Judit Polgar is a phenomenon. She is not just the best woman chess player of all time - she is the best by a mile. She's the only woman in the world's top 100 chess players, and at her peak, she was in the top 10.
Polgar was born in Budapest and is one of three chess-playing sisters. The three were part of a controversial experiment conducted by their teacher father Laszlo, whose contention was that "geniuses are not born, but made". He taught his daughters at home and drilled chess into them from an early age.
Although her parents supported her, Polgar encountered other obstacles, especially from male adversaries, who didn’t believe that a woman could play as well as a man. “I had to play against each of these players and beat them so that they would admit that I was one of them,” she added.
Polgar is a powerful inspiration to young women and girls in sport and beyond. Her impressive accomplishments demonstrate how young women and girls can do anything they set their minds to.
