From: "jay hack" <jay.hack@execnet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: chess news        3/4
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
    Chess  players who know the family well, including Mr. Benko,
said that,  remarkably, away from the board, rivalry among the
sisters doesn't seem to  exist. Judit and Zsuzsa habitually respond
to questions about their relative  world rankings with a shrug.

   Asked if it was difficult to accept that her younger sister had
become the  best in the family, Sofia admitted it was "strange."

   "Judit first beat me when she was 10 or 11," she said shyly. A
brown-haired,  fragile-looking 17-year-old with the sincere eyes
and habitual giggles of an  adolescent, Sofia is often mistaken for
the youngest of the sisters. "I had been  teaching her, because I
was better," she said. "I would even sometimes let her  win. It was
strange sometimes for me to realize she was better."

   Their father said: "Behind every supposed genius there was
someone -- a  parent, a coach -- who helped to make possible their
achievement. If a child  will become a genius, it depends on
education, on surroundings. The most  important thing is to educate
people to be happy. And this is a good way to make  people happy --
with successes."

   It is a theory that he used his family to illustrate. "It was
sort of an  experiment," he said, adding that he and his wife had
discussed a number of  fields for their children before Zsuzsa, at
4, came upon a chessboard and  expressed interest. The family path
was determined. " Chess, " Mr. Polgar said,  "is part sport, part
art, part game, part science. And you have objective  results."

   None of the girls have ever attended school; they've been
tutored at home by  their parents. Their mother, Klara, teaches
several languages, including  Esperanto, and the sisters are all
polyglots. With their many patrons,  endorsements and fees for
playing tournaments, the Polgars live, by Hungarian  standards,
quite lavishly, occupying several separate apartments in a building
in Budapest. Mr. Polgar drives a Mercedes, and he has promised
Sofia a new car  for her 18th birthday. The girls play  chess  five
or six hours a day, often  with coaches or visiting players. Early
mornings are reserved for physical  exercise -- swimming, tennis,
Ping-Pong. For a while, Judit indulged a fancy for  kick boxing.

   In the last few years, they've become world travelers, jetting
around the  globe -- from New York they went to Sydney, Australia
-- on the generosity of  tournament sponsors and international
chess  organizations. Mr. Polgar manages  his daughters' careers
full time. In the habit of charging fees to give  interviews, he
signed an agreement with the United States  Chess  Federation  that
made the honorarium the family received for their recent trip
dependent on  their making themselves available to the press.

   "Laszlo loves money," said Daniel Edelman, assistant director of
the  federation. "He'll do anything for money. The girls could
really benefit from a  professional agent."

   In the Old World manner, Mr. and Mrs. Polgar have also kept a
rein on their  daughters' social lives. Zsuzsa, who now
occasionally travels on her own, is  involved with Julio Granda
Zuniga, the Peruvian grandmaster, who won the New  York tournament.
Neither of the younger girls has been allowed to date.

   "I can see it in their eyes that they're afraid the girls will
fall in love  and stop playing  chess, " said Mr. Edelman, who
knows the family well. "The  parents even have a problem with their
taking separate taxicab rides." As for  the daughters, "the girls
have a tremendous respect for their parents," he  continued,
adding, "But I can slowly see bubbling, in Judit especially, a need
for a little independence."

   Mr. Polgar is a small, bearded man with a round face and stern,
rather  officious, demeanor. He is only a recreational  chess
player himself. (His wife  is not even that. "I am a great
spectator," she said.) He does not speak  English, and at the
Statue of Liberty, Sofia translated.

   "He believes that every child is a potential genius," she said.

   In the  chess  world, the theory is looked upon with skepticism,
even in the  wake of the obvious results. "I think they were born
gifted, and one is a  genius," Mr. Benko said. "You would think
they would be some kind of  chess   monsters, but it is not so.
They are nice girls, very good natured."

   It was 20 years ago this summer that Bobby Fischer, the last
player to  capture the public imagination, won the world
championship in Reykjavik,  Iceland, at the age of 29. The world
now contemplates the next alluring  chess   enigma. At the Statue
of Liberty, Ms. Polgar recalled Fischer's reputation, his
tempestuousness, his brilliant and iconoclastic play, and said
about him what  many are beginning to say about her.

                              The Associated Press

                        August  7, 1992, Friday, AM cycle

HEADLINE: Bobby Fischer To Play Second Match In Yugoslavia
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