Susan Polgar
Encyclopedia
Susan Polgar is a Hungarian-American
chess
Grandmaster. She is an Olympic chess champion, a chess teacher, coach, writer and promoter and the head of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) at Texas Tech University
as well as the coach for the 2011 National Championship college chess team. She is the oldest of the famous "Polgár sisters": Zsuzsa, Zsófia, and Judit
. Susan is perhaps most famous for being a child prodigy
at chess, for being the first female to earn the Grandmaster title through tournament play, and for breaking a number of gender barriers in chess.
On the July 1984 FIDE Rating
List, at the age of 15, she became the top ranked woman player in the world, and remained ranked in the top 3 for the next 23 years. She was also the first woman in history to break the gender barrier by qualifying for the 1986 "Men's" World Championship. She was the Women's World Chess Champion
from 1996 to 1999. In October 2005 Polgar had an Elo rating
of 2577, making her the second-ranked woman in the world at the time, after her sister Judit Polgár
. Polgar went on to win ten Olympic medals (5 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze) and four Women’s World Championships. She has not played in official competition since 2006.
In 1997, Polgar founded the Polgar Chess Center in Forest Hills, New York. In 2002 she established the Susan Polgar Foundation, which gives chess training to children, especially girls. Through her foundation she sponsors the National Invitational for Girls, National Open Championship for Girls, World Open Championship for Girls, All-Star Girl’s Chess Team, NY City Mayor’s Cup Invitational, and Tri-State Scholastic Chess Challenge. She was briefly a member of the executive board of the United States Chess Federation
from 2007 to 2009; however, a lawsuit instigated by the defeated candidate led to political infighting and extended litigation, and resulted in a settlement whereby Polgar severed her affiliation with the USCF and is now a "playing non-member". She founded the SPICE Institute in Texas in 2007 and began coaching the Texas Tech Knight Raiders in 2007 as well. In January 2009, she became the Co-Chariperson of the Commission for Women's Chess for the World Chess Federation FIDE, a position she continues to hold today.
, Hungary, to a Hungarian Jewish family. She now lives in Lubbock, Texas
. In 1994, Polgar married computer consultant Jacob Shutzman, and moved to New York. They have two sons, Tom (born 1999) and Leeam (born 2000). She later divorced. In December 2006, she married her longtime business manager and friend, Paul Truong
.
and International Master Sofia, were part of an educational experiment carried out by their father László Polgár
, who sought to prove that children could make exceptional achievements if trained in a specialist subject from a very early age. "Geniuses are made, not born," was László's thesis. He and his wife Klara educated their three daughters at home, with chess as the specialist subject. The father also taught his three daughters Esperanto
. Most of her family eventually emigrated to Israel, but Susan Polgar moved to New York after marrying an American in 1994. Members of the Polgar family, who are Jewish, perished in the Holocaust
, and her grandmother was a survivor of Auschwitz
.
At age 4, Polgar won her first chess tournament, the Budapest Girl's Under-11 Championship, with a 10–0 score. In 1982, at the age of 12, she won the World Under 16 (Girls) Championship
. Despite restrictions on her freedom to play in international tournaments, by 1984 at age 15 Polgar had become the top-rated female chess player in the world.
In November 1986, FIDE decided to grant 100 bonus Elo rating points to all active female players except Polgar, which knocked her from the top spot in the January, 1987 FIDE ratings list. The rationale was that the FIDE ratings of women were not commensurate with the ratings of the men because the women tended to play in women-only tournaments, Polgar being an exception because up to that point she had played mainly against men. The statistical evidence supporting this decision was disputed because the data on which it was based was a small subset of the available data, and Polgar and others alleged that the move was politically motivated and had been contrived to displace her from the top spot.
In January 1991, Polgar became the first woman to earn the Grandmaster title in the conventional way of achieving three GM norms
and a rating over 2500, though Nona Gaprindashvili was awarded the prize earlier by special judgment of FIDE. In 1992, Polgar won both the Women's World Blitz and the Women's World Rapid Championship. She is the only world champion, male or female, to win all three forms of world chess championships.
Polgar had tended to avoid women-only tournaments, but she abandoned this when she entered the 1993 cycle for the Women's World Championship. She was eliminated at the candidates' final match with Nana Ioseliani
, after the match was drawn she lost on the drawing of lots. She became the Women's World Champion at her second attempt in 1996. Two years later, her title defense against Xie Jun
of China was scheduled to take place in November, 1998. However, Polgar requested a postponement because she was pregnant
and also FIDE had been unable to find a satisfactory sponsor. Ultimately, in 1999, a match was arranged, but under conditions to which Polgar objected – firstly because she had recently had a child, Tom, and had not had sufficient time to recuperate, and secondly because the match was to be held entirely in China, the home country of her challenger. She also wanted a significantly larger prize fund.
When Polgar refused to play under these conditions, FIDE declared that she had forfeited the title, and instead organized a match between Xie Jun and Alisa Galliamova
for the Women's World Chess Championship, which was won by Xie Jun. Polgar sued in the Court of Arbitration for Sport
in Lausanne
, Switzerland for monetary damages and the restoration of her title. In March 2001, the case was settled, with Polgar withdrawing her claims and FIDE agreeing to pay Polgar's attorney's fees in the amount of $25,000. Since Xie Jun had already been crowned Women's World Champion, FIDE could not restore the title to Polgar. Polgar has not participated in subsequent Women's World Championship cycles.
named Polgar "Grandmaster of the Year" in 2003, the first time a woman has won that honor. In that same year (2003), Polgar also became the first woman to win the US Open Blitz Championship, against a field which included seven grandmasters. She won that title again in 2005 and in 2006.
She helped train and played the top board for the United States women's team at the 2004 Chess Olympiad
held in October in Majorca, Spain. Overall, the team won the Silver Medal, but Polgar won an individual gold medal
for achieving the highest performance rating in the women's event and the highest point total. This was not her first Olympiad: she has a total of ten Olympiad Medals (five Gold, four Silver, and one Bronze). She has played 56 games in the Olympiads, never losing a single game.
In July 2005, Polgar gave a large simultaneous exhibition
in Palm Beach, Florida
, breaking four world records: the largest number of simultaneous games played (326, with 309 won, 14 drawn, and 3 lost); consecutive games played (1,131); highest number of games won (1,112); and highest percentage of wins (96.93 %).
In October 2005, Polgar joined former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
and former World Champion Anatoly Karpov
in Lindsborg, Kansas
to promote "Chess For Peace." There, Polgar participated in the second Clash of the Titans - Battle of the Genders match against Karpov at the same location, with Gorbachev making the first move for Karpov. The match with Karpov ended in a 3–3 tie, with each player winning two games and two draws. Their first match had taken place in September 2004. That also ended up in a 3–3 tie.
In June 2006, Polgar organized and played in the 2006 New York City Mayor's Cup, a 30-minute competition and the highest-rated double round robin tournament in US history. She finished second, behind Gata Kamsky
and ahead of Alexander Onischuk
, Boris Gulko, Ildar Ibragimov
, and Alex Stripunsky. In July 2006, Polgar represented the US in a side event to the Football World Cup in Dresden, Germany. She easily won the event by defeating International Master Elisabeth Pähtz
in the final.
