Hungary – Home of the Polgár
Sisters!
The Polgár sisters, born in Budapest, Hungary, are amazing like no other chess-playing siblings in the world.
They are Jewish. Sadly, during WWII, the Nazis murdered members of the Polgár family in the Holocaust.
Amazingly, their grandmother was an Auschwitz concentration camp survivor. Had the grandmother died at Auschwitz, the world today would not have the Polgár sisters!
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár, a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, is considered the strongest female chess player of all time for good reason.
Judit is the first, and to date only, woman to earn a 2700+ rating! She reached a career peak rating of 2735 and and was ranked #8 overall in the world in 2005–the highest ranking ever for a woman.
Another record broken! Judit earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the youngest player to have done so, breaking former World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer’s record!
MOST AMAZING CHESS ACCOMPLISHMENT: Judit Polgár is the only woman to have won a game against a reigning world #1 ranked player!
In addition, Judit has defeated 11 current or former World Champions in either Rapid Chess or Classical Chess: Magnus Carlsen, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Spassky, Vasily Smyslov, Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Ruslan Ponomariov, Alexander Khalifman, and Rustam Kasimdzhanov. AMAZING!
In September 2015, Judit retired from competitive play.
Judit, 44 years old now, was born July 23, 1976 in Budapest.
See Judit’s sisters Susan and Sofia’s
CHESS ACCOMPLISHMENTS BELOW!
The Path to Chess Accomplishments Can Begin Here!
The World’s Best Selling Scholastic Chess Workbooks!
Beginner’s Book – Chess Rules For Students
“Knights Battle”
Chess Rules For Students is a workbook for students learning the game of chess and for beginning students returning to the game. No previous knowledge of chess is necessary. Parents unfamiliar with chess will find this booklet a valuable guide to their child’s new interest.
Chess Rules For Students is designed with students, coaches, and parents in mind. Reading level is appropriate for grade-school use. All major rules of chess are covered, and algebraic notation worksheets are included. Each page is in easy-to-use worksheet format. A student-friendly Answer Key makes self-correction fun!
Beginners & Intermediate Book – Checkmate! Ideas For Students
“Knight Checkmates King!”
Checkmate! Ideas For Students is a workbook for beginning and intermediate students. Checkmate! covers the tactics used in checkmate attacks with clear explanations, diagrams and arrows to pinpoint the key features.
Unlike many other basic checkmate books, Checkmate! categorizes the checkmates by the tactics used to force the checkmate–like Pins, Sacrifices, Removing the Guard, Attraction, Clearance and Attacking Flight Squares–rather than only the checkmate pattern itself. The worksheets and Answer Key are clear and simple for the student to use, and easy for the parent, teacher and coach to correct! Fun!
Intermediate & Advanced Book – Chess Tactics For Students
“Profiles Face-Off in King’s Shadow”
Chess Tactics For Students contains 434 carefully selected problems in worksheet format.
Chess Tactics has been extensively field tested with elementary, middle-school, and high-school students over a four-year period. This book is ideal for independent seat work as well as for homework and classroom instruction. The worksheet format and Answer Key enable self-correction with minimal dependence or direct help from a chess teacher, coach, or parent.
Susan Polgár
Susan Polgár is a Hungarian-born American chess Grandmaster. She is a former Women’s World Chess Champion, a chess teacher, coach, writer, promoter and the head of Webster University’s chess program in St. Louis, Missouri.
MOST AMAZING CHESS ACCOMPLISHMENT: In July 1984 at the age of 15, Susan became the top-ranked woman player in the world, and remained ranked in the top three 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 Chess Championship cycle.
Susan was the Women’s World Chess Champion from 1996 to 1999–in Classical Chess time control. She also won the World Blitz and Rapid Championships in 1992. In October 2005, Susan had a rating of 2577, making her the #2 ranked woman in the world at the time, after her younger sister Judit.
Susan, now 51 years old, was born April 19, 1969 in Budapest.
Sofia Polgár
