All language subtitles for Queen Of Chess (2026)_track5_[eng]

Garry Kasparov,
superstar, the Napoleon of chess.

Anything but the bookish type.

-Charismatic.
-Flamboyant, outspoken.

He's caused more controversy

and more upset
than any other champion in history.

No man or machine can beat him.

-You're so confident, aren't you?
-I must be confident.

And I'm world champion.

Chess is psychological warfare.
It's my will against your will.

It's the toughest kind of competition
in its purest form.

If you win a chess game, you're better.

-Better person?
-Yep, person and everything.

You're better. I need new challenges.
That's why I played against computer.

I'm taking any new challenge in the world.

12-year-old
Hungarian schoolgirl, Judit Polgár,

has won
a major international chess tournament

and just made history.

In the beginning,
everybody underestimated me.

I heard, "You're a girl.
You're little. What do you want here?"

But chess, it's a mental sport.

And you have to believe in yourself.

Judit is the best player
of her age, regardless of gender,

in the whole of chess history.

Judit is the youngest
international chess master ever.

She achieved the rank
three years earlier than world champions

like Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov.

In 1994, Judit Polgár
was going to play Garry Kasparov

for the first time in her life.

It was the first time in chess history

that the number one
female chess player in the world

was going to play against
the very top male player in the world.

It's something
that people are excited about,

but people are also worried.

Is she going to be killed?

I bet you think we didn't know

Didn't even see the tides change

The shit gets thicker
It's toxic, get it out of my face

And don't be surprised
If they don't buy your lies

Some of us can see through
Your stained-glass eyes

Pot kettle, pot kettle black

Watch, watch, watch your back

Chess is infinite possibility.

You have to be very prepared
to make a bad move,

but then calm down and come back.

You always have new chances,
new opportunities.

As in life,
you just have to be extremely resilient.

The game is never finished
until it's really finished.

When I was a kid, my dream was to play
with the best players in the world

in the best tournaments in the world.

But those dreams seemed impossible.

Because of who I was…
and where I came from.

Today, Hungary has a communist government.

A modern totalitarian state.

Freedom of speech was abolished.

Crippled economy,
rampant inflation, unemployment.

Millions of Hungarians
do several jobs to make ends meet.

The highest suicide rate in Europe.

When my three daughters were born,

we were very poor.

We lived in a run-down house
in a workers' district.

The walls were wet from ceiling to floor.

I wanted a better life for my daughters.

I started to study
the biographies of geniuses.

I think he read over 400 books

of the world's most influential figures
to study patterns.

He realized that geniuses
are made, not born,

if they are educated in the right way.

All of them started
at the age of 5 and studied one field

for eight to nine hours every day.

And László Polgár
together with his wife, Klára,

decided that they were
going to be raising geniuses

with this experiment.

A lot of people felt like
this was almost child abuse,

that he was doing something that would
affect them negatively later in life.

I never doubted that
this experiment would lead to success.

In the beginning,
I didn't know if he's right.

I'm telling you the truth.

But I liked my husband, his idea.

So why not?

Why chess?

Very simple.
The chessboard, it's easy to have it.

And very cheap.

My sister Susan,
she's seven years older than I am.

And Sofia is a year and a half older.

So they were playing chess
already quite a bit.

And when I was 5 years old,
I started my chess training.

The foundations of chess,
it's very important.

First of all, you have to learn
how the pieces are moving.

You have six characters.

The knight, the bishop,
the rook, the pawn…

New opening strategies.

Sicilian Defense, Berlin Defense.

When you lose touch with the piece,
it cannot be moved anywhere else.

My parents felt
it would be a waste of time,

at least from the academic perspective,
to go to school.

So we were homeschooled.

My dad made a card system,
like in libraries.

On each card,
there was strategies and tactics.

And we had to remember
hundreds of thousands of cards.

And my father created
this very special wall

where we had 30 chessboards.

Chess puzzles.

And we had to write down
what is the solution.

We were quite poor.

Whatever money we had, we invested
in our chess coaching, training.

One trainer came from 10:00 to 1:00.

Another trainer came from 2:00 to 5:00.

Even another one from 5:00 to 9:00.

Basically, all day was around chess.

And you don't have Saturdays,
Sundays, birthdays, celebrations.

Every day was a working day.

Still, the girls had a great time.

When I was 6, I played my first tournament

with the block where we lived.

And I remember very vividly,
there was a little magnetic chess set,

as a first prize,

that I wanted to win very much.

Normally, I was a very shy kid.

But when playing chess, that was my world.

I was a killer, attacker, aggressive.

Everything was black or white.

I wanted to kill my opponent.
I wanted to attack.

I wanted to sacrifice everything
in order to get checkmate.

I won my first tournament.

And the little magnetic chess set.

The feelings I gained from winning games,

it was exceptionally powerful.

After this, it was so obvious for me
that I'm going to be a chess player.

Nothing else I could be.

And if you want to become the best,
it's very important to have challenges.

In order to prove his experiment,

my father wanted us to play

as strong of a competition
as we could, which meant men.

But when we went to play against men,

they looked at us like we were
planning to go to the moon.

Chess was a male-dominated sport.

It really was a men's club.

They had strict segregation.

Women were not allowed
to play in male tournaments.

Women chess players
were not respected, to say the least.

-Do women make bad chess players?
-Oh, they're terrible chess players.

I guess they're just not so smart.