Zsuzsa Polgar–Hardicsay, Hungarian Team Championship 1985 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nf3 g6 7.Bf4 a6 8.e4 Bg7 9.Qa4+ Bd7 10.Qb3 Bg4?! 11.Qxb7 Bxf3 Hardicsay had won a game a few months before after 12.gxf3 Nh5, when Black has good compensation for the sacrificed pawn after either 13.Be3 Nd7 or 13.Bg3 Nxg3 14.hxg3 Nd7. 12.Qxa8! Nxe4 13.Rc1! This was a theoretical novelty; Black had been thought to be better after 13.Nxe4 Bxe4. 13...Bd4 After 13...Nxc3 14.bxc3 Be4 15.f3 Bf5 16.g4, Black would have no good retreat for his bishop, e.g. 16...Bd7 17.Bxd6. 14.Rc2 Nxf2?! 14...Nxc3 15.gxf3! also leaves White with a large advantage. 15.Rxf2 Bxf2+ 16.Kxf2 Bg4 (See diagram at below left.) 17.Bb5+! axb5 18.Re1+ Kf8 If 18...Kd7, 19.Qb7+ Qc7 20.Re7+! wins the queen. 19.Bh6+ Kg8 (See diagram at below middle.) 20.Re7! Paralyzing Black and stopping any counterplay with ...Qh4+. The rook is immune because 20...Qxe7 21.Qxb8+ forces mate. 20...Bd7 21.Qxb8! Qxb8 22.Ne4! 1–0 Although Black is up a queen for a knight, he cannot stop 23.Nf6#. (Notes based on Polgar's notes in Queen of the Kings Game pp. 234–37 and in Chess Informant
, volume 40, game 117.)
. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate degree. On the same day, as reported on the LubbockOnline website, it was announced that she would become the coach of the Texas Tech chess team and would be the director of the new Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE). In 2008, SPICE announced an extremely generous pledge from a private donor, who provided $320,000 for TTU chess scholarships over the next five years.
In 2007 Texas Tech and Susan Polgar hosted the first SPICE Cup which has since become the highest rated international round robin chess tournament held in the United States. The SPICE Cup draws tens of millions of viewers worldwide, who are able to follow the event online. In October 2010, the SPICE Cup became the highest rated international invitational chess tournament in US History. In 2008, the SPICE Cup rated category 15. It jumped to category 16 in 2009. SPICE Cup 2010 rated category 16 (2631 average FIDE rating) but for 2011 the SPICE Cup has a preliminary two 2700+ player for the first time with negotiations in process with four or five other similarly ranked players, and will potentially rate 17/18.
(see diagram) at the age of four. She is considered the youngest composer
of a published chess problem. Formerly, the record was held by Elliot Franklin Eichholtz.
, her business manager and (later) husband:
Polgar is also a chess journalist, with columns in Chess Life
, Chess Life for Kids, ChessCafe, Chess Horizons, Georgia Chess, Chessville, Empire Chess, School Mates, Europe Echecs, etc., and she publishes a blog
with daily updates about chess news and daily chess exercise problems. She has released a series of 11 instructional chess DVDs.
. Polgar, Randy Bauer
, and Paul Truong
—three of four of Polgar's slate—were elected to four-year terms. She was elected as the first ever chairman of the USCF.
On October 2, 2007, one of the candidates for the Executive Board position, who had been defeated by Susan Polgar, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of the 2007 election, alleging misconduct. Polgar denied any wrongdoing. Polgar and Truong filed suit against the USCF, who counter-sued them, with both sides issuing a variety of allegations. The suit alleging election campaign misconduct was ultimately dismissed by the court.
On January 15, 2008, four Board members issued a statement which requested Susan Polgar's husband step down from his position on the Board for "neglecting his fiduciary duties" through not providing an affirmative defense to the lawsuit. This was not, however, an official vote of the Executive Board. Polgar subsequently published a statement asserting that the Board members who voted in favor of this request made a number of misrepresentations.
On August 7, 2009, the Executive Board of the USCF rescinded the membership of Polgar and her husband, and they appealed to the Board of Delegates of the USCF. On August 8, 2009, the Delegates of the USCF ratified the previous year's actions of the Executive Board with respect to the litigation. In a closed Executive Session, the Delegates upheld the membership revocations. The lawsuits were all settled in 2010, with Polgar and Truong severing all affiliation with the USCF (though both still play in USCF events under "Playing Non-Member Status"); the USCF's court costs of $131,000 were paid out by its insurer and it had to pay Polgar's attorney fees of $39,000.
In January 2009, Susan Polgar was appointed Co-Chairperson of the Board of the Commission for Women's Chess for the World Chess Federation FIDE, a position she continues to hold.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
Grandmaster. She is an Olympic chess champion, a chess teacher, coach, writer and promoter and the head of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) at Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...
as well as the coach for the 2011 National Championship college chess team. She is the oldest of the famous "Polgár sisters": Zsuzsa, Zsófia, and Judit
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, the youngest person ever to do so at that time.Polgár was ranked No...
. Susan is perhaps most famous for being a child prodigy
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
at chess, for being the first female to earn the Grandmaster title through tournament play, and for breaking a number of gender barriers in chess.
On the July 1984 FIDE Rating
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
List, at the age of 15, she became the top ranked woman player in the world, and remained ranked in the top 3 for the next 23 years. She was also the first woman in history to break the gender barrier by qualifying for the 1986 "Men's" World Championship. She was the Women's World Chess Champion
Women's World Chess Championship
The Women's World Chess Championship is played to determine the women's world champion in chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE....
from 1996 to 1999. In October 2005 Polgar had an Elo rating
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
of 2577, making her the second-ranked woman in the world at the time, after her sister Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, the youngest person ever to do so at that time.Polgár was ranked No...
. Polgar went on to win ten Olympic medals (5 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze) and four Women’s World Championships. She has not played in official competition since 2006.
In 1997, Polgar founded the Polgar Chess Center in Forest Hills, New York. In 2002 she established the Susan Polgar Foundation, which gives chess training to children, especially girls. Through her foundation she sponsors the National Invitational for Girls, National Open Championship for Girls, World Open Championship for Girls, All-Star Girl’s Chess Team, NY City Mayor’s Cup Invitational, and Tri-State Scholastic Chess Challenge. She was briefly a member of the executive board of the United States Chess Federation
United States Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...
from 2007 to 2009; however, a lawsuit instigated by the defeated candidate led to political infighting and extended litigation, and resulted in a settlement whereby Polgar severed her affiliation with the USCF and is now a "playing non-member". She founded the SPICE Institute in Texas in 2007 and began coaching the Texas Tech Knight Raiders in 2007 as well. In January 2009, she became the Co-Chariperson of the Commission for Women's Chess for the World Chess Federation FIDE, a position she continues to hold today.
Personal life
She was born and brought up in BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary, to a Hungarian Jewish family. She now lives in Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
. In 1994, Polgar married computer consultant Jacob Shutzman, and moved to New York. They have two sons, Tom (born 1999) and Leeam (born 2000). She later divorced. In December 2006, she married her longtime business manager and friend, Paul Truong
Paul Truong
Paul Truong is an American chess player, trainer, promoter, and organizer.-Biography:Truong was born Hoainhan Truong in Saigon, South Vietnam....
.
Chess career
Polgar and her two younger sisters, Grandmaster JuditJudit Polgár
Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, the youngest person ever to do so at that time.Polgár was ranked No...
and International Master Sofia, were part of an educational experiment carried out by their father László Polgár
László Polgár
László Polgár , is a Hungarian chess teacher and father of the famous "Polgár sisters": Zsuzsa, Zsófia, and Judit. He authored well-known chess books such as Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games and Reform Chess, a survey of chess variants.László is an expert on chess theory and owns over...
, who sought to prove that children could make exceptional achievements if trained in a specialist subject from a very early age. "Geniuses are made, not born," was László's thesis. He and his wife Klara educated their three daughters at home, with chess as the specialist subject. The father also taught his three daughters Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
. Most of her family eventually emigrated to Israel, but Susan Polgar moved to New York after marrying an American in 1994. Members of the Polgar family, who are Jewish, perished in the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, and her grandmother was a survivor of Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
.
