GM Susan Polgar Visits Silver Knights

Every few months, special guest coaches visit SKCA to teach lessons to students, answer questions, and sometimes even play games against a few lucky challengers. World number four GM Vincent Keymer joined us back in January and added his name to a growing list of superstar guests that includes players like:

• GM Magnus Carlsen

• GM Anish Giri

• GM Judit Polgar

These quarterly sessions are always fun, informative, and offer students a unique opportunity to learn directly from some of the world’s best.

On March 15, another all-star stopped by: GM Susan Polgar! The multi-time world champion taught a lesson on strong offensive play using positions from some of her best games, then held a Q&A session with the attendees. Read on for a recap of the highlights from the event.

Susan Polgar's Best Plays

GM Polgar began the lesson with key moments from games she played as a developing chess player in 1970s-80s Budapest, Hungary, where she grew up under the dual oppression of the Soviet government and misogynist chess culture of the Cold War era, which posited that women were incapable of being strong contenders in the sport. Her memoir “Rebel Queen: The Cold War, Misogyny, and the Making of a Grandmaster” details her journey from learning how to move the pieces to triumphing over both systems and becoming the first woman to earn the GM title through norms and ratings.

Just like her sister Judit, GM Polgar is a lethal strategist and tactician on the chess board. She advised students to always focus solely on the pieces that remain on the board – not those that have already been captured and set aside – and look for potential forcing moves (checks, captures, and attacks on major pieces) for both themselves and their opponents on every turn. 

In the position above, Polgar highlighted how poor calculation can cause a player to inadvertently create opportunities for oppositional threats. Her opponent’s choice to move their knight and offer an even trade removed a key defender from the c7 square, opening the door for her to play Nc7 and fork the opponent’s rook and queen.

Another of GM Polgar’s examples, taken from a round of the first world championship match she ever competed in (which she won), featured a material sacrifice for a positional advantage. She encouraged students not to be afraid to make sacrifices, but to always have a forceful followup move ready if they choose to do so. 

In this game, Polgar gave away one of her bishops to grant herself the space to apply more pressure on the kingside by pushing her pawn to f3. This opened up a path for the dark square bishop to move to f4 and deliver check, making a checkmate imminent. After foreseeing the pawn push and calculating its consequences, her opponent immediately resigned. 

Watch GM Polgar walk through more key moments from her career-highlight games in the clips below:

Q&A With GM Polgar

After the lesson, students were given the opportunity to ask GM Polgar questions about her life, career, and thoughts on the game. Here are some of our favorites:

Gabi: If you had to pick one thing [for developing players] to focus on to improve in chess, what would it be?
Susan Polgar: Tactics is the one most important thing, to make sure your calculation is even better than it is now. Endgames are super important – tactical endgames – and strategy. Those are the most important three. Openings are the least important, I would say. 

Raymond: How many world champions of both genders have you beaten?
SP: Hmm, that’s a good question. I didn’t count. If you count friendly games, more, but in tournament games, I’ve beaten Smyslov, Karpov, Khalifman… yeah, quite a few. I also drew a number of them, like Tal and Spassky.

HR: Who was your first opponent, and how did you feel about the game afterwards?
SP: Well, first, I played my father. He was my first teacher and opponent, and it was special when I won against him for the first time. I tried to learn from each game whether I won, lost, or drew. The first time I went to the chess club, it was very interesting. We went with my father, and it was all guys. I was the only girl, and my father wanted me to play somebody other than him. And when he asked the people playing, “Would you play my little daughter?” They were all laughing at him. They thought it was hilarious. I didn’t understand why it was funny. 

In those days, it was very uncommon for girls to play chess, and I was only four years old. Finally, somebody agreed to play me. They thought my father was using me to get a game because he wanted to play, but no, no, no, he wanted me to play somebody other than him. I managed to play my first game outside of the house with somebody else, and I won some of the games, so that was very special. I realized that chess existed beyond our home.

Check out a few more cool moments from the Q&A here: