INTRODUCING SUSAN POLGAR

Susan Polgar was born in 1969 and is the oldest of the three Polgar sisters, the famous Hungarian trio that changed gender perceptions in chess forever. Through training from their father and chess author Laszlo, and years of impressive tournament performances, they proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that females can compete with males in chess.

By her teen years, Susan had already become the highest-rated female chessplayer in the world, in 1984. The Woman World #1 ranking was taken from her in 1986 when, in an unfair and unprecedented decision, FIDE (the International Chess Federation) decided to award every single woman chessplayer in the world an additional 100 rating points—except Polgar. The official reasoning was that Polgar competed mostly in mens' tournaments, unlike the other women on the rating list. Many believe, however, the USSR pressured FIDE to take this decision because the Soviet Union did not want a non-Soviet at the top of the rating list. Indeed, until Susan (and later her sister Judit) began their rise to the top, a Soviet woman had been at the top.

Despite such adversity, Susan continued to compete in mens' tournaments, and very successfully. The ultimate proof came in January, 1991: Susan Polgar became the first woman in history to earn the "Mens" Grandmaster title (GM). The Womens Grandmaster (WGM) title requires a considerably lesser level of play; two past Women's World Champions—Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze-had indeed become "Mens" Grandmasters first, but they were awarded the title automatically by virtue of becoming Women's World Champion, and not through tournament play.

Today, Susan Polgar says that in this way she was the first woman to break the "gender barrier" in chess, and there is much truth in this. Today, there are only 11 women total who hold the GM title in the world. There are over 700 Grandmasters in the world.

In Jaen, Spain in 1996, Susan herself became the Women's World Champion by defeating another very strong female player, Xie Jun of China, in a match. During this match, its wealthy sponsor Luis Rentero sent critical letters to both players because they made two short draws at one point. The PCA World Championshp Match between Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand, held the previous year in New York, opened with eight straight draws and saw a total of 13 draws in 18 games!

Xie Jun fought her way back for a chance at a rematch against Polgar in 1999. But FIDE, which has a spotty (at best!) history of organizing smooth World Championship matches, could not reach an agreement with Polgar for the match because the Champion demanded recovery time from the birth of her first child which FIDE did not grant, and because FIDE proposed to hold the entire match in China, the Challenger's home country. That is a definite no-no in World Championship match organization!

The result was that FIDE would end up stripping yet another Champion of their title: Bobby Fischer in 1975, Garry Kasparov in 1993, Susan Polgar in 1999 and, at the end of that year, FIDE would also strip Anatoly Karpov of his FIDE title for his refusal to play! Susan later sued FIDE and won damages in court.

Despite not having the World Champion's title anymore, Susan is still the second-strongest women player in the world (ever?), to her sister Judit who is in the World's Top 10 Overall.

Great players in chess history have also been measured, in part, by their performance in team events. In the Women's Olympiads, Susan has been frightening to face, winning 10 Medals so far, individual and team, including 5 Golds. She led the US Women's Olympiad team to its first-ever medal (Silver) at Calvia (Spain), 2004 while posting by far the best individual result in the entire competition.

Now living in New York, Susan has opened the Polgar Chess Center and is also an active organizer in youth and female scholastic events. One of the most visible faces of the USCF these days, she has no doubt increased the popularity of chess in the United States, especially among youths. She is also a popular columnist in Chess Life magazine.


To visit Susan Polgar's website, please click here.

To see a biography of Susan on Wikipedia, click here.

To view Susan's games on ChessGames.com, click here.