"Judit Polgar won her first chess tournament in 1981 when, at the age of six, she marmalised a string of middle-aged Hungarians and toddled off with a swanky Boris Diplomat Bd-1 Electronic Chess Computer. I was a killer, says the amiable 49-year-old in Netflix documentary Queen of Chess. I wanted to kill my opponents. I would sacrifice everything to get checkmate."
"if you want to become the best, she says with a wry smile, it's very important to have the challenges. Ah, yes. The challenges. But with which to start? Queen of Chess a rhapsodic account of the life of the greatest female chess player of all time is spoiled for choice. There is the punishing chess-training regime, designed as an experiment by Polgar's educational psychologist father Laszlo to prove geniuses are made, not born. (School and weekends were banned so every day was a working day.)"
Judit Polgar won her first tournament at age six in 1981 and took home a Boris Diplomat Bd-1 Electronic Chess Computer. She embraced a ruthless competitive mentality, willing to sacrifice everything to achieve checkmate. Archive footage shows stunned, middle-aged opponents and Polgar’s fierce bowl-cut scowl. Her father Laszlo implemented a punishing training regime to demonstrate that geniuses are made, banning school and weekends so every day was devoted to chess. The family faced passport confiscation under the communist regime. Polgar and her sisters Susan and Sofia endured relentless sexism from male grandmasters who questioned women's chess abilities.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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