Usually, at the end of the year, I write about chess tournaments. Unfortunately, the European Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship moved from Katowice to Zagreb this year. I couldn’t find a convenient flight to Zagreb. I looked for a similar tournament somewhere in Europe where I could easily travel. I found a tournament in Cluj, which is part of the Romanian Grand Prix tournaments. I booked the travel details for Cluj in advance, but it proved too much in advance. For some reason, the organizers moved the tournament from Cluj to Sebes. Sebes is 120 km south of Cluj, hard to reach from Cluj if you don’t have a car, and has few attractions. In these circumstances, I could visit Cluj as a tourist in November or lose the money spent traveling there. I chose the first option, and I am happy with that. Cluj has greatly developed in recent years and is a vibrant and modern city.

Instead of playing chess, I write about the game. In my opinion, the most interesting thing that happened in chess was the Polgar experiment.

Laszlo Polgar, a Hungarian educational psychologist, wanted to prove his idea that geniuses are made and not born. He said he would prove this theory using his children. His theory is “that any child has the innate capacity to become a genius in any chosen field, as long as education starts before their third birthday and they begin to specialize at six.”

Together with his wife Klara, they had three daughters and chose to prove the theory by making the girls champions in the chess field. The chess results are very measurable. For example, in the last 40 years, only two players, Kasparov and Carlsen, were number one globally.

Although it was a hardship during communist times in Hungary, and they had to fight with the authorities, they managed to keep the children out of school and teach them at home. The results started when Susan, the eldest daughter, became the highest-rated woman in the world in 1984. Later, in 1988, the Hungarian women’s team, with all three sisters playing, won the Women’s Chess Olympiad. It was a remarkable result and raised a lot of interest about how that was possible.

One should remember that in the 1980s and 1990s, chess was a game played mostly by men. There were few tournaments for women. Conditions were harsh. For example, players smoking at the table during official games was ordinary. A game lasted 6-7 hours in most cases, with intense fighting each day for nine days or more during a tournament. The girls had to fight mentalities and biases to progress in chess.

Laszlo Polgar, to prove his theory, aimed for his daughters to become not the best women chess players but the best in the world. For this reason, Susan only played in men’s tournaments for a while. In 1991, Susan became the first woman to obtain the title of chess grandmaster according to the rules and not honorary (as the other two women before her). Later, when it became clear that she couldn’t become the world chess champion, she turned towards women’s tournaments. Susan became the Woman World Champion in 1996.

But the most impressive result was obtained by the youngest daughter, Judit. In 1991, the same year as Susan, Judit became a chess grandmaster at age 15 (the youngest GM in the world at that time). She won many tournaments and aimed to become a world chess champion. In 2005, she played in the candidates’ tournament in Argentina. The winner of that tournament with eight players would become the world champion. Judit did not win the title that time. After that event, she was never close to becoming a champion again. Judit was the highest-rated woman in the world for more than 25 years until she retired from playing official events. Her peak rating was 2735, which made her the 8th highest-rated player in the world. For reference, in chess history, only three women made it to the top 100 players in the world, and only Judit to the top 10. It is hard to put into words how huge this accomplishment was.

To better understand the results, let’s look at some data. The average rating of the top 100 best chess players worldwide was 2692 in December 2023. The average of the top 100 women was 2418. There is a gap of 174 ELO points between the top men’s and women’s players.

Recently, FIDE ( the International Chess Federation) published results on the gender gap in chess. The participation of women in tournaments is under 20 percent in most countries and less than 10 percent in developed Western countries. The reduced number of female players is one reason for the gap between men’s and women’s results in chess. But still, there is a big gap even in 2023 between men’s and women’s results.
Based on the above results, Polgar proved his theory is correct. It required a lot of energy and work to achieve these results. Some people condemned Polgar’s experiment, saying he created a “Frankenstein” and put his children to enormous efforts. It is worth mentioning that his children had a successful life outside the chess world. Also, although all are retired these days, their activities are still around chess, and they continue to enjoy the game.

Polgar’s idea is that with educated geniuses, humanity can make breakthroughs in science and medicine. I don’t know if anyone is willing these days to make such an effort with children, given that the world has changed so much. The hope for breakthroughs in science and medicine now relies on artificial intelligence.

This experiment had a positive impact in attracting women to play chess and breaking barriers in this game. Despite the statistics above, the number of women in chess has seriously improved. Susan Polgar was the first woman to have a grandmaster title in 1991. Now, there are 41 grandmasters women worldwide.
Please keep in mind that the theory works only on children. I witnessed older players trying to improve at chess (including myself), and it is much harder to make progress. If you don’t do it while young, forget about developing later.

I’ve been close to the chess world for 30 years and have witnessed how education works and how children are treated by their parents. Polgar’s experiment is unique. In most other cases, the parents pressure children to obtain results. It is a way for parents to achieve the results they could not get in their own lives through their children. This pressure results in children hating the game and quitting it as soon as possible once they can avoid their parents’ authority. This behavior is happening in all sports or domains where there is competition. Only time will say who was right and who was wrong.

I will end with my favorite chess quote: “In every position, there is a move to be found – but you have to search for it! “– Paul Keres.