Judit Polgar

World Chess

Hall of Fame

Inducted 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Judit Polgar is universally recognized as the strongest female player of all time. She was first rated in the top 100 players in the world at age 12 and three years later broke Bobby Fischer’s record as the youngest grandmaster. Polgar is the only woman to have ever reached the candidates stage of the world championship cycle, to have been ranked in the top ten players in the world, and to have been rated over 2700, reaching a peak of 2735 in 2005. During her career she defeated 11 current or former world champions in rapid or classical chess. Polgar was a member of the 2014 silver medal winning Hungarian Olympiad team and won seven other medals in Olympiads.

Notable Games

Bill Hook

Jana Maskova (Czechoslovakia) vs. Judit Polgar (Hungary) at the 1988 Thessaloniki, Greece, Chess Olympiad

1988

4 x 6 in.

Photograph

Collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame, gift of the U.S. Chess Center

 

Inside Chess, Vol 1, No. 8

April 20, 1988

Collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame, gift of John Donaldson