Got game?

The University of Missouri Tigers and the St. Louis University Billikens were never among the contenders for the NCAA college basketball championship. But on Sunday, Webster University won its fourth straight Final Four victory — in chess. Webster is again the No. 1-ranked college chess team in the United States.

This powerhouse team began its rise to the top soon after it was formed in 2012 and a coach was hired. This isn’t just any coach. She’s considered one of the finest chess players in history.

Susan Polgar doesn’t look particularly menacing. The 46-year-old suburban Jewish mother of two has a friendly smile and a melodious Hungarian accent. You wouldn’t think she was a fierce competitor who is a master of strategy and thinks several dozen moves ahead.

Polgar achieved the rank of Women’s International Master in 1982 and International Master in 1984. In 1991, she attained the highest title a chess player can reach: Grandmaster. She is a multiple U.S. Olympic medalist and she has won four Women’s World Championships. She was the first woman to qualify for the Men’s World Championship Cycle in 1986.

Look through chess record books and Polgar’s name comes up repeatedly. She holds the Olympics scoring streak record of 56 consecutive games (31 wins, 25 draws, 0 losses). In August, 2005, she set a Guinness World Record for playing the most consecutive games in 24 hours (a total of 326, with 309 wins, 14 ties and three losses).

After her competitive career ended and Polgar became a collegiate coach, she continued to rack up records. That included five straight Final Four Championships. The first two were as coach of Texas Tech in 2011 and 2012. Despite those wins, Texas Tech’s leadership decided chess was no longer a priority, and the university slashed the scholarship budget. Polgar told them that was unacceptable and began searching for a new home base.

In the summer of 2011, she visited a half-dozen universities. Webster University wasn’t even on the list, and Polgar was close to signing an agreement with another school when she heard from Webster Provost Julian Schuster, who wanted to begin a chess program. She arrived in St. Louis with a deep base of competitive chess knowledge – and a team, many of whom transferred from Texas Tech.

As soon as she arrived in St. Louis, the wins started piling up for Webster University. A 2012 New York Times article compared Polgar’s move to a what-if scenario in which Duke University’s legendary basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski moved to another college and took Duke’s starting lineup with him.

Looking for the competitive edge

In addition to serving as head coach of the Webster University chess team, Polgar is director of SPICE – the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence – at Webster. She and her husband, Paul Truong, who also is a champion chess player, run the SPICE program. Polgar also operates the Susan Polgar Foundation, a nonprofit organization geared toward promoting the educational benefits of chess for young people, especially girls.

In early March, she was focused primarily on prepping her Webster team for the upcoming collegiate matches to determine the Final Four winner. Polgar regularly studies the motivational techniques of successful coaches in other sports. Ever the competitor, she’s always looking for an edge.

“We’re learning about our opponents, we try to analyze and dissect their games from recent years,” she said. “And we have a database of 7 million games, so from that we study our opponents’ games and look at their strengths and weaknesses, and try to come up with a game plan based on that.”

You might not realize it, but chess is a physically demanding game, so she makes sure her team members have the stamina to maintain focus over a lengthy match.

“For people who play at a professional level or at a very high level, chess can be a very grueling game,” Polgar said. “Chess is an easy game to learn but a difficult game to master, and if you want to compete at a high level or on the national stage, a game can go easily five to six hours. The students at the Final Four will have to play two games a day, and that’s not even counting the preparation time. You need stamina and endurance.”

A coach must keep team members focused on the prize and make sure they are prepared to compete. Polgar is an expert at both, according to Lim Le, one of the elite members of the Webster University chess team.

“She’s a really good coach,” said Le, 25. “She takes care of a lot of things, not just on the chess board, but she also makes sure we eat well and sleep well, that nothing bothers us. She helps us prepare for opponents by knowing their strengths and weaknesses, and recommends strategy for each opponent, so she is very important to my success.”

Le’s teammate Ray Robson, 21, said his chess game has improved since joining the Webster University team because Polgar “can see all the things that are good and bad about my game, and she focuses on the things I need to improve on.”

Robson and Le were nationally ranked chess players before coming to St. Louis. They chose Webster because of Polgar’s leadership and because the city has become something of a renowned chess capital. The World Chess Hall of Fame moved to the Central West End in September 2011, adjoining the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis.

Source: http://www.stljewishlight.com