At age 4, Polgar won her first chess tournament, the Budapest Girl's Under-11 Championship, with a 10–0 score. In 1982, at the age of 12, she won the World Under 16 (Girls) Championship
World Youth Chess Championship
The World Youth Chess Championship is a chess competition for girls and boys under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.The first predecessor of the youth championship was the Cadet Championship. It started off unofficially in 1974 in France for players under 18. The 1975 and 1976 editions were also...
. Despite restrictions on her freedom to play in international tournaments, by 1984 at age 15 Polgar had become the top-rated female chess player in the world.
In November 1986, FIDE decided to grant 100 bonus Elo rating points to all active female players except Polgar, which knocked her from the top spot in the January, 1987 FIDE ratings list. The rationale was that the FIDE ratings of women were not commensurate with the ratings of the men because the women tended to play in women-only tournaments, Polgar being an exception because up to that point she had played mainly against men. The statistical evidence supporting this decision was disputed because the data on which it was based was a small subset of the available data, and Polgar and others alleged that the move was politically motivated and had been contrived to displace her from the top spot.
In January 1991, Polgar became the first woman to earn the Grandmaster title in the conventional way of achieving three GM norms
Grandmaster norm
A norm in chess is one of the requirements to receive a title such as Grandmaster from FIDE.- Grandmaster norm :In order to qualify for the title of Grandmaster of chess, a title awarded by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, a player must achieve three or more grandmaster norms in events covering a...
and a rating over 2500, though Nona Gaprindashvili was awarded the prize earlier by special judgment of FIDE. In 1992, Polgar won both the Women's World Blitz and the Women's World Rapid Championship. She is the only world champion, male or female, to win all three forms of world chess championships.
Polgar had tended to avoid women-only tournaments, but she abandoned this when she entered the 1993 cycle for the Women's World Championship. She was eliminated at the candidates' final match with Nana Ioseliani
Nana Ioseliani
Nana Mikhailovna Ioseliani is a Georgian woman chess player. She has held the FIDE Woman Grandmaster title since 1980, and the International Master title since 1993....
, after the match was drawn she lost on the drawing of lots. She became the Women's World Champion at her second attempt in 1996. Two years later, her title defense against Xie Jun
Xie Jun
Xie Jun is a chess grandmaster from China. She had two reigns as Women's World Chess Champion, from 1991 to 1996 and again from 1999 to 2001. Xie is only the second woman to have two reigns, the other being Elisabeth Bykova....
of China was scheduled to take place in November, 1998. However, Polgar requested a postponement because she was pregnant
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
and also FIDE had been unable to find a satisfactory sponsor. Ultimately, in 1999, a match was arranged, but under conditions to which Polgar objected – firstly because she had recently had a child, Tom, and had not had sufficient time to recuperate, and secondly because the match was to be held entirely in China, the home country of her challenger. She also wanted a significantly larger prize fund.
When Polgar refused to play under these conditions, FIDE declared that she had forfeited the title, and instead organized a match between Xie Jun and Alisa Galliamova
Alisa Galliamova
Alisa Galliamova is a Russian chess player, who was born to Russian father and Tatar mother. She holds the FIDE titles Woman Grandmaster and International Master. In 1988 she won the World Junior Girls Chess Championship...
for the Women's World Chess Championship, which was won by Xie Jun. Polgar sued in the Court of Arbitration for Sport
Court of Arbitration for Sport
The Court of Arbitration for Sport is an international arbitration body set up to settle disputes related to sport. Its headquarters are in Lausanne and its courts are located in New York, Sydney and Lausanne, Switzerland...
in Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
, Switzerland for monetary damages and the restoration of her title. In March 2001, the case was settled, with Polgar withdrawing her claims and FIDE agreeing to pay Polgar's attorney's fees in the amount of $25,000. Since Xie Jun had already been crowned Women's World Champion, FIDE could not restore the title to Polgar. Polgar has not participated in subsequent Women's World Championship cycles.
