Peeking into the minds of top performers can be a fascinating experience. One gets to see a glimpse of the rigors that produce the performance we all see.
The Queen of Chess gave me a sneek peak into the background of the greatest female player of all time, Judit Polgar.
Most of us have some knowledge about her story coming up but the documentary does a deeper dive into it. It highlights the challenges growing up in a communist regime in Hungary at that time.
Judit's parents were both teachers. Her father seemed hooked on the idea of raising geniuses and decided to run an experiment to prove this. The basis is that he focuses on one special area from early childhood hoping that success in that area would lead to other areas.
Judit started learning chess at 5 years old with 2 elder sisters who were equally go at the game. I believe the experiment was fully formed at that time which hastened her improvement. She won her very first tournament 1 year later.
Despite the pushback from the Hungarian government and the chess federation, the Polgar sisters competed favourably even in male competitions. Their passports were revoked at some point to prevent them from playing abroad. They finally got the opportunity to play abroad after international recognition and pressure was mounting.
The Polgar sisters made their first joint appearance in the 1988 Chess Olympiad in Greece. They made history by winning the gold medal ending a streak of eleven consecutive wins by the Soviet Union. Judit Polgar (12yrs at the time) finished with a whooping 12.5/13 and a performance rating of 2694 on board 2. They returned back to Hungary as the "Golden Girls".
Judit broke the belief that women could not be as good as men in chess. She became the youngest ever Grandmaster at 15yrs and 4months and won lots of open tournaments on her way to that feat.
Over the course of her career, she defeated 11 current or former world champions. However, the documentary focused on her rivalry with Garry Kasparov who she was unable to defeat until the 15th encounter. She made history with this win because it was the first time a woman defeated the world's No 1 chess player. She entered into the world's top ten the following year.
Judit was the No 1 ranking female player for 26years. She announced her retirement in 2014. She founded the Judit Polgar Chess Foundation which aims to improve various skills (problem solving, strategic thinking) with the help of chess.
Her story resonated with me because of all the adversities she had to go through. She is a dogged fighter both on and off the board. It also strengthens the argument for nurture over nature proving that super performers can be created in any field.
You can watch the Queen of Chess on Netflix. Let me know what you think.