Does this apply to all women,
do you think?

I guess so.

They have never turned out
a good woman chess player.

There is the pure mental ability
needed to understand chess

and to have deep,
meaningful thoughts about the game.

On the other hand, there's the personality
required to become good at the game.

The evidence is that women
don't have either of these sides.

This crazy idea,

me and my sisters wanted to change it
in some way or another.

If we could travel to tournaments,

it would show to the world
that we can do it.

In Hungary, as a communist country,

you had to get permission
to travel to another country

just to play in tournaments.

You had to be in their good books.

If you had creative ideas
and you wanted to be different,

choosing for your kid to be homeschooled,
being a girl playing with men,

this was not supported at all
by the communist government.

Unlike other girl players,

we were often restricted
to leave the Eastern Bloc.

In the communist regime,
when you don't do what you're being told,

you'll pay, and potentially
your whole family pays for it.

Sometimes the police came out

with machine guns
and got us out of bed in the morning.

It happened that they were coming

to put us to mental house

or to the jail.

And even, they said, that they could
take away the children from us.

They take away the children from us.
You can imagine.

My father was always trying
to prove his experiment.

And he was ready to fight
for living the way he dreamt of.

He was saying,
"Go back to the chessboard."

The only response can be that
you work harder and you show results.

Generally, we were only allowed to play
in Hungary and in Eastern Europe.

I was playing with adults
and winning one game after another.

I needed a new challenge.

Pleasure City Avenue…

I played a lot of blind chess.

Pawn to E4.

Knight to C3.

Knight to F7.

Checkmate.

My goal was to win every game.

And of course, my real dream
was to enter into the top ten of the world

and then be one of the best.

At the time, the best player in the world
was Garry Kasparov from the Soviet Union.

He was someone I was following
from a very young age.

And now a new chess champion
has been crowned. He's Garry Kasparov,

the youngest chess champion
in the world, ever.

We would gather on the carpet,

watch his games,
and we would learn so much.

Playing Kasparov is
like playing Larry Bird or Michael Jordan.

Unrelenting ambition,
unrelenting effort and strain on himself.

Clearly the best at any speed.

I don't see anyone
who could take the title from me

unless, you know, I'm destroying myself.

I was following very closely the ideas,

the openings, what he was playing.

I was also copying that.

He was aggressive.

I was also aggressive.

I was a big fan of him.

I was already dreaming
to play against him.

According to the family legend,

I discovered chess
when I was probably 5 and a half.

It was one of the winter evenings
in the city of Baku, Azerbaijan,

in the deep south of the USSR,
the city where I was born and raised.

I watched my parents trying to solve
a chess puzzle from the local newspaper.

And I was mesmerized
by the secrets of the game.

Just 64 squares, 32 pieces.

I got immediately swallowed by the game.

So I… It was a passion.

Match made in heaven.

In the Soviet Union,
chess was viewed as a political weapon.

In order to demonstrate
the intellectual superiority

of the communist regime
over the decadent West.

There was a very broad network

that could identify talented players

and help develop these talents.

It helped me to rise very quickly,

because my talent
was discovered instantly.

Soviet chess was chess, period.

They dominated chess up and down.

And they were producing men and women
champions year after year after year.

If you wanted to learn chess
from the big ones,

it was really the Soviet chess school.

They were controlling
the top of the world in chess.

At the time, Susan was already
playing well in very serious competitions.

And then in 1984, in the women's ranking,
Susan was number one in the world.

So she started to have
internationally recognized results.

In news of the world tonight…

Susan Polgár from Hungary…

Susan Polgár is the best female…

-The best female…
-Highest-rated in the world.

That was very satisfying that even though
they tried to push me down,

they didn't succeed.

One expert called her
chess's version of Mozart.

Her two prodigy sisters also had success.

Journalists came to Hungary
and asked for interviews.

They couldn't understand
how is it possible

that the world number one female player
was not allowed to leave the Eastern Bloc.

The journalists said if the authorities

didn't stop discrimination
against the Polgár family,

they would start
a worldwide fight against Hungary

for human rights violations.

At some point, the Hungarian government

felt the pressure was getting too much,
too much bad press.

Eventually, they had
to release our passports

and we could travel to the West.

We were so excited.

I was dreaming to be able
to show our strength to the world.

Now we can do it.

The Chess Olympiad in 1988
had over 100 countries participating.

Each country sends
their best representatives.

The Hungarian captain decided that
it's going to be the three of us, sisters,

and the fourth player,
Ildikó Mádl, who goes to the Olympiad.

It was strange to play
in the Women's Olympiad

and play only against women.

But we made an exception.

Finally, we can showcase our skills.

It really was us against the world.

Tonight, on behalf of FIDE,
I welcome you to the 28th Chess Olympiad.

The Chess Olympiad
is the Olympics of chess,

and it's the biggest team competition,
the most prestigious event.

Literally everyone comes there.

To play a team event, to establish
the greatest chess country on Earth.

There's two sections.
The men's competition,

and there's the Women's Olympiad.

Every day for two weeks,
a country is facing another country.

Then the next day, another country.

And the most you can win
each match is three points.

The highest points wins an Olympic gold.

Just getting into the tournament hall

was, like, quite something.

We were little girls.

It was the first time that we saw the top
of the top, the cream of the chess world.

Kasparov is there.

I saw that Susan
was chatting with Garry Kasparov.