American career and Olympic medals
The United States Chess FederationUnited States Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...
named Polgar "Grandmaster of the Year" in 2003, the first time a woman has won that honor. In that same year (2003), Polgar also became the first woman to win the US Open Blitz Championship, against a field which included seven grandmasters. She won that title again in 2005 and in 2006.
She helped train and played the top board for the United States women's team at the 2004 Chess Olympiad
36th Chess Olympiad
The 36th Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 14 and October 31, 2004, in Calvià on the Spanish island of Majorca.-Chess...
held in October in Majorca, Spain. Overall, the team won the Silver Medal, but Polgar won an individual gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
for achieving the highest performance rating in the women's event and the highest point total. This was not her first Olympiad: she has a total of ten Olympiad Medals (five Gold, four Silver, and one Bronze). She has played 56 games in the Olympiads, never losing a single game.
Simultaneous exhibition
A simultaneous exhibition or simultaneous display is a board game exhibition in which one player plays multiple games at a time with a number of other players. Such an exhibition is often referred to simply as a "simul".In a regular simul, no chess clocks are used...
in Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
, breaking four world records: the largest number of simultaneous games played (326, with 309 won, 14 drawn, and 3 lost); consecutive games played (1,131); highest number of games won (1,112); and highest percentage of wins (96.93 %).
In October 2005, Polgar joined former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
and former World Champion Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
in Lindsborg, Kansas
Lindsborg, Kansas
Lindsborg is a city in McPherson County, Kansas, USA. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 3,458. It is known for its association with Swedish heritage and the biennial Svensk Hyllningsfest...
to promote "Chess For Peace." There, Polgar participated in the second Clash of the Titans - Battle of the Genders match against Karpov at the same location, with Gorbachev making the first move for Karpov. The match with Karpov ended in a 3–3 tie, with each player winning two games and two draws. Their first match had taken place in September 2004. That also ended up in a 3–3 tie.
In June 2006, Polgar organized and played in the 2006 New York City Mayor's Cup, a 30-minute competition and the highest-rated double round robin tournament in US history. She finished second, behind Gata Kamsky
Gata Kamsky
Gata Kamsky is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and the current World Rapid Chess Champion. He is also the current United States Chess Champion. As of September 2011, he is rated No. 1 in the United States and No...
and ahead of Alexander Onischuk
Alexander Onischuk
Alexander Onischuk is an American chess grandmaster. Originally from Ukraine, he immigrated to the US in 2001 and currently lives in Northern Virginia. He was the 2006 U.S. Chess Champion...
, Boris Gulko, Ildar Ibragimov
Ildar Ibragimov
Ildar Ibragimov is a chess Grandmaster. Born in Kazan, Russia, he was equal first alongside Kramnik and Kharlov at the 1991 USSR Under 26 Championship. He received the Grandmaster title in 1993. He now competes for the United States, where he has lived since 2002. He was a co-winner of the 2004...
, and Alex Stripunsky. In July 2006, Polgar represented the US in a side event to the Football World Cup in Dresden, Germany. She easily won the event by defeating International Master Elisabeth Pähtz
Elisabeth Pähtz
Elisabeth Pähtz is a German chess Woman Grandmaster.She was trained from early childhood by her father Thomas Pähtz, a chess grandmaster himself. At the age of 9 years she won her first German championship in the under-11 age group. In 1999 she became Germany's women's chess champion...
in the final.
Texas Tech Knight Raiders
In 2007, Susan Polgar signed on as the head coach for the Texas Tech Knight Raiders chess team. In 2010, she became the first woman to lead a men’s Division I team to the Final Four. In April 2011, the Texas Tech Knight Raiders became the best college chess team in the nation by winning the President's Cup: The Final Four in College Chess As the Knight Raiders coach, Polgar again broke another gender barrier as the first ever female head coach to lead a men’s Division I team to the national title.Notable chess games
Here is a brilliancy Polgar won at age 16:Zsuzsa Polgar–Hardicsay, Hungarian Team Championship 1985 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nf3 g6 7.Bf4 a6 8.e4 Bg7 9.Qa4+ Bd7 10.Qb3 Bg4?! 11.Qxb7 Bxf3 Hardicsay had won a game a few months before after 12.gxf3 Nh5, when Black has good compensation for the sacrificed pawn after either 13.Be3 Nd7 or 13.Bg3 Nxg3 14.hxg3 Nd7. 12.Qxa8! Nxe4 13.Rc1! This was a theoretical novelty; Black had been thought to be better after 13.Nxe4 Bxe4. 13...Bd4 After 13...Nxc3 14.bxc3 Be4 15.f3 Bf5 16.g4, Black would have no good retreat for his bishop, e.g. 16...Bd7 17.Bxd6. 14.Rc2 Nxf2?! 14...Nxc3 15.gxf3! also leaves White with a large advantage. 15.Rxf2 Bxf2+ 16.Kxf2 Bg4 (See diagram at below left.) 17.Bb5+! axb5 18.Re1+ Kf8 If 18...Kd7, 19.Qb7+ Qc7 20.Re7+! wins the queen. 19.Bh6+ Kg8 (See diagram at below middle.) 20.Re7! Paralyzing Black and stopping any counterplay with ...Qh4+. The rook is immune because 20...Qxe7 21.Qxb8+ forces mate. 20...Bd7 21.Qxb8! Qxb8 22.Ne4! 1–0 Although Black is up a queen for a knight, he cannot stop 23.Nf6#. (Notes based on Polgar's notes in Queen of the Kings Game pp. 234–37 and in Chess Informant
Chess Informant
Chess Informant is a publishing company from Belgrade that periodically produces a book of the same name, as well as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, Encyclopaedia of Chess Endings, Opening Monographs, other print publications, and software Chess Informant (Šahovski Informator) is a...
, volume 40, game 117.)
The Susan Polgar Foundation
The Susan Polgar Foundation is a 501(c)(3) corporation established in 2002 and supported by charitable donations. "The mission of the Susan Polgar Foundation is to promote chess, with all its educational, social, and competitive benefits throughout the United States, for young people of all ages, especially girls." The Foundation sponsors the National Invitational for Girls, National Open Championship for Girls , World Open Championship for Girls, All-Star Girl’s Chess Team, NY City Mayor’s Cup Invitational, and Tri-State Scholastic Chess Challenge.The SPICE Institute and SPICE Cup
On May 12, 2007, Polgar was the undergraduate commencement speaker at Texas Tech UniversityTexas Tech University
Texas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...
. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate degree. On the same day, as reported on the LubbockOnline website, it was announced that she would become the coach of the Texas Tech chess team and would be the director of the new Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE). In 2008, SPICE announced an extremely generous pledge from a private donor, who provided $320,000 for TTU chess scholarships over the next five years.
In 2007 Texas Tech and Susan Polgar hosted the first SPICE Cup which has since become the highest rated international round robin chess tournament held in the United States. The SPICE Cup draws tens of millions of viewers worldwide, who are able to follow the event online. In October 2010, the SPICE Cup became the highest rated international invitational chess tournament in US History. In 2008, the SPICE Cup rated category 15. It jumped to category 16 in 2009. SPICE Cup 2010 rated category 16 (2631 average FIDE rating) but for 2011 the SPICE Cup has a preliminary two 2700+ player for the first time with negotiations in process with four or five other similarly ranked players, and will potentially rate 17/18.
Composer
Susan Polgar composed her first chess problemChess problem
A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by somebody using chess pieces on a chess board, that presents the solver with a particular task to be achieved. For instance, a position might be given with the instruction that White is to move first, and checkmate Black in two...
(see diagram) at the age of four. She is considered the youngest composer
Chess composer
A chess composer is a person who creates endgame studies or chess problems. He usually specializes in a particular genre, e.g. endgame studies, twomovers, threemovers, moremovers, helpmates, selfmates, fairy problems...
of a published chess problem. Formerly, the record was held by Elliot Franklin Eichholtz.
Author
Polgar has written several books, often in conjunction with Paul TruongPaul Truong
Paul Truong is an American chess player, trainer, promoter, and organizer.-Biography:Truong was born Hoainhan Truong in Saigon, South Vietnam....
, her business manager and (later) husband:
- Queen of the Kings [sic] Game (as Zsuzsa Polgar; with Jacob Shutzman) (1997) ISBN 0-9657059-7-8
- Teach Yourself Chess in 24 Hours (with Paul Truong) (2003)
- A World Champion's Guide to Chess (with Paul Truong) (2005) ISBN 0-8129-3653-1
- Breaking Through (2005) (with Paul Truong) ISBN 0-02-864408-5
- Chess Tactics for Champions (with Paul Truong) (2006) ISBN 0-8129-3671-X
Polgar is also a chess journalist, with columns in Chess Life
Chess Life
Chess Life is a monthly chess magazine published in the United States. The official publication of the United States Chess Federation , it reaches more than a quarter of a million readers every month. A subscription to Chess Life is one of the benefits of Full Adult, Youth, or Life membership in...
, Chess Life for Kids, ChessCafe, Chess Horizons, Georgia Chess, Chessville, Empire Chess, School Mates, Europe Echecs, etc., and she publishes a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
with daily updates about chess news and daily chess exercise problems. She has released a series of 11 instructional chess DVDs.
US Chess Federation and World Chess Federation
In December 2006, she announced that she would run for election to the executive board of the United States Chess FederationUnited States Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...
. Polgar, Randy Bauer
Randy Bauer
Randy Bauer is a chess master and a member of the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation.He was first elected to the board for a one-year term in 2004...
, and Paul Truong
Paul Truong
Paul Truong is an American chess player, trainer, promoter, and organizer.-Biography:Truong was born Hoainhan Truong in Saigon, South Vietnam....
—three of four of Polgar's slate—were elected to four-year terms. She was elected as the first ever chairman of the USCF.
On October 2, 2007, one of the candidates for the Executive Board position, who had been defeated by Susan Polgar, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of the 2007 election, alleging misconduct. Polgar denied any wrongdoing. Polgar and Truong filed suit against the USCF, who counter-sued them, with both sides issuing a variety of allegations. The suit alleging election campaign misconduct was ultimately dismissed by the court.
On January 15, 2008, four Board members issued a statement which requested Susan Polgar's husband step down from his position on the Board for "neglecting his fiduciary duties" through not providing an affirmative defense to the lawsuit. This was not, however, an official vote of the Executive Board. Polgar subsequently published a statement asserting that the Board members who voted in favor of this request made a number of misrepresentations.
On August 7, 2009, the Executive Board of the USCF rescinded the membership of Polgar and her husband, and they appealed to the Board of Delegates of the USCF. On August 8, 2009, the Delegates of the USCF ratified the previous year's actions of the Executive Board with respect to the litigation. In a closed Executive Session, the Delegates upheld the membership revocations. The lawsuits were all settled in 2010, with Polgar and Truong severing all affiliation with the USCF (though both still play in USCF events under "Playing Non-Member Status"); the USCF's court costs of $131,000 were paid out by its insurer and it had to pay Polgar's attorney fees of $39,000.
In January 2009, Susan Polgar was appointed Co-Chairperson of the Board of the Commission for Women's Chess for the World Chess Federation FIDE, a position she continues to hold.
External links
- Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE)
- Polgar's blogs for her Chess Center, Chess, Girls and Chess for Peace