Polgar family in BBC Radio Documentary

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011vhdc

Afternoon Play

The Chess Girls (Susan, Sofia, and Judit Polgar)

The emergence of the Polgar sisters in the 1970s and 80s rocked the chess world. In a heavily male dominated game, the three Hungarian girls (Susan, Sofia, and Judit Polgar) broke record after record. The youngest, Judit, was talked of as a potential world champion.

The Chess Girls is the story of their parents, Laszlo and Klara Polgar, and how they defied the Communist authorities to conduct a remarkable educational experiment. Laszlo Polgar, convinced that any healthy child can be trained to become a genius, set out to prove his theory with his own children.

This is a drama-documentary with excerpts from an interview with Laszlo and Klara Polgar recorded for the play. The writer, Lavinia Greenlaw, takes their account and re-creates the lives of the young Polgar family in their tiny Budapest flat. The fictional Laszlo is played by Kerry Shale, and Klara by Sally Orrock.

Director: Chris Ledgard.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b011vhdc

Aquaprofit - Polgár Chess Day 2010 in Budapest

A short summary about Saturday:

The 4^th Annual Aquaprofit - PolgárChess Day was held this past Saturday. It was a great success as usual, despite the major snow storm that hit Budapest the night before. Around 500 chess fans weathered the snow storm to celebrate the now traditional “Day of Celebration of Chess and its Queens”.

I am impressed by the tremendous interest for chess and this event year after year. There was a huge amount of mainstream media interest (which is not typical for chess) including most major TV stations, before, during and after the actual event. Of course it was great timing for the publicity of the event that Judit just came back a few days earlier from Mexico City with a spectacular victory over Ivanchuk and Topalov to win the UNAM Invitational.

There was one major change from previous years. The Aquaprofit – Polgár Chess Day got extended to a full day event instead of only an afternoon spectacle. Therefore, numerous new colorful activities were added to the program.

Some of them include the two exhibition games Judit and I played in front of the live audience. In the first one, we played while sharing our thoughts by explaining our though-process during our game with the enthusiastic audience in separate rooms (I won that game). The moves were transmitted by cell phones and then we met up to play face to face in the latter part of the game. The second game was a “Trust-Chess” blitz game, (where all the pieces were silver looking, packaged in foil-paper), in which Judit nicely swindled me at the end and balanced the score 1-1.

Sofia gave an hour-long well-attended lecture for beginners, which served also as an introduction to my sisters’ new book: Chess Playground http://polgarchess.com.

The book is aimed to introduce chess to the youngest audience, and is full of chess drawing, rhymes and puzzles. The book, which is already available in Hungarian as well as in English, is being used as the manual in one of the elite Kindergartens in Budapest where chess became part of the curriculum since this Fall. Pre-K students have one hour long chess session weekly, while K, has it twice a week.

The co-authors Sofia and Judit had a book-signing of their first book together. Volume two is already on its way.

The highlight of the event (which also included a press-conference, Q/A, autograph and photo sessions with the fans) was the usual 100 board simul by the three sisters. Among our opponents were numerous celebrities such as Andrea Temesvari, Ivan Fischer, and Marci Eszterhazy, just to mention a few. Also many GMs supported the event with their presence, such as the currently top-ranked Hungarian Zoltan Almasi, chess-legend Pal Benko (82) or the nation’s newest GM and Texas Tech Knight Raider Gergely Antal, etc.

I also went on a chess show, hosted by GM Gabor Kallai, on a major Hungarian Sports TV station (similar to ESPN) in the United States. We discussed the Aquaprofit – Polgár Chess Day, Judit’s spectacular success in Mexico, including her final game victory over Topalov, as well as Texas Tech Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence, the Knight Raiders, and the unprecedented success of the program, etc.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the sponsors and organizers of this wonderful day of “Chess Celebration”, and specifically the main sponsor Aquaprofit and its director Mr. Tamas Nadasi. And of course the initiative of my sister Judit whose brainchild project became a wonderful tradition.

Aquaprofit Polgár Chess Day

MI A KÖZÖS A POLGÁR NÕVÉREKBEN?