And Sofia and myself,
we were like, giggling and smiling.

That, "Wow, wow.
Kasparov is talking with us."

There was so much controversy
about choosing the Polgárs.

They're such a young team.

A team of teenage girls competing against
the very best players in the world.

They were great novelties,
but most people laughed at them and said,

"Okay, there's the Soviet team."

They dominated the chess world.

They hadn't lost
an Olympiad for over 30 years.

Nobody's gonna touch them.

Please, all the players, take your seats.

I get into the playing hall.

I sit down.

I played on board one.

Judit played board two, right next to me.

And on the third board,
Ildikó Mádl and I would alternate.

I adjust the pieces.

I'm shaking my leg
because of my nervousness,

and wondering if I'm mentally prepared

to play with
some of the best players in the world.

Tension is increasing.

But when the game starts,
it's a completely different mindset.

I'm excluding everything that's going on
outside of the chessboard

and focusing on the game.

Fire, I'll take you to burn

Fire, I'll take you to learn

You're gonna burn

You've been living like a little girl…

I got into the flow during the match.

And I won my game, one after another.

You've been so blind…

Oh yeah, she was an absolute sensation.

After Judit won the first several games,

people started fearing her.

We knew that when she sat down,

we have a very good chance
that we will win.

We were definitely not used to
very young girls playing chess so well.

It was so unusual.

There she's sitting, this 12-year-old girl
with the open ponytail,

and she is just dominating.

She turned opponents into pitiful victims.

Fire…

The effect was such that suddenly,

hundreds of people
came to visit that tournament.

There was some sort of a Polgár mania.

The Polgárs are
an authentic chess phenomenon.

They have a tremendous amount of talent.

Judit, only 12,
is the best player of her age.

Judit is the most talented.

I wish I was so strong
when I was the same age.

She has many chances to become…
First, to become a women's world champion.

I have no doubt about it.

The chess she played,
the energy behind every move was

unseen in female chess.

I played very well.

But, of course, the Soviets
were playing extremely well also.

The Polgár sisters need
a miracle to deprive the Russian women

of the medal which they regard
as their own private property.

I remember our teammate,
Ildikó Mádl, said,

"If they give us the silver right now,
I'm ready to sign."

Judit all along believed that the purpose
we're going there is to go for the gold.

It rubbed off on everybody.

Judit just kept winning her games.

And Susan, Ildikó,
and myself were holding our own.

It was the last round,

and it was a huge tension
because everything was dependent on this

if we are winning the gold medal or not.

Most people did not believe
that the Soviets can be dethroned.

I won very fast.

Ildikó Mádl made a draw.

It all came down to this game

where Susan had
to fight against Pia Cramling,

one of the greatest female players ever.

It was intimidating, but I just tried
to make the best moves I can.

Until the very last moment,

it was not clear
whether we can get the gold medal.

The last round finished,
and then we knew that it's gold.

We were extremely happy.

With a winning total of 33 points,

the Hungarian team
has set a new all-time record.

Judit came in and just wiped the floor
with everybody.

She didn't lose a game.

It was absolutely remarkable.

Well, it proved to the world
who the Polgárs were.

Gold medal goes to the team of Hungary.

We felt that the whole world
is supporting us.

It was a very uplifting feeling that we
experienced very little of back home.

When we arrived back from
Thessaloniki to the Budapest airport,

it was kind of
an unexpected situation suddenly.

People were waiting for us.

The Chess Olympiad was life changing.

We left as black sheep
and arrived home as the golden girls.

Hungarian nation
acknowledged Polgár family

for the first time, really.

When I met you in the restaurant…

We were invited to Parliament.

The president was celebrating with us.

Does László Polgár
feel any satisfaction now?

I'd be lying if I said no.

The government and the chess federation,

everybody changed their tunes.

We couldn't do anything wrong.

The political landscape was changing.

The Berlin Wall was soon falling.

Between that and our win at the Olympiad,
it was much easier for us to travel.

Judit won a whole bunch
of tournaments that year,

and there was no sibling rivalry.

We all believed
that sky is the limit for her.

When will there be a woman world champion?

Well, maybe she's sitting next to me.

I don't know.

The world's never seen anything like this.

She's getting better
with every tournament.

It's frightening.

I shifted 200 rating points
only half a year, which was enormous.

In chess, we have a rating system.

It is quite simple.

Two people play against each other,
and they both have a rating.

If you beat me,
you gain points and I lose points.

So when I was 12 years old, I became
number one woman player in the world.

But I wasn't stopping.

I want to be a grandmaster,
and then my rating higher and higher.

In order to become a grandmaster,
you need to reach 2500 or above

and you also need to perform
at a high level

in three really competitive tournaments.

Judit was just
breaking those records down.

So the world had really gone crazy

about the possibility that she could break
Bobby Fischer's 33-year-old record

of becoming the youngest person
to ever get a grandmaster title.

Every month,
her picture was on the magazine.

Everyone was tracking her progress.

And then in 1991, I went to
the Hungarian Super Championship.

It was, uh, when I was 15 and 4 months.

This was my last opportunity
to break Bobby Fischer's record.

It was the strongest ever
Hungarian championship.

All of the Hungarian greats were there.

Obviously, nobody had in mind
that I am a contender.

I was playing pretty good.

It was a shock to people.

It was the last round.

