Judit Polgar: The Girl Who Beat the Chess Masters

In July 2026, Hungary's prime minister asked a retired chess player to become the country's president. She turned him down, but the fact that a nation saw a unifying head of state in Judit Polgar says everything about her legacy as the strongest female chess player in history.This episode traces her journey from the subject of her father's radical educational experiment in Budapest to a record-breaking grandmaster, exploring how a controlled childhood and relentless focus shattered centuries of gender bias on the board.Her father Laszlo's belief that genius is built, not born, and his homeschool curriculum of chess and EsperantoPlaying blindfold chess and winning prize money as a young childRefusing to play in women-only tournaments and breaking the Soviet streak at the 1988 OlympiadBreaking Bobby Fischer's record as youngest grandmaster at 15The Kasparov touch-move controversy at Linares and her decisive 2002 victory over him