Tuesday, December 04, 2007 11:59:00 PM
Queen’s gambit
Vikas Hotwani
Chess Grand Master Susan Polgar is living proof of her dad’s theory that geniuses are made, not born
If you thought the sporting world just revolves around cricket and soccer, Woman Chess Grandmaster Susan Polgar has news for you.
“Actually, chess is the most popular game in the world — not only do people play it professionally, it’s a very popular past time as well. If the general perception does not point to this, it’s because chess is not given that competitive recognition,” says Polgar when After Hours caught up with her during one of her rare visits to India.
“This is my second visit to the country. The first time I came was in 1999 and I must say, the pace of development is phenomenal,” she notes.
Susan is today also acknowledged for changing the sexist perception towards the game.
“Before I came in, chess was seen to be a male-dominated game. However, my sister (GM Judit Polgar) and me, along with many other women who subsequently got involved with the game, turned that theory around. Today there are more women in the game than ever before,” she says.
Here is the full story and here is the video.
Fantastic documentary! Brilliant!
Chess is still a male-dominated game, and it may be that women have more common sense than to get involved.
Assuming that women are just as capable of learning chess as men, Susan Polgar’s achievements should be judged in gender-neutral terms, and not in women-only terms. It is then that you realise that plenty of players have played better than Susan Polgar.
With Judit Polgar, I think you can argue more clearly that you are getting into genius territory – and she’s still playing competitively.
The Polgar story is a remarkable one, but sadly, I don’t think it created three geniuses. The good news is that all three sisters appear to have survived a rather curious upbringing.
I disagree. She was the #1 ranked junior under 21 in for both girls and boys. But she was not allowed to compete on equal basis. A lot of her time as a youngster was spent fighting for equality while Judit never had to go thru that.