I was playing with the black pieces

against the Hungarian grandmaster
Tibor Tolnai.

And she just needed a draw against
Tibor Tolnai to become a grandmaster.

But in order to win the tournament
and become the Hungarian champion,

she needed a win.
So she was in a bit of a dilemma.

She had to choose
whether to settle for a draw

and become a grandmaster,

or go all out and try to win
the championship as well.

Most chess players will settle for a draw,

lose the national championship,

but achieve the grandmaster title,
and then you make history.

If she loses, she would not get either.

Oh, they're terrible chess players.

I guess they're just not so smart.

I wanted to beat Bobby Fischer's record,

but I also wanted to win the event.

She chose the riskier version.

I was so nervous for her.

I was playing very tactical,
very sharp positions.

I was breaking up the center.

Then at one point, I made a very
unexpected move for my opponent.

From the side,
I jumped to C4 with my knight.

Now I'm threatening to capture this pawn.

White cannot capture my knight
because I would be capturing it back,

and then I could double attack
the queen and the bishop,

and everything falls apart for white.

Sometimes only one move in a game
can make a difference.

And then a few moves later…

I won.

I became a grandmaster
when I was 15 years old and 4 months,

breaking Bobby Fischer's record.

You can't overstate
the significance of this achievement.

Judit was the youngest person ever,
male or female,

to become a grandmaster.

That a 15-year-old
would win the national championship

and at the same time become a grandmaster,

it was like a fairy tale story.

Becoming a grandmaster is very important.

I gained more self-confidence
that I can beat such a caliber of player…

but now, I was thinking about,
"What's next?"

Linares tournament,
the most important in the world.

Linares is the Wimbledon of chess.

Once every year, we get together
in Linares and we determine who is who.

It's the first time in chess history

that a girl is among
the best male players in the world.

It was my first elite tournament.

The very best players were competing.

Including Garry Kasparov.

Preparation for such a tournament
is very challenging,

but we know it in advance,
so I had months to study.

It was very important for her

to be well-prepared for the competition.

The opening variations
that Kasparov played had to be examined

and work out a counter to that.

I was a little bit nervous

and curious how I will manage to play

where every player
is considered better than I am.

Kasparov told me in an interview

that "It's very nice that Judit
will play in Linares tournament."

And he said, "And that way,
we shall know her real strength."

Well, actually, I don't know
what he means, "real strength."

I'll try my best.

Do you think you would beat him?

I was always dominant in Linares.

I won Linares '92, '93
with… with big scores.

And in '94, I felt confident

because I was still the strongest player
in the world of chess.

It was an incredibly significant moment

because for the first time,

we had the world champion, Garry Kasparov,

facing off against
the world's best female player.

It was, at the time,
unheard of that a female player

would face the top male player

because they wouldn't play
in the same competitions.

This was a historic moment.

It was her first tournament of that level.

She was a top player, but…

Yeah, but still a… a female player.
So she had to prove.

Kasparov arrived 30 seconds
before the start of the game…

and all the photographers were standing
in front of him with the flash.

He gives this incredible self-confidence

that "I know what I'm doing.
I'm prepared. I beat you up."

You have the feeling
that he wants to eat you up alive.

The first encounter
between him and myself…

anything can happen.

I was playing with the white pieces.

I always played the same first move,

1. e4.

The King's Pawn opening.

I knew very well
that when I played against Kasparov

that it's going to be a Sicilian Defense,
as he's an expert in that.

The Sicilian Defense is combative.

The players come out fighting
for control of the center of the board,

and this leads to
a very dynamic style of play.

And the game really opens up
pretty quickly.

Judit has decided
that she wants to be ultra-aggressive

and bring her queen near Kasparov's king.

The queen is on the same line
as the black king,

but you can't just
throw stuff at the king.

Strong players will never let you
just knock them out.

So you have to be a bit subtle about it.

Judit was never that subtle
when she was a young player, however.

She wanted to just come straight after you
and blow your head off.

Against Kasparov,
a tricky deal, to be sure.

Judit starts making moves
where she doesn't quite have a plan

because she cannot find a path to attack,

and she just loses control.

From the very beginning,
Kasparov outplayed me.

He played excellent moves.

I was thinking quite a lot.

I was using a lot of my time.

It got worse and worse and worse.

You could feel it was not very interesting
for the audience.

People were going in and out.

But of course, you never give up.

Then we reached move 36,

and something very strange happened.

Kasparov moved his knight to C5.

It was a huge blunder.

Now I could move my bishop

and I could make a double attack
where I attack his queen and the rook

and you cannot make a move
which defends both attacks.

Before this move, I knew that
I'm going to be losing the game.

But at this point, I realized…
there is an option that I can draw.

I can't even believe it that I'm playing
against the best player in the world

and this is what I'm having.

But after he released his hand,
he quickly picked the piece up

and put it back to the initial square
to make a different move.

This was a huge shock.

My opponent played an illegal move.

The touch-move rule
is very important in chess.

If you let go of a piece,
then that's the move.

If you make another move,
that's a clear breach of fair play.

It's cheating.

But the only one who sees it is Judit.

I was like, you know, looking around
that, "Come on, what's going on?"

Nobody said anything,
and I was not sure how to handle this.

So I thought if nobody says anything,

then well, maybe…
maybe I shouldn't say anything.

Maybe it's only from my angle
that I see it.

And, you know, a 17-year-old newcomer
against the world champion…

Maybe in the future,
I will not get invitations if I do this.

And how can I prove it?

My saying against his saying.

If she accuses him of doing this

and Kasparov denies it,

then it's this spoiled young brat

who's losing the game
and cannot bear the idea

and then she starts accusing him
of something terrible.

The TV crews of the Spanish television

happened to be there filming,

but there was no cameraman
behind the camera.

So it's not on film.

She continued the game.

And the rule is, once the game continued,
it's too late to complain and protest.

After that, he played good moves.

His winning position
was converted into victory…

and, uh, it was over.

I was very upset.

After the game,
I went to the restaurant to eat.

This was something
that we did during the tournament.

Suddenly, the arbiter came to that table

and he asked me,
"Is there anything I can help?"

And I said,
"Well, if you're asking already,

I would be very much interested

whether the camera which was
standing there 15 meters away,

if they recorded anything."

Suddenly, the story starts growing,

and Garry Kasparov
understands what's going on,

and he's… he's getting
very upset about this.

He's going around, he's telling people,
"Something should be done about this."

He says, "You have to write about this,"
that "It's a disgrace."

No one doubted Kasparov.
He's an extremely respected chess player.

But still I asked him, "What do you think?
Did you let go of the piece?"

And he says, "I don't know, I don't know.
I don't think so, but I don't know."

The organizer of the event
gave out a press release…

which says Kasparov
is the most honest player.

And then at some point, there's news

the film crew
is on their way back to Linares.

What happened was
after the camera crew returned to Madrid,

they realized that they accidentally
forgot to turn off the camera…

and the film was rolling.

So his television crew
showed their footage.

And it's clear he has let go of the piece

and then touches it again
and withdraws it.

I remember the shock.
The shock of the image on the video.

Judit couldn't believe
it's happening either.

I was happy that the video
proved what I felt.

At the same time,
it was not real consolation for me,

because once you sign
the scoresheet after the game,

you cannot change anything.

Nobody expects the world champion
to break the rule like this

because he thinks that it's…
it's much more embarrassing

to lose against a girl.

And the problem was,
I trusted my opponent.

And I shouldn't.

Yeah, there was a… Yes, there was
a little controversy there, so I just, I…

I believe that I didn't feel
that my hand actually left the piece.

I wouldn't have done that.
It's about one-point… It's…

If you look at the video,
it's about one-tenth of a second.

I didn't feel that I made something wrong.

Unless you do it in
a very, very slow motion, you cannot feel.

So try to see it as one-tenth of a second
whether you feel it or not.

It was actually not losing the game,
the game would end as a draw, but still,

it would be very unpleasant to miss a win.

This moment basically ruined my tournament

because I was under pressure for the rest
of the tournament by people to remind me.

The scandal started, and it took off.

The champions are cheating.

At least you can't tell otherwise

from the images
we are about to see in a moment.

You can see how the champion
did something that is totally forbidden.

It became a pretty big drama.

It's one of the most famous incidents
in chess, that's for sure.

Judit was, of course, very upset.

But what she does is…

is quite admirable for a girl of her age,
especially in her position.

On the final day, she walks up to Kasparov
in the lobby of the hotel,

and she says,
"How could you do this to me?"

If you've never seen
Garry Kasparov in person,

you may not fully appreciate
how brave that is,

because he's a… he's a force.

I wanted an explanation by Garry.

And then he got insulted

that I was kind of humiliating him
in front of other people.

I asked him in an interview about this,

and he says,
"Well, she should learn some manners."

He was so upset,
that they didn't speak for three years.

After the game,
there were talks and questions

from journalists and family.

It was, uh, more of a headache
to talk about it.

Even though he blundered,

I was outplayed, I understood.

It was a very bad feeling.

I never scolded them

for not winning a game.

Still, losing is a very bad thing.

My father was never hiding it
that he wanted success

to prove his experiment,

to show that he can do
something big with his children.

After this, he said that
we should be competing again

in the Women's Chess Olympiad.

I thought that it's pretty obvious that
we were the best in women's competitions.

I wanted to prove myself with men.

And from then on, I started to make
some, uh, decisions on my own.

Sometimes it is so important for you
that parents say whatever they say,

you go on your own way.

That same year,
I saw Judit play at the Madrid tournament,

and she played absolutely brilliant chess.

Can I have a taste of your ice cream…

She beat very strong players,

and what I will never forget

is the way the male players
reacted to her victory.

No, mind your own business

No, mind your own business

There were four games
where the opponent didn't resign,

didn't shake hands.

Can I have a taste of your ice cream?

Can I lick the crumbs from your table…

I mean, all those things
are sacrosanct in chess.

That's what you do,
and they just stormed off.

-Why don't you mind your own business?
-Business, business, business

It was embarrassing.

How do male chess players
respond when you defeat them?

I was fighting a lot
to gain respect from the elite,

and world champions.

Some of them were very skeptical
that I belong there.

What will it take for her
to become an absolute world top player?

I think it will be very difficult.

She must be lucky all the time.

One of the great grandmasters,
Viktor Korchnoi,

said that I'm a coffeehouse player.

He didn't take me seriously.

I had to prove it like ten times more
than if I would have been born as a boy.

Have we ever had a world champion
who was a woman?

-Women's world champions.
-Why not?

We'd think that this would be
a perfect sport for women to dominate.

Uh, we have facts that say the contrary.

