polgár took 8th place in the world rankings in July 2005 and thus achieved the highest ranking in her career. In the fall she took part in the eight-man final of the FIDE World Championships in San Luis . She finished last with 4.5 out of 14 points, but she managed to beat the reigning title holder Rustam Kasimjanov .

In October 2006 she came at the Grandmaster Tournament in Hoogeveen with 4.5 points from six games on the shared first place with Şəhriyar Məmmədyarov and left it vice world champion Wesselin Topalow , whom she defeated in two games.

At the 2007 Candidates Tournament she failed in the first round with 2.5: 3.5 to Yevgeny Bareev .

Judit Polgár won the Ajedrez UNAM Quadrangular 2010 Final in Mexico City in November 2010 . After the first lost game she defeated Vasyl Ivanchuk 2.5: 1.5 and in the final she defeated Wesselin Topalow 3.5: 0.5.

In April 2011 Judit Polgár became the first woman in chess history to win a medal at an official open championship. She won the bronze medal at the European chess championship in Aix-les-Bains, France , and like the Russian European champion Vladimir Potkin, she achieved 8.5 points from eleven games.

Judit Polgár took part in the World Chess Cup three times ( 2009 , 2011 and 2013 ). She was most successful in 2011 when she reached the quarter-finals by defeating Fidel Corrales Jiménez , Sergej Movsesjan , Sergei Karjakin and Leinier Domínguez , in which she failed to Pyotr Swidler .

On August 13, 2014, she announced her end of career in top chess in the London newspaper The Times . “I noticed more and more how many other things you can do in life,” she explains in retrospect. Her fields of activity after the end of her chess career include a foundation, her promotion of chess in schools, the training of the Hungarian (men's) national team and live commentary on important chess events.

Polgár has been married to the veterinarian Gusztáv Font since 2000 and has two children, born in 2005 and 2007; she lives in Budapest.

Elo development

Game example

In the following game, Judit Polgár won with the black stones in Wijk aan Zee in 2006 against the Bosnian top grandmaster Ivan Sokolov .

Ivan Sokolov - Judit Polgár 0-1

Wijk aan Zee, October 26, 2006

Nimzowitsch-Indian Defense , E49

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 0–0 5. Bd3 d5 6. a3 Bxc3 + 7. bxc3 dxc4 8. Bxc4 c5 9. Ne2 Qc7 10. Ba2 b6 11. 0–0 Ba6 12. Re1 Nc6 13.Ng3 Rad8 14.Bb2 e5 15.Qc2 Rd7 16.Rad1 Rfd8 17.h3 c4 18.a4 Re8 19.Ba3 e4 20.Bb1 Rd5 21. Ne2 Rg5 22.Nf4 Bc8 23. De2 Qd7 24.Qxc4 Na5 25. Qb4 Nd5 26.Nxd5 Qxd5 27.h4 Rg4 28. Qb5 Qd8 29.g3 a6 30. Qb4 Qxh4 31. Bxe4 diagram. (The next move literally turns White's position off its hinges ...) Rxg3 + !! 32. fxg3 Qxe4 33. Rd2 Qf3 34. Kh2 Qh5 + 35. Kg1 Qf3 36. Kh2 Bf5 37. e4 Bxe4 38. Rxe4 Qxe4 39. d5 Nc4 0: 1

Ivan Sokolov - Judit Polgár Hoogeveen 2006

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Position after 31.Bxe4

White's position seems impregnable, but Polgár wins through a combination . The white bishop on e4 is attacked twice, but neither of the two black rooks can take it: the e8 rook not because of the mate by Qf8 and the g4 rook not because the black queen could then be captured by the g3 pawn. Polgár took the runner with the lady.

31.… Rxg3 + !! 32. fxg3 Qxe4 Polgár gave the quality , but Black now controls the white squares on the kingside and the white king is therefore relatively defenseless. The position is lost for Sokolov.

33. Rd2 Qf3 34. Kh2 Qh5 +
time saved .

35. Kg1 Qf3 36. Kh2 Bf5
After Be4 the mating net is tightly tied.

37. e4 Bxe4 38. Rxe4 Qxe4 39. d5 Nc4

Sokolov gave up.

