Living Proof of the Saying "Genius Is Not Born, Genius is Become": The Polgar Brothers

They are the queens of the chess world. Three inspiring sisters who have been successful in chess all their lives. They are also the living experiments of their father, psychologist Laszlo Polgar. Because Laszlo Polgar had developed a theory on his unborn children. For him, “genius” was not an inborn trait, but something that could be created later. That’s why he got married, and when his first daughter, Suzan, was born in 1969, he began testing this theory on her.

While he wanted to improve her daughter Suzan in mathematics, he decided to improve her on chess when she took the chessboard she found at home and started asking questions. He educated himself first, and then his daughter. And by the time Suzan was 5, she was ready for a tournament.

1) Suzan managed to win all 10 matches in the tournament she participated in when she was 5 years old. Having achieved such a success at that age, he made a great impression. By 1980, her name was among the best female athletes in the world. In 1991, he was referred to as a “master” in chess. She proved herself once again in chess as the World Women’s Champion between 1996-1999.

Suzan currently runs a chess center in the USA. If you also own a chess foundation, Suzan aims to raise successful athletes by encouraging children to play chess.

2) In 1974, the second genius of Laszlo Polgar was born. In 1979, when she was just 5 years old, Sofia became the champion of Hungary in the 11-year-old girls group. She was young, but her success was great. In 1986, she continued to follow her sister’s footsteps and became the 14-year-old Girls’ Group World Champion. Determined Sofia did not settle for these and broke her own record of success by winning 8 games in a row among the best male chess players in Rome. With this success, it took its place among the top 5 performances in history.

Sofia is a successful painter, graphic designer and chess player. He currently has a website about his work. You can access the site here.

3) In 1976, the youngest “genius” was born. It was not as early as her sister’s that Judit began her chess training. Although he did not receive any training in chess until he was 5 years old, he already had a good command of chess due to the environment he grew up in.

4) In 1988, she achieved her first success as the World 12 Age General Category Champion. A year later, she was named 55th among the hundred best athletes. In 1991, she broke a great record and became the youngest grandmaster in the world. By 2005, Judit was at the top.

Judit is currently the coach of the Hungarian National Chess Team.

5) This is how Father Laszlo Polgar proved his “genius” claim that he made over his unborn children. So how did that happen?

6) Chess studies started at a young age physically changed the structure of the brain. With the development of their pattern recognition abilities, their success has increased exponentially. The Polgar sisters also used the part of the brain that we all use to recognize faces when playing chess.

7) This means that they actually defined their opponent’s moves beforehand and acted accordingly.

8) In those years, chess was considered a game for boys, and the Polgar Sisters proved years ago that the game could not have a gender. Father Laszlo Polgar said the following sentences on the subject in an interview: