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Judit Polgar
J Polgar 
Photo copyright © 2009 Jaksa Timea.  

Number of games in database: 1,809
Years covered: 1984 to 2022
Last FIDE rating: 2675 (2646 rapid, 2736 blitz)
Highest rating achieved in database: 2735
Overall record: +462 -268 =498 (57.9%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games in the database. 581 exhibition games, blitz/rapid, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:
 Sicilian (341) 
    B90 B93 B33 B32 B30
 Ruy Lopez (203) 
    C67 C78 C89 C65 C92
 French Defense (114) 
    C11 C18 C10 C12 C15
 Ruy Lopez, Closed (98) 
    C89 C92 C95 C90 C84
 Sicilian Najdorf (89) 
    B90 B93 B92 B99 B94
 Caro-Kann (73) 
    B14 B17 B18 B13 B12
With the Black pieces:
 Sicilian (326) 
    B47 B90 B22 B40 B32
 King's Indian (171) 
    E97 E62 E81 E92 E73
 Sicilian Taimanov (72) 
    B47 B48 B46 B45 B49
 Queen's Indian (60) 
    E15 E12 E17 E16 E14
 Nimzo Indian (49) 
    E32 E21 E49 E53 E48
 Sicilian Najdorf (44) 
    B90 B92 B98 B99 B97
Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   J Polgar vs F Berkes, 2003 1-0
   Shirov vs J Polgar, 1994 0-1
   J Polgar vs Anand, 1999 1-0
   J Polgar vs Mamedyarov, 2002 1-0
   J Polgar vs P Chilingirova, 1988 1-0
   J Polgar vs Karpov, 2003 1-0
   J Polgar vs Shirov, 1995 1-0
   J Polgar vs Kasparov, 2002 1-0
   J Polgar vs Kasimdzhanov, 2005 1-0
   Ljubojevic vs J Polgar, 1994 0-1

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: [what is this?]
   FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (1999)
   FIDE World Championship Tournament (2005)

NOTABLE TOURNAMENTS: [what is this?]
   Hastings Challengers 1988/89 (1988)
   Superstars Hotel Bali (2002)
   Villa de Canada de Calatrava (2007)
   Aruba (1992)
   Thessaloniki Olympiad (Women) (1988)
   Hastings 1992/93 (1992)
   Istanbul Olympiad (2000)
   99th US Open (1998)
   Novi Sad Olympiad (Women) (1990)
   European Championship (2011)
   Amsterdam OHRA (1989)
   European Championship (2001)
   SKA-Mephisto Tournament (1991)
   FIDE Moscow Grand Prix (2002)
   World Cup (2011)

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   Polgars Powers Originally Compiled by wanabe2000 by fredthebear
   Polgars Powers Originally Compiled by wanabe2000 by enog
   Polgars Powers Originally Compiled by Okavango
   Polgar Power Originally Compiled by wanabe2000 by rpn4
   Polgar Power Originally Compiled by wanabe2000 by Patca63
   Zsuzsa (Susan), Zsofia, and Judit Polgar by wanabe2000
   The Princess of Chess - Judit Polgar by rpn4
   The Princess of Chess - Judit Polgar by Resignation Trap
   The Princess of Chess - Judit Polgar by rpn4
   0ZeR0's collected games volume 95 by 0ZeR0
   0ZeR0's collected games volume 94 by 0ZeR0
   JUDIT AND SUSAN POLGAR by rpn4
   JUDIT AND SUSAN POLGAR by vaskolon
   JUDIT AND SUSAN POLGAR by rpn4

RECENT GAMES:
   🏆 Offhand 3-minute blitz
   J Polgar vs Carlsen (Jul-02-22) 1-0, blitz
   Shankland vs J Polgar (Aug-10-14) 1-0
   J Polgar vs V Akopian (Aug-09-14) 1/2-1/2
   J Polgar vs H Nguyen (Aug-08-14) 1-0
   J Polgar vs H Santos (Aug-05-14) 1-0

Search Sacrifice Explorer for Judit Polgar
Search Google for Judit Polgar
FIDE player card for Judit Polgar

JUDIT POLGAR
(born Jul-23-1976, 49 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

Try our new games table.