National team

Judit Polgár took part in the Chess Olympiads in 1988 and 1990 with the Hungarian women's team. She won both competitions with the team, achieved the best individual result on the second board and in 1988 also achieved the best Elo performance of all participants. She took part in the open class of the Chess Olympiad in 1994 , 1996 , 2000 , 2002 , 2008 , 2010 , 2012 and 2014 . She reached second place with the team in 2002 and 2014, and in the individual ranking she achieved the third-best result on the second board in 2002. Judit Polgár also took part in the 2011 World Team Championships and the European Team Championships in 1989, 1999 and 2013. At the European team championship in 1999 she reached second place both with the team and in the individual ranking on the second board.

societies

In Hungary, Polgár used to play for MTK Budapest FC , with whom she took part in the 1990 European Club Cup . From 2006 to 2009 she was occasionally used at Aquaprofit NTSK, with which she won the Hungarian team championship in 2007 and 2009 . In Germany, Judit Polgár was registered for SC Stadthagen in the 1994/95 season, but was not used, later she was registered with SK Turm Emsdetten, for which she played a game in the 2nd Bundesliga West in the 2001/02 season . In the British Four Nations Chess League , Polgár had an assignment with champions Wood Green in the 2005/06 season , in Poland she played for Polonia Warsaw in 2002. With this she won the Polish Supercup and reached third place at the European Club Cup, with Polgár himself achieving the second-best result on the second board. She also took part in the European Club Cup in 1993 with the Hilversums Schaakgenootschap.

Works

• How I Broke Fischer's Record , Quality Chess, 2014, ISBN 978-1-906552-51-0 .
• From GM to Top Ten , Quality Chess, 2015, ISBN 978-1-907982-96-5 .
• Dame am Brett , Quality Chess, 2016, ISBN 978-1-907982-97-2 .

literature

• Tibor Károlyi: Judit Polgar, the princess of chess . Batsford, London 2004, ISBN 0-7134-8890-5 .
• Norbert Heymann: Judit Polgar . Maintal 1995, ISBN 978-3-920748-21-4 .

Web links

Commons : Judit Polgár  - Collection of Images

• Literature by and about Judit Polgár in the catalog of the German National Library
• Judit Polgár at the World Chess Federation FIDE (English)
• Judit Polgár the greatest woman chess player of all time Official website (English and Hungarian)
• Judit Polgár. In: FemBio. Women's biography research (with references and citations).
• Replayable chess games by Judit Polgár on 365Chess.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quoted from Michael Allmaier : “You don't bleed when you lose” , Die Zeit No. 15 of April 2, 2020, p. 26.
2. ↑ Great success at the World Youth Championship in USA . JugendSchach issue 6/1990, pp. 19–23. (Report, tables, photo and games)
3. ↑ Woman of Records: Judit Polgar In: de.chessbase.com. October 17, 2014, accessed October 18, 2019.
4. ↑ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 81.
5. ↑ Quoted from Michael Allmaier : “You don't bleed when you lose” , Die Zeit No. 15 of April 2, 2020, p. 26.
6. ^ Ajedrez UNAM Quadrangular 2010 (accessed November 22, 2010)
7. ↑ Results table (pdf; 117 kB) ( Memento from January 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
8. ^ Frederic Friedel : Judit Polgar to retire from competitive chess . ChessBase.com, August 13, 2014.
9. ↑ “Great cinema for nerds. At times it has a larger audience than the players themselves, ”says Michael Allmaier : “ You don't bleed when you lose ” , Die Zeit No. 15 of April 2, 2020, p. 26.
10. ↑ Michael Allmaier : "You don't bleed when you lose" , Die Zeit No. 15 of April 2, 2020, p. 26.
11. ↑ Numbers according to FIDE Elo lists. Data sources: fide.com (period since 2001), olimpbase.org (period 1971 to 2001)
12. ↑ Judit Polgár's results at the women's chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
13. ↑ Judit Polgár's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
14. ↑ Results of the Hungarian team at the 2014 Chess Olympiad on chess-results.com
15. ↑ Judit Polgár's results at team world championships on olimpbase.org (English)
16. ↑ Judit Polgár's results at European Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English)
17. ↑ ^{a b} Judit Polgár's results at European Club Cups on olimpbase.org (English)
18. ^ DWZ evaluation of the 2nd Bundesliga West 2001/02 at the German Chess Federation
19. ↑ Judit Polgár's results at Polish Supercups on olimpbase.org (English)