Judit Polgar of Hungary, the strongest female chess player of all time, will be inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame during the 6th Annual Strategy Across the Board Gala hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club and World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) on Saturday, December 3, 2022, in Saint Louis, MO.
“It is a great honour to be recognized for my decade-long contributions to the sport that I love as both a chess player and my work promoting chess, its benefits as an educational tool, and encouraging women’s orientation towards chess,” said Judit Polgar. โWe must continue to work to ensure that more girls experience this ancient game’s beauty, knowledge, and benefits. I take every opportunity to convey the message to girls and people around them: strive to make the most of their talents. Because if we do not limit girls, if we encourage and inspire them to persevere and build their confidence, they will succeed in any field of life.โ
Judit Polgar is universally recognized as the strongest female player of all time. She was first rated in the top 100 players in the world at age 12 when she won three gold medals at the 1988 Olympiad in Thessaloniki. This performance also catapulted Judit to the world’s number 1 ranking for women, a position that she maintained for the next 26 years. Judit broke Bobby Fischerโs record as the youngest grandmaster in 1991.
The 1990 Chess Olympiad in Novi Sad was the last women-only tournament in which Judit would ever participate. Polgar is the only woman to have ever reached the Candidates stage in the world, and to have been rated over 2700, reaching a peak of 2735 in 2005. During her career, she defeated 11 current or former world champions in rapid or classical chess. Polgar was a member of the 2014 silver medal-winning Hungarian Olympiad team and won seven other medals in Olympiads.
โWe are excited to recognize Juditโs numerous achievements and contributions to the sport of chess,โ said Shannon Bailey, Chief Curator of the World Chess Hall of Fame. โHer dedication to advancing chess while breaking down barriers for girls and women is an inspiration, and weโre proud to honor her on permanent display at the World Chess Hall of Fame.โ
Judit joins two other exceptional chess players who were also inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fameโs 2021 class earlier this fall, including Miguel Najdorf, whose name is associated with one of the most famous openings in chess, the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense, in addition to being one of the most successful performers in Chess Olympiad history and Eugene Torre, a trailblazer for Asian chess for half a century, achieving a number of continental milestones including the first grandmaster, first to defeat a reigning world champion, and first to reach the Candidates stage of the World Championship.
Inductees of the World Chess Hall of Fame are nominated by the International Chess Federation (Fรฉdรฉration Internationale des รchecs or FIDE) and are chosen for their impact on the sport and have included players, authors, journalists, scholars, organizers and supporters of the game. Each player is commemorated at the World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis with a plaque bearing their image and biography.
To learn more, visit www.worldchesshof.org. For media interviews or a press kit, please contact Brian Flowers at brian.flowers@worldchesshof.org or (314) 243-1571.
