Over 2,000 celebrated Aquaprofit – Polgar Chess Day in Budapest

5th Aquaprofit – Polgar Chess Day
By Diana Mihajlova

In Tirana, while the Women’s World Championship between Hou Yifan and Humpy Koneru was taking place, in Budapest, three ladies synonymous with women’s chess were holding their annual chess event named ‘Chess Day’. On Saturday, 19 November, Judit, Susan and Sofia were greeted by a 2,000 strong audience that came to celebrate the chess legacy of the Polgar sisters.

While Susan, Sofia and Judit Polgar are necessarily connected to the term ‘women’s chess’, paradoxically, they have actually brought women’s chess ever closer to the men’s. It started with Susan narrowing the gap when she resisted the gender barrier and in 1986 qualified for the Men’s World Championship Cycle. It continued with Judit who completely closed the gap by persistently refusing to take part in ‘women only’ competitions. The ‘men’s’ or ‘women’s’ chess is an ongoing debate opened up by the Polgars with an intermediate compromise by creating a new term, ‘Open’, to indicate a mixed tournament where both men and women take part.

‘Women’s chess’ has never been the same, ever since the three little girls from Hungary started shaking chess competitions around the world.

Today, almost 30 years on, they are sophisticated young women that have embraced married life and children, scattered on three continents – Susan in the USA, Sofia in Israel and Judit, ever faithful to her native Budapest.

The ‘Chess Day‘ serves as an opportunity to bring the three sisters together and keep the myth alive. This year it was its fifth edition. It was created in 2007 by Tamas Nadasi, the CEO of ‘Aquaprofit’, an engineering, consulting and investment company, successful internationally. Mr Tamas Nadasi, a chess enthusiast, sponsors many chess events as well as the winning Hungarian national chess team, which in 2009 even enlisted Anand for a round.

Full article here.