JUDIT POLGAR (born Jul-23-1976, 48 years old) Hungary PRONUNCIATION: [what is this?] Judit Polgar is universally considered the strongest woman chess player ever. She was #1 woman player in the world for an unbroken period of over 26 years starting from the age of 12 in 1989 when she burst into the world's top 100 until her retirement from competitive chess in August 2014, aged 38, and into 2015 while her rating was still active. She was born in Hungary in 1976. Her childhood included an extensive chess education from her father, Laszlo, and her sisters. Beginning international competition as early as 1984, Polgar first defeated an International Master in Adelaide in 1986, when she beat Dolfi Drimer, and a year later the then 11 year old girl defeated her first grandmaster, Lev Gutman. In 1988 she won the U12 Boys World Championship, and in 1990, the U14 Boys World Championship. In 1991 she became an International Grandmaster by winning the "men's" Hungarian championship and at the age of fifteen years and five months, she was the youngest grandmaster in history, breaking a record that Robert James Fischer had held for over 30 years. She has been the highest-rated woman ever since FIDE's January 1990 list, and in 2003 she entered the overall top ten. In 2005, she became the first woman to take part in the final of an open world championship cycle when she participated in the FIDE World Championship Tournament (2005). Although she finished last, her participation in this event seeded her into the 2007 Candidates playoff for the World Championship Tournament in Mexico City, but she bowed out in the Candidates Match: Polgar - Bareev (2007) by 3.5-2.5. Polgar's career-best tournament performances include four victories at Essent (twice shared), first in London 1988, first in Varna 1988, equal first with Bareev in Hastings 1992/93, clear first at Madrid 1994, first at the Isle of Lewis 1995 (1), equal first in the 1998 US Open, first at the VAM Tournament in Hoogeveen in 1998, first at the category 16 Japfa Classic in Bali in 2000, first at the the Sigeman & Company International Tournament in Malmo, equal first at the Najdorf Chess Festival 2000, fourth in the 2001 European Championship which fielded 143 GMs in a 13-round Swiss-system tournament, first at Superstars Hotel Bali (2002), clear second at Corus at Corus Group A (2003) and equal first at the European Championship (2011), the first time a woman has stood on the podium in this immensely competitive tournament that on this occasion attracted 167 grandmasters; her result also qualified her for participation in the World Cup (2011), where she defeated Cuban GM Fidel Corrales Jimenez, Armenian GM Sergei Movsesian, and Russian GM Sergey Karjakin and Cuban GM, Leinier Dominguez Perez in the first four rounds, but lost her quarter final match against the eventual winner, Russian GM Peter Svidler, to exit the contest. She was one of the President's nominees to play in the World Cup (2013), where she faced Cuban #4 player, GM Isan Reynaldo Ortiz Suarez in the first round, losing the first game and drawing the second. Polgar represented Hungary at the (open) Olympiads in 1994, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. During that time she won two team silver medals, and an individual bronze medal, both occurring at the 2002 Olympiad and the second team silver in 2014. During the Istanbul Olympiad (2012) held in Istanbul, she played on board 3 scoring 7.5/10 which yielded a TPR of 2744, her best result since the Istanbul Olympiad of 2000. Her overall game results from her participation in Olympiads now amounts to 85 games (+35 =35 -15) with a winning percentage of 61.8%. She represented Hungary twice in the European Team Championships, once in 1989 and then again in 1999, on the latter occasion helping her team to its best result, a silver medal, and also winning an individual silver medal for her result on board 2. In rapids, Polgar's best results include equal first with Viswanathan Anand in the Wydra rapid in Israel in 1998, defeating David Navara 6-2 in a rapid match in the Czech Republic in 2010, and defeating Vassily Ivanchuk 2.5-1.5 and Veselin Topalov 3.5-0.5 to win the rapid Ajedrez UNAM Quadrangular (2010). She won an invitational rapid tournament, Festa da Uva (Grape Celebration), in Caxias do Sul in Brazil in early 2012, ahead of Henrique Mecking, Gilberto Milos and Andres Rodriguez Vila the contest was a round robin featuring 2 game mini-matches between each player, with one rapid and one blitz game in each match. (2) She played in the European Championship (2014) but only scored 6.5/11, losing a couple of games in the last few rounds of the tournament and failing to qualify for the World Cup 2015. Polgar first entered the top 100 in January 1989 at the age of 12 when her rating skyrocketed to 2555 and number 55 in the world, and she has remained in the top 100 since then. She remains the youngest player by far to enter the top 100. Her standard rating as of 1 February 2015 is 2675 making her the world's top rated woman, Hungary's #4 player, and world #66; her peak rating was 2735 in 2005, when she was ranked #8 in the world. She is rated 2646 in rapid (world #100 and Women's world #1) and 2736 (world #30 & women's world #1) in blitz. She lives in Budapest with her husband, veterinarian Gusztav Font, and their two children, Oliver and Hanna who were born in 2004 and 2006 respectively. In late 2012, she released her autobiography "How I Beat Fischer's Record". (3) In August 2014, she announced her retirement from competitive chess after 25 years as the top rated woman in chess. (4) *** (1) 365chess: http://www.365chess.com/tournaments... (2) Chessbase "Grape Celebration with Judit Polgar" http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp... (3) Chessbase "Judit Polgar: How I beat Fischer's record" http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp... (4) Chessbase "Judit Polgar to retire from competitive chess" http://en.chessbase.com/post/judit-... - Article in the Independent dated 24 November 2012: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/p... - Personal website: http://www.polgarjudit.com/index_en... - Psychology Today article titled "The Grandmaster Experiment" http://www.psychologytoday.com/arti... - John Miller's (User: wanabe2000) collection of games and tournaments of the Polgar sisters: Game Collection: Zsuzsa (Susan), Zsofia, and Judit Polgar - Live rating: http://www.2700chess.com/women - Polgar's Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/GMJuditPolgar - Q & A between Polgar and fans: http://www.crestbook.com/en/node/1668 - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast... (2017 podcast interview with Ben Johnson of Perpetual Chess) - Audio-visual collage of Polgar Chessday 2009: http://www.timeapictures.com/en/jud... (link in print underneath photo array) - Wikipedia article: Judit Polgar Last updated: 2021-07-23 08:34:41

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page 1 of 73; games 1-25 of 1,809  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. J Polgar vs Szendrei 1-0 21 1984 Budapest B90 Sicilian, Najdorf 2. I Balogh vs J Polgar 0-1 28 1984 Budapest B30 Sicilian 3. J Polgar vs H Grooten 1-0 22 1984 Blindfold game B83 Sicilian 4. J Polgar vs T Halasz 1-0 26 1985 Training game B01 Scandinavian 5. J Polgar vs T Hutters 1-0 41 1986 Copenhagen B32 Sicilian 6. J Polgar vs Z Simic   1-0 42 1986 New York Open Section VII C10 French 7. J Polgar vs S Villegas   1-0 45 1986 Wch U16 Girls C30 King's Gambit Declined 8. V Alvarez vs J Polgar   0-1 37 1986 Wch U16 Girls B20 Sicilian 9. J Polgar vs O Capo Iturrieta 0-1 59 1986 Wch U16 Girls B83 Sicilian 10. J Polgar vs N Bojkovic 1-0 71 1986 Wch U16 Girls B30 Sicilian 11. J Polgar vs S Nagabhusanam   1-0 49 1986 Wch U16 Girls B53 Sicilian 12. I Majul vs J Polgar 0-1 64 1986 Wch U16 Girls A37 English, Symmetrical 13. J Polgar vs I Kientzler-Guerlain 1-0 34 1986 Wch U16 Girls B90 Sicilian, Najdorf 14. M Riofrio Palma vs J Polgar   0-1 23 1986 Wch U16 Girls A46 Queen's Pawn Game 15. A Hernandez Bonilla vs J Polgar 0-1 36 1986 Wch U16 Girls A36 English 16. J Polgar vs S Djuric 0-1 45 1986 Australian Open 1986/87 C30 King's Gambit Declined 17. J Polgar vs E Mednis 0-1 44 1987 Australian Open 1986/87 C15 French, Winawer 18. J Polgar vs D Drimer 1-0 62 1987 Australian Open 1986/87 B45 Sicilian, Taimanov 19. J Polgar vs K Hornung 1-0 54 1987 Australian Open 1986/87 C31 King's Gambit Declined, Falkbeer Counter Gambit 20. T Hay vs J Polgar 1-0 31 1987 Australian Open 1986/87 B83 Sicilian 21. B Leverett vs J Polgar 0-1 30 1987 New York Open U-2400 A57 Benko Gambit 22. J Polgar vs A Huss 0-1 52 1987 Biel Mix C15 French, Winawer 23. J Costa vs J Polgar 0-1 22 1987 Biel Mix A31 English, Symmetrical, Benoni Formation 24. C Landenbergue vs J Polgar   0-1 44 1987 Biel Mix A04 Reti Opening 25. J Polgar vs J Costa 1-0 32 1987 Biel Mix C33 King's Gambit Accepted  page 1 of 73; games 1-25 of 1,809

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 41 OF 77 ·  Later Kibitzing> Feb-01-07    barbababa: Does anyone know a link to the original article of Chabris and Glickman? (Participation Explains Gender Differences in the Proportion of Chess Grandmasters) Feb-01-07    LoFarkas: <women are more proficient at languages> I don't think so. Proof? Feb-01-07    another italian tony: <barbababa> chessbase.com summarizes the study and provides a link to the actual full article. Or just look down to my post from yesterday :P Feb-01-07    code13: On a reading of the chessbase summary, there seems to be one major flaw. Saying that women's performance in chess cannot result from discrimination because chess is an objective game is a very limited conclusion. There may not be discrimination when a game is in progress. But there can be all sorts of discrimination, intentional or not, that leads to the situation of fewer women participating. The general "male" atmosphere at clubs can be off putting to women. Being the only woman at the club or travelling with an all male team can put women off (just as, for example, few men attend female dominated slimming groups, even though many men are interested in losing weight). Feb-01-07    another italian tony: I agree that while there are some possible items in the study that may not be very clear, the results of the study are somewhat conclusive and for me... (at least)... they provide substantial irrefutable arguement to those who would still like to believe that they are better at chess based on gender. Feb-04-07    IMDONE4: women for the most part generally just dont like chess. simple as that. Feb-04-07    paulalbert: I am reluctant to make any comment about male/female differences because the discussion causes such controversy, but I'll contribute based on my personal experience including 39 years of marriage and over 40 years working with women in my professional career: 1)Women can achieve virtually the same results as men, but perhaps do it differently because of inherent physiological and psychological diffrerences. 2)If item 1 is true, then the inherent differences don't really matter, because any differences in capability are only reflected in the distribution of results, not absolute differences. For example,only 10 or so men in the whole world are better at chess than Judit Polgar. Thousands of women are much better than I am at chess. I am better at mathematics and languages than my wife [ nevertheless she is totally fluent in German and English] ; she skis better, but I swim better; she knows how to play chess but hates it. Even though I have had a successful business career, several women who once worked for me have become more successful. 3)If 2 is true, then making broad generalizations about differences between men and women as in some previous posts and applying them to chess will not meet the test of time. If men and women compete head to head and are encouraged to achieve their maximum potential, even if each does it differently [ and what does it matter if this is the case or not ], then who is to say that a woman cannot be the best at chess? That a boy from Brooklyn with little training or official support could conquer the Soviet chess machine did not seem likely 40 years ago either. Paul Albert Feb-05-07    barbababa: <another italian tony> Chessbase gives link to the article abstract. The article can be downloaded there only if you are a subscriber of Psychological Science. :( Found this with google. http://math.bu.edu/people/mg/papers... Feb-05-07    twinlark: Here's an article from Psychology Today that was produced as a direct result of studying the Polgar sisters: http://www.psychologytoday.com/arti... This not only covers some of the ground discussed above/below but attempts to analyse the basic difference between patzers and masters. I found it extremely illuminating and have found it has provided some useful insights into improving my own very modest standard of chess play. Feb-05-07    barbababa: If you look at the current FIDE top 100 list, 35 of the players are < 25 years old, 39 players are 25-35 years old and 26 players are > 35 years old (I didn't check the months so numbers might be + - 2 players). In the article of Chabris and Glickman they say that about 2.1% of the players older than 35 are female, 4.9% of players between ages 25 and 35 and 11.9% of players between 15 and 25 years (The data is from USCF rated players only). Using the above information one can make a rough estimation that on average there should be about 6.62 female players in top 100. Assuming that the age distribution of players in top 2000 is not significantly different, there should be about 132 female players in top 2000, 66 in top 1000 and 33 in top 500. Using FIDE top 50 Women January 2007 list http://www.fide.com/ratings/top.pht... one finds that there are 48 female players in top 2000 (2.4%), 16 in top 1000 (1.6%), 3 in top 500 (0.6%) and 1 in top 100. I think it is clear that the ratio of male/female players only is not sufficient to explain these statistics. Not only are the ratios of female players in the top less than estimated but also the percentage of female players seem to decrease as one approaches to the highest top. Feb-05-07    another italian tony: <barbababa> I'm sure your rudimentary calculations were adressed by the TEAM of scientists that did the study however you are entitled to float your boat however you wish. Wouldn't you agree that your calculations are slightly slanted due to the fact that there is only 1 or 2 women who actually compete against the men? This means that rating deflation due to a lack of points in the system occurs and the fact that there are no women taking points away from the men when the compete. Please don't get into debating rating deflation with me. The Canadian Chess Federation has already studied this in depth and in fact just released a re-rating system of awarding points to players based on the activity of that player in order to inject rating points in to the system. Feb-05-07    another italian tony: Another point... as an additional note. IM Irina Krush just competed in Gibraltar (I have not seen the tournament crosstable, I'm just going by what was posted on the Kibitzing) and she is only rated around 2450 and she defeated both Akopian and Korchnoi!!! Both are rated ~2670 and up... This, in my opinion, is clear indication of ratings deflation on the female side of the system. Feb-05-07    barbababa: <another italian tony> Men and women are part of the same rating system and there is just one rating pool. Although there are many girls only tournaments, boys and girls are playing in the same tournaments at all levels. I think Chabris and Glickman didn't really answer in their article why the percentage of female players is less in the elite than in the lower levels. Feb-05-07    another italian tony: Sorry, I know there is only one rating pool but essentially with so many women competing against only other women, the rating pool is essentially divided regardless. If 98% of the females only play in female tournaments then the average rating points of the players are much lower and far more difficult to achieve a 2700 rating when everyone else is average 2450... Feb-05-07    barbababa: <another italian tony> I think all women compete with men sometimes and usually more than 2% of the games. I thought the reason women do not compete more often with men was that many believe that they usually lose rating points. Anyway, I believe there is enough interaction with these two groups, so that ratings between men and women should be comparable. If there really is such deflation in women's ratings, that should be relatively easy to verify by comparing women's performances against other women and against men. Do you know if anybody has done that? Feb-05-07    another italian tony: No I don't but wouldn't their performance ratings also be affected by the relative rated strength of opposition? I'm not an expert on performance ratings in relations to actual ratings. Feb-05-07    barbababa: <another italian tony> If I remember correctly, there was an article in chessbase few years ago that showed empirically that ELO system predicts wrongly the outcome of a match or a tournament if the players are rated far from each other (about 200 points). In such case, the higher rated player(s) lose rating points to the lower rated player(s). Because of this some top players (Kasparov) do not want to play against much weaker opponents. Feb-05-07    whatthefat: <barbababa> That was discussed here: Magnus Carlsen and the chessbase link is here: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail... <acirce> made the following good point in the above discussion: <The phenomenon of bias Sonas noted is interesting, but then one should note that it only holds true statistically and generally speaking. There are players who naturally tend to overperform against lower rated players, maybe because they have some kind of semi-dubious style that is effective on lower levels but punished on higher. Then there are players who, due to their own style and/or approach, has pretty good results against top players but have problems doing much better against lower rated.> Feb-06-07    Domdaniel: <another Italian Tony> I'm not going to get into the gender debate, mainly because I don't think enough data exists. So much of what people say reflects intuitions and biases of one kind or another. Gibraltar is a very interesting tournament, though. Not only did Irina Krush have the results you mentioned, but for the past couple of years there has been a higher ratio of female participants than most other open tournaments. Krush and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant were among the early leaders, and played some superb chess. I think it would be very interesting to see a strong international open with something like a 50/50 gender split, and Gibraltar is heading in that direction. Feb-06-07    another italian tony: I'd look forward to seeing what you suggest as well <Domdaniel> Feb-06-07    twinlark: Did anyone read the Grandmaster Experiment? Feb-07-07    Where is my mind: <Did anyone read the Grandmaster Experiment?> Yes I did this bit caught my attention, "Chess titans have anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 configurations of pieces, or patterns, committed to memory. They are able to quickly pull relevant information from this mammoth database. With a mere glance, a grandmaster can then figure out how the configuration in front of him is likely to play itself out." "Chunking Theory" is also mentioned in The Expert Mind article in Scientific American http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?ch... and in a review at ChessCafe http://www.chesscafe.com/text/revie... Feb-07-07    twinlark: And therein lies the basic difference between the patzer and the GM...it comes down to how we've hardwired our brains during our upbringing. I don't want to buy into the gender debate per se because I consider it a futile red herring. There are clearly a number of environmental factors at work that basically favour (if that's the word) men's pre-eminence in chess. In another world, Zsofia Polgar may well have become World Champion as she was considered to be the talented of the trio, even by her sisters. But...she was more interested in art and in pursuing other interests. Her "Sac of Rome" when she defeated a string of GMs at the tender age of 15 shows her potential was basically unrateable and its even possible she could have won the World Championship with comparative ease and toppled Kasparov from his chauvinistic pedestal. Had she been bothered. She is apparently one of these strange individuals who thinks that there may be other things in life besides chess. Talent is not enough to dominate in chess, the most talented also need to be committed and interested in competing long term in this environment. Feb-07-07    JointheArmy: <She is apparently one of these strange individuals who thinks that there may be other things in life besides chess.> Wouldn't we call that a "normal" person? :-) Feb-07-07    whiskeyrebel: yeah..I guess Zsofia didn't choose "the life"..but that's a choice that might be in her best self interest. Nothing wrong with being normal.. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 77) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 41 OF 77 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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