Top 35 Judit Polgar Quotes

The biggest challenge is to fulfill your own ideas about yourself.

My style became very technical. I sacrificed a lot of things. I was always hunting for the king, for the mate. I’d forget about my other pieces. Until a point it worked, and I won games that way.

I had a gold medal in olympics at 12. At 14 or 15 I had my career set before me. Because I started so early, I had this daily training. It developed a focus. It became so natural that it was like a native language for me to play chess. That’s why I didn’t feel pressure.

I love chess very much. I love the game, the challenges. I could motivate myself as I was curious about how to improve every game. In chess, it’s very clear that if you make a mistake you are punished. If you play well, you win.

Being professional means 100% is not enough. Number one, two and three in my life was chess. The reality for women is, when a child comes into the picture, priorities change.

I played against men most of my life because our goal was that I wanted to reach the highest potential to be an absolute world champion.

I was very successful from a very young age… there was never a bad period.

And maybe some people do it too much, are too selfish and concentrated on chess. But I think that in all professions you can find a lot of people like that.

Whenever I speak to parents or to kids, I always encourage them that if they believe, if they do the work, if they are really dedicated, then they can do it. No matter whether they are a boy or a girl.

We had a happy childhood, our parents were strict but loving, and I was together with my sisters, who were my best friends.

It’s very important where you put your goals.

I started when I was five, and grew up playing against adults and against men most of the time.

I want to show how rich chess is and what kind of history it has, through culture, literature, and education.

I was happy that at home we were a closed circle and then we went out playing chess and saw the world. It’s a very difficult life and you have to be very careful, especially the parents, who need to know the limits of what you can and can’t do with your child.

I started to become internationally successful starting at the age of 9.

On the highest level, of course there’s a lot of competitiveness and drive in the players. They really want to win. But it’s normal that the players are also just friends. Even very close friends. Or rivals, but in a healthy way.

Of course I got angry when I lost and maybe would cry in my hotel room afterwards. But I would never show it. I didn’t want the men’s pity. I didn’t want to share my pain with them.

I believe that I am as tough as other women who are very successful and have had to prove their abilities over and over again.

There is no better training for chess than swimming. On a Friday evening I like to put in a good long session of breaststroke at the pool near where I live in Budapest with my husband, Gusztav, and my two children.

If you are in a tournament, you have to think of yourself – you can’t think of your wife or children – only about yourself. Otherwise, you wake up, eat, prepare, do everything you can to be in good shape.

I have no problem with other women, but if I had played against ladies there would be a huge gap between the two of us.

From the moment of my birth on 23 July 1976, I became involved f in an educational research project. Even before I came into the world, my parents had already decided: I would be a chess champion.

I think Hungarians should be more positive; many complain, but if they go to some countries, in South America, people are so poor, yet they are happy. It starts with you.

My father and mother are exceptional pedagogues who can motivate and tell it from all different angles. Later, chess for me became a sport, an art, a science, everything together. I was very focused on chess, and happy with that world.

How you lose matters. Don’t be afraid of losing – it paralyzes you.

I met Bobby Fischer in 1993 when he moved to Europe. I have mixed feelings about it. He was an idol, but not a healthy minded man.

Chess demolishes differences. It’s a language of different generations.

When I was 15, I became the youngest grandmaster in the world, breaking the record set by Bobby Fischer more than three decades earlier.

For me, learning chess was natural; with my sisters around me, I wanted to play.

But at least if you are with your kid in a playground, be there mentally as well as physically, even for 20 minutes. Focus means everything to a child.

I’m convinced that if my goal hadn’t been to be in the absolute best category I can, I would not have been able to be for 26 years the number one in the ladies’ category.

We had to cope with the media writing things which were not true, which were insulting. At around 13 I decided I was just not going to pay attention.

Without work, talent is lost.

I started playing chess in the Eighties, but it is only recently that people have begun to appreciate the importance of physical exercise for chess players. You really need to be in good condition to be able to sit for four to six hours and still maintain your concentration.

Competitions last about 10 days or two weeks. I was homeschooled, so in this way I could train on a daily basis for many hours. And then I was traveling all over the world.