A pioneer for female players
Judit Polgar is universally recognized as the strongest female player of all time. In 1991, when she won the GM title at the age of 15 years and 4 months, she broke the precociousness record previously held by Bobby Fischer. As the Olympics get underway in her native country, the legendary Hungarian has an important platform in Budapest to present her promotional work failures.
A few weeks ago, Polgar spoke to Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam on the New in Chess podcast. What attracted the most attention on social networks were his remarks about women’s chess:
If there’s anything, let’s say one thing, that we could change so that the environment and the lives of girls and women in chess change, I thought it would be possible, and it’s a very good idea to test it, to remove female titles.
Why do we have female titles? Wouldn’t it be better to have ranking titles and not say that they are women or men?
Sometimes, with a very simple thing, very big changes can happen. Because suddenly, women will say to themselves that it doesn’t matter whether I’m playing in an open tournament or in a women’s tournament, my goal is to get this title, this title belongs to my ranking, not to the gender issue, it’s my strength, my knowledge, what I can do.
Here’s the interview in its entirety:
