From: "jay hack" <jay.hack@execnet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: chess news        2/4
Date: 13 Aug 92 23:53:06 EST
Reply-To: "jay hack" <jay.hack@execnet.com>
Distribution: rec
Organization: Executive Networks Information

>>> Continued from previous message
   The seemingly freakish coincidence of the Polgar sisters is
actually not a  coincidence at all. Natives of Budapest, they were
raised according to the  benignly Frankensteinian theories of their
father, Laszlo, a psychologist, to be  exactly what they've become.


   Last December, eight months before her birthday, on July 23, Ms.
Polgar  usurped Bobby Fischer's place as the youngest person ever
to earn the rarefied  rank of grandmaster; there are currently 401
active grandmasters in the world,  and 450 in total. Many experts
consider her the first woman with the potential  to be a world
champion. It seems natural to wonder what goes on behind the brow
of this demure, self-possessed teen-ager with the mien of a girl
and the mind of  a conqueror.

   Indeed, after seeing Ms. Polgar at the chessboard, where her
demeanor  suggests the calm, blank seriousness of a blithe
executioner, it was a bit of a  shock to discover a teen-ager who
is a veritable paradigm of the most popular  kid in the class.

   Lightly made up, wearing a dark skirt and crushed-velvet jacket,
she cut a  conservative figure. It was a youth's idea of
sophistication, perhaps, as though  she had dressed for the office
with an eye on her dinner date afterward. She seemed
clothes-conscious, boy-conscious, aware -- even solicitous -- of
her many  admirers. The biggest stir at the party was created when
she opened a gift from  a young male  chess  player and held it up
for all to see -- a miniskirt.

   At first wary of an interview, Ms. Polgar agreed to talk a
couple of days  later on a visit with her family to the Statue of
Liberty. By then the  tournament for which she had come to New
York, a 10-player round robin sponsored  by the United States
Chess  Federation, had ended. She had finished second,  impressive
considering that eight of the players were grandmasters -- the
strongest field to play in an American tournament in the last 20
years,  according to the federation. And she was pleased. "A good
result," she called  it. "In matches, we are fighting for a few
hours," she said. "It's usually nice  when it's finished --
especially when I win, of course."

   Cheery but distracted, she spoke in reasonable English on
matters ranging  from the report that the reclusive Bobby Fischer
would come out of hiding for a  reprise of his world-championship
match with Boris Spassky 20 years ago -- "That  would be great, but
I will believe it when I see the first move" -- to the  pressure of
living with her gift.

   She is, of course, already playing at a level where improvement
happens on a  glacial schedule. The consensus of experts is that
Ms. Polgar is still perhaps a  decade away from challenging for the
world title, which is held by Gary  Kasparov.

   Asked to identify her weakness, she said it was probably the
endgame, when  few pieces are left. It requires both a vast
situational memory and a killer  instinct. She also mentioned
endurance: "I have to do more sports for physical  preparation."

   There is something a little eerie about someone so young whose
life seems so  mapped out, but it is only inadvertently, and
obliquely, that the notion emerges  of what her unusual life may
have cost her. Asked if she is as competitive in  other sports as
she is in  chess,  she said no, and told of playing in a
table-tennis tournament in Budapest a couple of years ago.

   She was delighted, she said, to have won a single match: "For me
it was  great. If I lost, nobody would care. If I win, then it's a
big surprise."

   The curiosity over the Polgars has much to do with the arcane
nature of   chess.  For noninitiates, it is an alienating endeavor,
spoken of in  cipher-riddled jargon, conducted in ferocious
silence; watching a game, one gets  the feeling that actual combat
is being envisioned by the players and that the  winner is simply
the more willful. The verb  chess  players use to describe a
decisive victory is "crush" -- "I crushed him" is a sentiment
uttered with  relish.

   The  chess  elite have traditionally been male, and a prejudice
is still held  by many, including Mr. Kasparov, who has said openly
that women have limitations  at the chessboard. Before the Polgars,
and Judit in particular, women players  were perceived as timid.

   "Judit is very aggressive, which is unusual for a woman," said
Pal Benko, a  Hungarian grandmaster who has coached the sisters for
the last five years. "Most  are very tame at the chessboard. They
play rather strategical games, but Judit is very sharp, always
going for a win."

   Sofia, the only one of the Polgars who is not a grandmaster, is
a bit behind  her sisters in tournament mettle, Mr. Benko said, but
Zsuzsa is bold, like  Judit. In the New York tournament, Zsuzsa
finished fifth. Her game with Judit  was a draw. One official
called it a slugfest. "It was violent game, a beautiful  game," he
said.
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