 page 1 of 73; games 1-25 of 1,809  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. J Polgar vs Szendrei 1-0211984BudapestB90 Sicilian, Najdorf
2. I Balogh vs J Polgar 0-1281984BudapestB30 Sicilian
3. J Polgar vs H Grooten 1-0221984Blindfold gameB83 Sicilian
4. J Polgar vs T Halasz 1-0261985Training gameB01 Scandinavian
5. J Polgar vs T Hutters 1-0411986CopenhagenB32 Sicilian
6. J Polgar vs Z Simic  1-0421986New York Open Section VIIC10 French
7. I Majul vs J Polgar 0-1641986Wch U16 GirlsA37 English, Symmetrical
8. J Polgar vs O Capo Iturrieta 0-1591986Wch U16 GirlsB83 Sicilian
9. J Polgar vs S Nagabhusanam  1-0491986Wch U16 GirlsB53 Sicilian
10. J Polgar vs N Bojkovic 1-0711986Wch U16 GirlsB30 Sicilian
11. J Polgar vs S Villegas  1-0451986Wch U16 GirlsC30 King's Gambit Declined
12. V Alvarez vs J Polgar  0-1371986Wch U16 GirlsB20 Sicilian
13. J Polgar vs I Kientzler-Guerlain 1-0341986Wch U16 GirlsB90 Sicilian, Najdorf
14. M Riofrio Palma vs J Polgar  0-1231986Wch U16 GirlsA46 Queen's Pawn Game
15. A Hernandez Bonilla vs J Polgar 0-1361986Wch U16 GirlsA36 English
16. J Polgar vs S Djuric 0-1451986Australian Open 1986/87C30 King's Gambit Declined
17. J Polgar vs E Mednis 0-1441987Australian Open 1986/87C15 French, Winawer
18. J Polgar vs D Drimer 1-0621987Australian Open 1986/87B45 Sicilian, Taimanov
19. J Polgar vs K Hornung 1-0541987Australian Open 1986/87C31 King's Gambit Declined, Falkbeer Counter Gambit
20. T Hay vs J Polgar 1-0311987Australian Open 1986/87B83 Sicilian
21. B Leverett vs J Polgar 0-1301987New York Open U-2400A57 Benko Gambit
22. J Polgar vs J Costa 1-0321987Biel MixC33 King's Gambit Accepted
23. B Zueger vs J Polgar  ½-½411987Biel MixA57 Benko Gambit
24. J Costa vs J Polgar 0-1221987Biel MixA31 English, Symmetrical, Benoni Formation
25. J Polgar vs A Huss 0-1521987Biel MixC15 French, Winawer
 page 1 of 73; games 1-25 of 1,809  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Polgar wins | Polgar loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 52 OF 77 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Sep-02-09  kurtrichards: Judit is still top among women.
Oct-03-09  Katu: acirce: Never mind, that is bullsh*t. Hungarian extreme rightists were never serious.
Oct-22-09  spy vs spy: I wanted to see the Judit of old defeating Tiviakov today!

Go Judit!

Nov-16-09  amadeus: Judit has scalps against Smyslov, Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Khalifman, Kasimdhzkanov, Ponomariov and Topalov -- Fischer?

Not many players can say the same.

(other scalps include Bronstein, Geller, Korchnoi, Larsen, Portisch, Hübner, Ulf Andersson, Timman, Beliavsky, Short, Salov, Ivanchuk, Bareev, Dreev, Gelfand, Shirov, Kamsky, Svidler, Leko, Aronian, Grischuk, Mamedyarov, Radjabov, Karjakin, Jakovenko...)

Nov-20-09  SakoTRG22: <amadeus: Judit has scalps against Smyslov, Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Khalifman, Kasimdhzkanov, Ponomariov and Topalov -- Fischer? Not many players can say the same.

(other scalps include Bronstein, Geller, Korchnoi, Larsen, Portisch, Hübner, Ulf Andersson, Timman, Beliavsky, Short, Salov, Ivanchuk, Bareev, Dreev, Gelfand, Shirov, Kamsky, Svidler, Leko, Aronian, Grischuk, Mamedyarov, Radjabov, Karjakin, Jakovenko...)>

Wow!! Go, go, go, Judit!!!

Nov-21-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  plang: Polgar has always had trouble with Kramnik - 0-10 in classical chess.
Nov-21-09  HermesTrismegistus: With or without your opponent, the result would be the same. Good luck to your round 2 assignment.
Nov-21-09  kurtrichards: GM Dusko Pavasovic (SLO) did not appear in game 1 of round 1. Accordingly he withdrew due to injury (injury from what?). Anyways, Judit will advance to round 2. Good luck!
Nov-22-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: It would be great if judit went long in this tourney, quarterfinals? She is due for a good result.
Nov-23-09  Ladolcevita: Now she is the only female player in the rest days
Nov-26-09  laskersteinitz: Hi Judit,

Well done at the World Cup! You can beat Gelfand, I know you can! Good luck!

Best wishes,
laskersteinitz

Nov-28-09  Method B: Bravo!

I was afraid of the Bishop opening to avoid the Petrov but finally Judit was able to organize a crushing attack on the king's side.

Best of luck for the tie-breaks.

Nov-29-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Here's a nice story about Judit, when she was just 10 years old:

Frowning at the board, the grizzled Yugoslav chess player stabbed cigarette after unfiltered cigarette into an ashtray. Across the table—actually under the table—10-year-old Judit Polgar of Hungary <hugged her teddy bear>, seemingly uninterested in the game. The Yugoslav fingered the scar that ran the length of his cheek, dropped his hand to the board and tentatively moved a knight. Judit popped up and grabbed the knight with her rook. Her opponent howled in anguish, and she returned to play with her teddy. "Well-mannered and correct players, who react the same if they win or lose, are often reduced by Judit to mental jelly," observes former Chess Life editor Larry Parr, commenting on a game he watched in 1987.

Three years later, Judit is the chess world's enfant terrible and its <youngest international master ever>. With 2,555 points, she ranks 60th among all active players. "Judit is one of the three or four greatest chess prodigies in history," says British grand master <Nigel Short>, who is ranked third in the world.

Even more extraordinary is that Judit's sisters, Zsusza, 20, and Zsofi, 15, are nearly her match. "Before the Polgars came along, it was commonly believed—by men—that women couldn't play the game," says Short. Yet Short remains skeptical of how successful women can be at chess. "You've got to understand that not only has no woman been brought up in circumstances similar to the Polgars'," he says, "but virtually no man has, either."

The Polgars are products of an "experiment" conducted by their father, Laszlo, a retired psychologist and teacher. He decided not simply to teach his daughters chess but also to build their education around it.

A small, bearded man who fidgets constantly when he talks, Laszlo plotted his daughters' careers as carefully as a queen's Indian defense. "The secret is specialization," says Laszlo, who battled government officials for the right to educate his children at home. From age four, all three girls systematically studied chess, math and languages. Under Laszlo's tutelage, Zsusza mastered Russian by age five and English a year later.

Judit's favorite English word seems to be <"ka-rushed,>" as in: "He blundered and I ka-rushed him." She's an engagingly modest, faintly giggly girl whose conversation is so cautious and well-considered that it takes on an imperious quality. At the board, she maintains the same relaxed pose and noncommittal expression whether she is winning or losing the match. But opponents seem transfixed by her cool, gray eyes. The histrionic world champion, Gary Kasparov, may be terrifying to opponents, but Judit is surely baffling.

Judit is not merely endowed with exceptional chess vision; she also plays a highly aggressive game. "She has a <great combinative feel>," Short says. "That's one area where women are usually weaker than men."

The Polgars disparage female-only tournaments and rarely play other women. "Segregation perpetuates the inequality of performance between men and women," says Laszlo, who demands and usually gets hefty sums for exhibitions and interviews with foreign journalists. Females, Laszlo insists, aren't competitive enough for his daughters.

Judit's biggest obstacle is the overweening chauvinism of male players. "It's inevitable that nature will work against her, and very soon," says Kasparov. "She has fantastic chess talent, but she is, after all, a woman. It all comes down to the imperfections of the feminine psyche. No woman can sustain a prolonged battle. She's fighting a habit of centuries and centuries and centuries, from the beginning of the world. She will be a great grand master, but she will never be a great grand master."

At last year's New York Open, international grand master Alonso Zapata of Colombia refused to concede he was losing to Judit even when his position was hopeless. He played on, to the point of rudeness, for 20 moves before resigning. After the inevitable defeat, Zapata sat at the board with his head bowed for another 10 minutes. Off in a corner, Judit's mother, Klara, sat knitting, a chess-world <Madame Defarge>.

Madame DeFarge! A bit extreme, (ihope). "Tell wind, rain and positional sacrifices where to stop, but don't tell ME!!"

Feb-23-10  Albertan: I have posted analysis of the first game of the Sicilian Theme Match between GM Kaidanov and GM Judit Polgar to the first page of my blog at http://albertan1956.blogspot.com/ using the program Chess viewer deluxe. The game is number 41 in the games index in the Chessviewer deluxe program. I hope you drop by and play through this analysis.The analysis was done with the assistance of Deep Rybka 3 and Deep Shredder 12 on my quad core computer.
Feb-24-10  MaxxLange: you walk down El Almeda
shuffling your deck of trick cards

get over on everyone
like some precious only son
face down, bow to the champion

Feb-24-10  MaxxLange: your own attention
over their affection...

nobody broke your heart
you broke your own, 'cause you can't
finish what you start

Mar-01-10  percyblakeney: Polgar's lead on the women's rating list is down to 60 points, her smallest margin to #2 in more than 17 years.
Mar-09-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Can Humpy close the distance?
Apr-02-10  kingfu: Why do we need a Sicilian theme match? Who does not play the Sicilian these days?
Apr-23-10  waustad: She is up +2=1-0 so far against Navara in their Rapids match in the Czech Republic.
Apr-26-10  Karpova: Judit Polgar won 6-2 against Navara.

Official site: http://www.praguechess.cz/en/index....

Apr-26-10  vonKrolock: Quite impressive. And yesterday there was a simul vs a. o. <the minister of interior Martin Pecina, the director of Dopravni stavby Brno Vlastimil Chladek, the director of PORG gymnasium Vaclav Klaus , director of CSOB Jan Lamser.>
May-02-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Judit appears to be picking up steam; she finished 4th in a strong tournament in Baku, behind Kramnik and Kamsky.
May-15-10  percyblakeney: <Judit appears to be picking up steam; she finished 4th in a strong tournament in Baku>

She finished 5-6th of 8 in that rapid event, and performed just below 2650, so she still has quite a bit left to her best.

Jul-23-10  Remizatorul: Happy Birthday Judit !!!
Nice pics gallery here...
http://remizatorul.weebly.com/13/po...
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