Judit Polgár - Chess Professional

Chess Professional

"You have to be very selfish sometimes", said Polgár in speaking of the life of professional chessplayer. "If you are in a tournament, you have to think of yourself—you can't think of your wife or children—only about yourself." When asked in 2002 if she still desired to win the world championship she said, "Chess is my profession and of course I hope to improve. But I'm not going to give up everything to become world champion; I have my life."

Polgár has said she does not have a permanent coach although she does have help from GM Lev Psakhis or GM Mihail Marin. She said she rarely uses a second and when she travels to tournaments it is usually her husband who accompanies her. Polgár said she has changed how she prepares for tournaments. "I make more use of my experience now and try to work more efficiently so that my efforts aren't wasted", she said in 2008.

Concentrating on her two children left Polgár with little time to train and play competitively and her ranking dropped from eighth in 2005 to the mid-50s in 2009. However, as of September 2010 Polgár remained the only woman in the top 100 and still the only woman to have ever made the top 10. Comparing motherhood to playing chess, Polgár has said that a chess tournament now "feels like a vacation." When asked why she came back to chess after taking time off to care for her children, she said "I cannot live without chess! It is an integral part of my life. I enjoy the game!"

Despite being the highest-rated woman for twenty years, Polgár has never competed for the women's world championship and in a 2011 interview was asked about this possibility. Polgár said that in the past she has never been interested in competing for it, but in recent years "the mentality of a couple of the women players has changed". Polgár said that for her to consider competing it would have to be a challenge and "if I get an extremely nice offer just to play for the title."

Polgár authored a children's book on chess, Chess Playground. Her sister Sofia provided illustrations. In recent years, Polgár designed a chess programme for the older students of a kindergarten school in Budapest, Hungary.