Mind a három Polgár-lány kétszeres olimpiai bajnok. Mádl Ildikóval csapatot alkotva 1988-ban Szalonikiben és 1990-ben Újvidéken is megtörték a szovjet sakkozó nõk hegemóniáját. Mind a három Polgár-lány kétgyermekes anya. Érdekes megjegyezni, hogy a 6 gyermekükbõl az elsõ 5 fiú, és csak Judit második gyermeke leány. A világ minden táján tartanak bemutatókat és adnak interjúkat, ahol büszkén vallanak magyarságukról, budapesti gyermekéveikrõl. Igaznak tûnik a mondás: „A Polgár-lányok felérnek három külügyminiszterrel!"

Polgár Zsuzsa

A magyar sakkozás egyetlen felnõtt világbajnoka. Négyszer játszott sakkolimpián, ahol (egyéni érmein kívül) csapatainak két aranyérmet és egy ezüstérmet szerzett Magyarországnak, majd 2004-ben, Calviában a sakktörténelemben elõször dobogós amerikai csapatot segítette ezüstéremhez! A Texas Tech Egyetem

díszdoktora, az egyetem sakk tanszékének vezetõje. Több mint 10 éve New Yorkban él. Az amerikai sakkozás mára talán legismertebb és legelismertebb alakja, emellett a magyar sakkozás és Magyarország hûséges képviselõje.

Polgár Zsófia

Igazi mûvészlélek! Gyönyörû támadójátszmái és taktikai megoldásai legszebb gyõzelmeit halhatatlanná teszik. 1989-ben Rómában minden idõk egyik legértékesebb teljesítményét nyújtva 2928-as performanszot ért el. Ezen a versenyen 9-bõl 8,5 pontot szerzett, a torna egy szakaszában, zsinórban három szovjet nagymestert gyõzött le. A közelmúltig családjával Izraelben élt, ahol korábban a Kaszparov Sakkakadémiát vezette. Mintegy egy éve a férje munkája miatt Kanadába költöztek. Manapság ritkábban játszik, „civil" végzettsége belsõépítész.

Polgár Judit

Minden idõk legerõsebb nõi sakkozója. Abszolút világrekord, hogy immár huszonnyolcadszor vezeti a nõi világranglistát! (Kaszparov a saját kategóriájában csak 23-ig jutott). A világ legjelentõsebb férfi versenyeinek legkedveltebb résztvevõje, melyet nem csak azzal érdemelt ki, hogy a férfi világranglista elsõ 10 játékosa közé

küzdötte magát, hanem bátor, megalkuvás nélküli sakkstílusával is rengeteg barátot szerzett. Fiatal kora ellenére élõ sakklegenda! Tavaly hozzá hasonló sakklegendákkal, Kaszparovval és Karpovval együtt ünnepelhette Korcsnoj és a Swiss Bank születésnapját. Judit egymaga a világ sportjának külön kategóriája, szerte a világban a legismertebb magyar hölgy. Példa arra, hogy a nõk az élet minden területén felvehetik a versenyt a férfiakkal. A férfiak döntõ többségének azonban jobb, ha a sakktáblán nem versenyez Judittal! Budapesten él, a 2002-es sakkolimpiai ezüstérmes férficsapatunk „hõse", az Aquaprofit sakkcsapatának tagja!

http://www.aquaprofit.com/sakknap/

Chess What Matters

Click here or on the image to view the video.

Chess What Matters

Saturday, February 20, 2010

John-Thomas Kobos

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Two of the world's highest ranked chess players checked in to the Central Valley Saturday afternoon to battle brave locals.

Organized competitive chess started in the 16-Century.

Players claim it takes minutes to learn but years to master.

Well, Saturday afternoon in Clovis 100 players had the chance to square off one by one against International Master Sofia Polgar and her older sister Susan Polgar an International Grandmaster.

"I'm sure there's some kind of anxiety but on the otherhand it's an experience to play a former world champion and it's hopefully a lifelong experience for them," said Susan.

Sophia added: "It's a great way to interact and make new friends."

Both sisters, who are world renowned and top of their fields, acknowledged they can be a bit intimidating and so does their competition.

"They're human beings but their skill level is something I aspire to," said teacher P.R. Gaffney.

10-year old Gunho Moon said he was probably going to lose pretty fast because: "I'm not so good at chess." He added, "My dad wanted me to play."

However, 10-year old Gunho Moon said he is excited to participate.

These sisters will alternate moves on each board until the game is over and they cannot discuss strategy. This is the first time they've ever been challenged this way.

Susan said: "It's more of a challenge than if we were to play separately on 50 boards each because our styles are different."

Here is the full article.