Judit Polgár’s perfect weekend
When she’s not playing in competitions, Judit Polgár, the world’s number one female chess player, spends precious time with her family – but she won’t let her children beat her at her own game.
By Christopher Middleton
3:54PM GMT 04 Dec 2012
I have to write so many emails and letters every day that I’m quite often working until midnight, which makes it all the more difficult when the children wake up early on Saturday morning. I look at my clock and it’s usually about 6.50am!
Being a professional chess player is not very family-friendly and I am away quite often playing tournaments, sometimes for 12 days at a time. I catch up with Gusztav every day on Skype and email but even though I miss them, I don’t make a point of ringing the children every night. Sometimes when you ring home, all you’re doing is reminding them that their mummy isn’t there.
When I get back home, I want to spend as much time with my family as I can. I love just being at home and not having to rush off anywhere so on Saturday morning I might make a big breakfast with freshly-squeezed orange juice, yoghurt, eggs and bacon.
At some point in the day we’ll all go off on a family outing, usually to the aqua park, and afterwards we might go and see a movie. We saw the film Madagascar the other day and really enjoyed that. In the afternoons on Saturday and Sunday I might play puzzles or board games with the children, sometimes even chess. I know that as a parent you should let your children win, but I have to confess that I just can’t allow them to beat me!
I do feel that chess has a huge amount to teach young people: it does so much both to sharpen their visual memory and develop their personality. It also acts as a history lesson because chess has 1,500 years of culture behind it, and is very helpful for learning maths; a chess board has 64 squares, eight across by eight down, and you have 32 different pieces involving six types of characters, each with their own story and different way of moving.
Yes, it is a game, but it is serious at the same time. It teaches you to compete, but it also teaches you to have respect for your opponents. And it makes no difference what your skin colour is, what age you are or whether you are male or female.
My parents were determined that my two sisters and I should grow up to become chess experts, partly to prove that in a mental and intellectual challenge, women could be the equals of men.
It was very hard work and we had to be dedicated. By the age of nine, I was playing in competitions in New York. By 12, I had started to beat my sisters, and by age 15, I had become the world’s youngest ever Grandmaster (beating the previous record, held by Bobby Fischer). In 2005, I was eighth in the world men’s rankings.
Over the years, I have beaten nine past or present world champions, including Karpov, Kasparov and Spassky. In the early days, my sister Susan used to say that she had never won against a healthy man, because every time she beat a male competitor he would come up with an excuse, like a headache or stomach ache.
For many years, I always wore trousers when I was playing a tournament. I never wore a skirt or any kind of revealing or provocative clothes, quite the reverse. I didn’t want people saying I had only won a match because I had somehow distracted my male opponent. As a woman, it took me a long time to be accepted, but in the end the men got so used to me that they started to see me as one of them.
That said, of course, we live in a different world today with different circumstances and values. Gusztav and I want to give our children the opportunity to fulfil their potential in as wide a range of areas as possible, not just in one particular field.
I do suffer when I lose a match, and I now know what it must have felt like for the men I beat in the past; these days, if I lose to someone younger, there is always talk about whether I am going downhill, losing it.
It hurts to lose, of course it does, but I do my suffering in private, after the match is over. You learn early on that when you return from a tournament overseas the one thing you should never bring home with you is your disappointment.
In short
Town or country girl?
I was brought up in the countryside and because my life in the city is so busy I love to spend time out of town.
Cold or hot weather?
Half way between the two. Spring is my favourite!
Skirt or trousers?
Definitely trousers when I’m in a chess competition. I don’t want people saying I’m playing on my femininity.
Rural or urban view?
I love to look out from our flat on the Buda side of Budapest, towards the castle.
Film or theatre?
Theatre. But you have to book in advance and my husband prefers the movies, so more often than not we end up at the cinema.
Judit’s favourite things
Still water
Swimming
Lie-ins
Coming home
African safaris
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Nice interview.
excellent interview.
Judith is a great player no doubt,but no need to flaunt it or make valid excuses. I don’t see Anand for instance doing it!
judit is the best
father Time and Carlsen wait for no man or woman!