Simply over six years after the Queen’s Gambit introduced in a contemporary wave of viewers to chess, resulting in never-before-seen recognition for the game, a brand new documentary, Queen of Chess, launched final week. Informed with the assistance of real-life footage, and peppered with post-punk soundtracks, Queen of Chess chronicles the story of Judit Polgar, the undisputed best feminine chess participant in historical past.
For a era simply moving into the game, it’s an ideal event to find one of the influential trailblazers within the sport, a lady who took a sledgehammer to the glass ceiling again within the Nineties and the early 2000s. So dangerous was what she stood for in her profession — enjoying principally in open tournaments the place she would normally be the one girl in a subject of males — that it’s nonetheless a path seldom travelled. Even now, we solely sometimes see somebody like Divya Deshmukh play in multiple open match a 12 months slightly than in women-only occasions.
Judit was born and raised in Communist Hungary, which had the very best suicide charges in Europe again in these days. Inflation was so rampant that individuals needed to do a number of jobs simply to make ends meet.
Surviving in such circumstances, Laszlo Polgar determined to conduct an experiment: he needed to see if geniuses might be formed, slightly than them being born. It was an experiment he carried out together with his three daughters — Susan, Sofia and Judit —appearing as check topics. Quite than sending them to high school, Laszlo home-schooled them of their run-down home within the employees’ district, educating them chess for hours at a stretch. As an alternative of chalkboards, a wall held up 30 chess boards with puzzles for the women to resolve day by day. As an alternative of academics, there could be as many as three chess trainers coming in shifts all through the day as father and the three daughters pursued success on the 64 squares.
23 years in the past on at the present time in Moscow… ⚔#ChessConnectsUs #ladiesfirst pic.twitter.com/qEUGXxUUGV
— Judit Polgar (@GMJuditPolgar) September 9, 2025
Why chess, although?
“The chessboard (in these circumstances) was easy to have. And low cost too,” explains Judit’s mom Klara in Queen of Chess.
Beginning on the age of 5, Judit rose rapidly within the sport, vindicating her father’s speculation. “Chess has infinite prospects,” the now 49-year-old Judit says within the documentary.
Profession Achievement
High 10
World rating reached – the one girl to interrupt into chess elite
15
Age when she broke Fischer’s 33-year report as youngest grandmaster
17
Age when she confronted Kasparov over touch-move violation
Nineties
Decade she pioneered open match play in opposition to males
Just one
Lady in fields of males at open tournaments
Elite Victories In opposition to Chess Legends
vs.
Garry Kasparov – Defeated the participant with declare to being best in sport’s historical past
vs.
Viswanathan Anand – Defeated one of many high gamers of her period
vs.
Viktor Korchnoi – Proved improper the legend who dismissed her as a “coffeehouse participant”
“Girls are horrible chess gamers. I suppose they’re simply not so sensible.”
— Bobby Fischer (whose report Judit shattered)
Indian Categorical InfoGenIE
Effectively, nearly. Again in these days, for a woman to emerge from a totalitarian nation and desirous to problem the most effective gamers on the earth was not simple.
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The federal government, for one, didn’t need her travelling overseas to play chess. The thought of homeschooling three children and feeding them a gentle weight-reduction plan of chess didn’t sit proper with the directors both. Within the documentary, which is accessible on Netflix, Klara tells tales of how police with machine weapons would drag them away from bed, threatening to jail them, pack them off to psychological asylums or take away the women. However the largest problem in Judit’s journey was being a lady desirous to play in opposition to males.
Breaking obstacles
This varieties the largest narrative arc of Judit’s story, and understandably, the documentary. There are clips of the legendary Bobby Fischer dismissing the talents of feminine gamers.
“Girls are horrible chess gamers,” Fischer smirks in a clip. “I suppose they’re simply not so sensible. They’ve by no means turned out girl chess participant.”
Fittingly, Judit smashed Fischer’s 33-year-old report of being the youngest grandmaster in historical past.
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Fischer wasn’t the one one to assume that ladies weren’t able to enjoying at a excessive degree. Viktor Korchnoi, one of many best chess gamers in historical past to by no means turn out to be a classical world champion, dismissed Judit as a “coffeehouse participant”, a pejorative that the Soviet legends reserved for gamers from different international locations whom they needed to dismiss as amateurs.
TRAILER premiere! ❤
Rory Kennedy’s new documentary about my life, my manner, Queen of Chess releases on @Netflix February sixth.✨
TRAILER👉 https://t.co/YzTlq4QkTj#ChessConnectsUs #QueenOfChess @Netflix #Sundance2026 #SundanceFilmFestival #SundancePremiere #Netflix… pic.twitter.com/8lc4UUm6Ub— Judit Polgar (@GMJuditPolgar) January 19, 2026
A major a part of the documentary fixates on Judit’s efforts to defeat the highest participant of that point, Garry Kasparov, who additionally has a declare at being the best participant within the sport’s historical past.
Simply how a lot spunk Judit had, whilst a 17-year-old going toe-to-toe with Kasparov, turns into obvious when she confronts him in a lodge foyer after he violates the contact transfer rule of their first recreation in opposition to one another.
“What she does is sort of admirable for a woman of her age, particularly in her place. She walks as much as Kasparov within the lodge foyer and asks, ‘How may you do that to me?’” When you’ve by no means seen Garry Kasparov in individual, you could not absolutely admire how courageous that’s, as a result of he’s a power!” factors out Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, the editor of New In Chess journal.
Confronting Kasparov on the board, and getting him to resign, proves to be a lot trickier for Judit, a problem she finally surmounts.
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Over the course of her profession, Judit ended up defeating a few of the high gamers of that period, together with Viswanathan Anand, and breaking into the world’s high 10.
In a manner, the documentary, like her profession, is a reminder for feminine gamers to set the bar a lot increased. And positively not be afraid of confronting anybody who stands of their manner.