But Judit Polgár from Hungary.

Judit is an exception,

but even she has some problems of catching
this fighting spirit for the whole match.

In 1996, there was an invitational event
in Dos Hermanas.

Before the games, I was with my mother.
We were pressing the elevator.

The elevator stops, the doors open,

and suddenly,
Kasparov is there with his coach.

It was a funny scene, as we had
a little tension between each other

for years after the incident.

And my mom says,
"Okay, go into the elevator."

I went to the game thinking
I have to give him a great fight.

I was playing with the white pieces again.

I have an advantage already.

First move, 1. e4.

And it's another Sicilian.

But from there,
this game was absolutely wild.

Judit starts to attack right away.
She attacks the queen first.

Then she checks the king.
The king had to move.

Then the bishop
lands on the board to attack.

I knew that she would play
very aggressive chess,

but I was very surprised.

Judit had more,
it was like an energy ball,

you know, like a thunderbolt
that could actually explode.

Judit really went for it in the opening.
She played in an aggressive way.

She took space.

Then she'd entered the middle game.

The middle game is the deep ideas stage

where you're constantly trying
to outwit your opponent.

This is the stage where the drama,
the action happens.

Kasparov decides to up the ante,

and he just boldly puts his rook
right in the middle of the board,

attacking her queen
and her bishop at the same time.

This is a dogfight.

She was a little bit shaky at this point,
and Garry just kept wearing her down.

Part of the intensity
is based on how long it was taking.

It was a little bit cat and mouse.

He created the winning position,
then somehow I sneaked away,

and then again,
he got the winning position.

I started to play inaccuracies.

Garry played very well
and took over the game.

I was calculating,
like, eight or ten moves

to figure out how I can save it.

But it's Kasparov's move,
and he just boldly puts his rook

right on the same line as her king.

It looks like
she might be losing material here.

Maybe she has to resign.

One of the typical weaknesses
for many female players

is that they are panicking
if there's a threat.

You see the threat,
and there's a panic, defensive reaction.

Right now, you have to decide what to do.

And the time is ticking.

Judit ignored the threat.

She counters. She takes a pawn.

She is now ahead by a full pawn.

My aggression is met not by panic,
but just extra aggression on her side.

She played with such great defense.

She's just making it very difficult
for him to win the game.

This is a game that goes on for hours.

And then I found a very unexpected idea.

She gives a check to the black king,
and then she sacrifices a rook.

This was like thunder in a blue sky.

Completely unexpected for Garry.

And suddenly, his position
isn't so easily winning anymore.

Judit just relies on those tricks
to keep alive in the game.

And then, after six hours of play,
they reach an endgame.

In the endgame, we don't have queens.

We don't have attacking pieces so much.

It's the final part of the game.

She ended up in an endgame
what we say is theoretically drawn.

Kasparov has a knight and a rook.

She only has a rook. And that's a draw.

It is dead drawn.

It is so drawn that you can draw it
with your eyes closed.

But she had to be a bit accurate,

and I have to say that endgame
was never her strongest suit.

Kasparov wanted to play a few more moves,
just checking my knowledge.

He did not play all the moves 100%
accurately, but he never let it go.

I realized that he knew much more than me
in this theoretical endgame.

After a few more moves,

Judit finally cracks.

And my king could not escape.

The tragedy here
was that she put up a good fight

and she reaches this ending
which should have been safe,

and she misplayed it.

Imagine that you survive
a Mike Tyson barrage

for eight rounds, ten rounds.

Chess is a game that goes on for hours,
and after many hours,

you just collapse under the pressure.

And that's what strong players do to you.

This endgame was an exam
which, in fact, wasn't that difficult,

and she failed it under pressure.

It was a bad loss.

I made a very serious strategic mistake.

So I didn't feel good,
especially after the game.

After my game with Kasparov in '96,

we played several games
against each other.

I liked playing her because
she was a player with a style that…

that made me feel comfortable.

Riding on any wave
That is the luck you crave…

Judit was over-aggressive.
It's a very powerful attacking style.

I was also an attacking player,
but more experienced.

So that's why her attacks, her aggression,
actually worked against her.

You have to understand that
Garry Kasparov is widely considered to be

the greatest chess player
in all of history.

So Judit was not just playing
the current world champion,

she was going blow for blow

with the greatest chess player
of all time.

I felt that when I played
with Kasparov that just by sitting there,

before making any move,

he was superior.

I even felt it's a formality…

…but we still have to play the game,
but eventually he wins.

Forget it, I don't understand…

I was at my peak of my performance, so,

she was one of the players
that because of her playing style,

and some kind of maybe
psychological, um, discomfort facing me,

uh, didn't do well,
but she was one of… many.

The way she played chess
was not compatible

with the best way to handle
Garry Kasparov in my… my… my best years.

You have difficulties playing Kasparov?

Yeah, I don't have too good scoring.

Would it mean that you have too much
respect for him to play at full strength?

I don't know, maybe unconsciously I do.

Not winning, it's not all the time
that you feel the same.

Sometimes when you lose
and your opponent played extremely well

and made great solutions, fantastic play,

you don't feel so bad.

Against Kasparov, the frustration came

from the fact
that I couldn't give a good fight.

Somehow to me,
he seemed unbeatable, superhuman.

I have to give him a great fight,
but how is it possible?

In chess, you can see that many players,
they are so absorbed by the game,

so obsessed with it,

that it takes on an importance
that is way beyond the game.

It's of life importance.

I think my father wanted success
so much to prove that he's right,

that his beliefs are…
"Surely it's going to be a success."

He was saying that the next two years

is going to be
the breakthrough of everything.

And he always wanted me to go further,

focus on getting into the top ten,
and to invest more energy.

For many years,
with this project that he started,

people, they wondered
whether he was a good guy.

A lot of people felt like he was doing it

because of his own personal pride
and not for the good of his children.

For many people, there was a question,

"What is going on with the kids?"

"Is it something that the parents
are ruining their life?"

I understood my lifestyle
is different from my peers

because I spent
so much time studying chess.

Of course, I felt that
it would be sometimes easier

just to watch movies
or spending more time with friends.

For many years, focusing on preparing,
on competing, it took my whole life up.

It didn't feel like enough.

After all,
it's 64 squares of a chessboard.

There's much more to life than that.

I was happy,
but at some point after I was 20,

he still wouldn't mind
if my life would be only about chess.

But I wanted to have a little bit more,
expand a little bit my life, uh,

not only on the chessboard.

It is mostly
small coincidences that make reality.

I was working as a veterinarian,
after university,

and a red-haired girl came in
who looked exactly like Judit Polgár.

One day, when I was almost 23 years old,

I took the family dog to the vet.

The doctor was, uh,
very friendly, very smiley

and, uh… talkative.

Somehow, the examination
took quite a long time.

Right at this moment,

I deviated from protocol,
and I suggested to her,

"Listen, why don't we go play tennis?"

What makes a man fall for a woman?

For thousands of years, there has been
no easy answer to this question.

With her smiling eyes and red hair,

she had a fire about her, an energy, and

from the very first moment,
she said what she meant.

I found that to be a very sexy thing.

We started to date, pretty frequently,

and then I was going to an event,

and I won the tournament,
uh, being in love very much.

And, uh, after that, we moved together.

When Judit got married,

my role as a manager basically stopped.

Well, for my father,

I felt that a little bit,
he was sorry for that.

I have to be honest,

I'm reluctant
to give an opinion on this matter.

I had very little influence
on my daughters once they were grown up.

Because their husbands basically took them
in a different direction.

And so when my role as manager ended,

I was a little hurt.
I found it a bit strange.

But I said that it was up to Judit

to decide how she wanted
to continue her life.

My sweetheart wanted strawberries

and ordered this for herself.

Yes, and I'll eat yours too.

When we got married,

I was nearly getting
to the 2700 magical rating points,

which was considered,
at the time, getting into the top ten.

But somehow I could never go
and cross that.

There were several events
where I played well, I won some points,

and then I played one tournament
where I lost it all.

And with Gusztáv, I learned
that I can make a different strategy.

When I became a part of her life,

I told her a big secret.

In chess, there is winning,
there is losing,

and there is a third outcome,

a draw.

He was on the side
that a draw is better than a loss.

If you lose against an opponent

with the same rating,
you lose rating points.

If you draw, you don't lose them.

There were games where previously
I would make a different decision.

I would be fighting, and I want to win.

And at that point already I said,

"Okay, if I don't have ideas
that I think can work,

the draw is also an accepted result."

So she stayed

one of the best offensive players
in the world,

but she started to lose less,

and her rating started to rise.

After this change in approach,
in 2001 Linares,

there is, of course,
a big rematch between Judit and Kasparov.

This is the tournament
where the touch-move controversy happened

and years later, now here they are again.

At that time, my playing style,
some say it was a little bit primitive,

but it worked.

But I was still
the number one rated player,

and I was still doing well.

Especially in 2001, I did really well.

I have to reiterate that the expectations
for Judit were not low, but not very high.

I had a very clear strategy in this game.

A strategy where
he's going to be nervous, worried.

Even it crosses his mind
that he can lose the game.

The game starts,

Judit with the white pieces
and Garry with the black pieces.

I knew one thing,
that Kasparov did not like at all

when his king is attacked.

I said, "No matter what it takes,
I'm going to be attacking his king."

Judit has chose to castle
on the left side of the board

while Garry Kasparov castles
on the opposite side of the board.

The nature of positions like this in chess

means that both of them are going to be
launching aggressive attacks.

This is a race between
who gets to the king first.

Already at the early stage of the game,
I sacrificed a pawn.

Kasparov accepts the pawn sacrifice,

but it means that Judit's bishop
is now a very powerful piece.

So she's down on material,
but she's the one who has the initiative.

Kasparov was kind of surprised,
but he understood the point.

Kasparov breaks open
in the middle of the board with a pawn.

He was attacking my bishop,

and it would be very natural
to move it away.

But she decides
to sacrifice a whole bishop.

There is a big material loss,

but still I said,
"I'm going to be attacking his king."

"I'm going to keep attacking his king."

At this point, I was looking around.

The tournament hall was fully packed
because the game was so exciting.

I think Kasparov had the feeling
that probably he has an advantage.

The game was very intense,
but I felt comfortable.

Kasparov used a lot of his time.

After these few minutes,
he played the most logical move.

And suddenly, without thinking more
than three seconds, I pushed my pawn.

Psychologically, it was such a shock.

She's sacrificing everything
for the sake of the attack.

And after that, he had to realize
that things are not so simple.

I thought I was winning,
but she just launched a massive attack.

And then he took off his jacket,
he went around, put it on the chair.

Then he took off his watch,
he put it on the side.

It was so nice to see
Garry getting worried.

I won so many games
against Judit, but in this tournament,

I just had to survive.

Garry had to pull a rabbit out of a hat

in order to save himself in this game.

Kasparov sacrifices material back
in order to get to Judit's king.

His king is so wide open,

all he can do is to keep
giving checks to the white king.

And here, Garry decides it's enough.

And this amazing, crazy,

wild attacking game
ends in perpetual check.

Judit forces a draw.

In Linares,

Judit was the only one
not to lose against Kasparov.

She was the only one in the field
held her own against

the number one in the world.

At the end of the tournament,

we were talking, and it was clear
that he had respected my play,

even though he is… he was
the greatest at the time, for sure.

Now, clearly, she was one of us.

She was a top player.

It was a fantastic feeling
to play that game in Linares.

It was an incredible fight.
I gave him a hard time.

But… somehow, I still couldn't beat him.

Something was still missing.

I think the only way to beat someone
like Garry Kasparov

is if you manage to believe

that you can take down your idol
at his own game.

If you don't believe
that you are on the same level as him,

you have no chance at winning the game.

Here we are at the training camp,

with the Adriatic in the background.

How is the Adriatic?

Beautiful to look at
because I'd love to jump in.

Next year, in 2002,
I saw Kasparov at a tournament.

He asked me, maybe do I want to visit him
for a training session in Croatia.

Many players,
they had some kind of… collisions.

So, with Judit,
it was always just… respectful.

And… and that's why I suggested
that we would work together.

She was one of the top players.
She could offer some new perspectives.

Judit.

Of course, I was extremely happy
for the invitation.

I went with my husband to their villa.

And it was a wonderful week.

It was a great experience.
Kasparov was in amazing form.

I learned a lot, the way he was
approaching a chess position.

What kind of ideas
he's considering seriously,

or some of the moves
which I would consider to analyze,

he just ignores
because it's not important.

It's irrelevant.

Also, I was surprised
that Kasparov was not working all day.

We had an afternoon session of chess.

And in the morning,
we were doing other things.

For example, we were going to the sea
to have banana boat.

It was like a rule.

So, everybody who joined me there
had to do the banana ride.

I won that competition

because I was the only one
who did not fall into the water.

Many times, it happens that
when you have the distance,

you think something of the champion.

About his character.

And when you get into an environment
which is very loose, very friendly,

and you spend every day
from morning to evening around him,

it… it gets
a completely different picture.

We saw more of the human side.

The kind of feeling

that there is a god sitting
on the other side is gone.

A flesh-and-blood person
was in front of her.

At this point,
they had played each other 14 times.

Garry Kasparov hadn't lost a single game.

Playing against Garry Kasparov was rough.

I mean, it's like playing against
Federer in his prime.

Everybody lost to Garry.

Garry Kasparov.

I was probably the only player
who never suffered a defeat against her.

She beat Kramnik,
Anand, every other player.

So, I was the only one who just kept,
you know, just my… my fortress intact.

Silence, please.
I'd like to start the round.

Please, arbiters, start the clocks.

The next time we met over the board,

I was playing with the white pieces.

I played my first move,
1. e4, front of the king, two ahead.

This was not a surprise to Kasparov

because this is what I've been playing
from a very young age.

And then the way he reacted,
it was a shock.

Garry surprised everyone
by playing pawn to e5.

Just about every game
they played was Sicilians.

Those games are normally crazy.

But here, Garry decided
to play the Berlin Defense.

We all had our strengths and weaknesses.

Judit is a very aggressive player.

And the choice of the opening
was more defensive.

Garry Kasparov
was forcing a different kind of game,

a slower, more nuanced match.

It was absolutely not in my style.

What happens with this opening?

The queens get off from the board
at the very early stage of the game.

In one hand, I cannot attack,
but he cannot attack either.

Garry pushes a pawn
on the kingside. So does Judit.

It was not aggressive.

It was very strategic.

I started to build up my position.

And I made my move with the knight.

It makes Kasparov
go a little bit defensive.

Judit starts
to turn the screws a little bit,

getting a little bit of extra pressure
in the middle of the board.

I saw Kasparov realizing
that there can be a big problem.

Garry wanted to fight her in an endgame.

But it starts to get
a bit uncomfortable for black.

From move to move, I was putting
more and more pressure on him.

I felt that I have simply
such a beautiful position.

I mean, I should be winning this.

How is it possible?

But of course,
when you have a great advantage,

and you play such an essential game,

you start to be a little bit nervous.

Since I was very young,

I was dreaming to win against him.

But I never did it.

And I was sitting there
and sitting there, and I told myself,

"You don't go for the draw."

"You go all the way until the very end."

I was taking
more and more space away from him.

And then I made a rook move
into the center line,

and his king started to get in trouble.

Those rooks, powerfully placed,
just start gobbling pawns.

I was continuously working
on my endgame knowledge.

Some patterns actually coming
from my childhood,

what I was learning when I was 8 or 9.

I felt that there is less and less
saving opportunity for him.

This is one of the greatest
chess players in history,

if not the greatest chess player.

You would think that he would figure out
a way to wriggle out of this one.

But Judit showed master class.

It became kind of quiet.

Suddenly, I realized
that within one or two moves,

there will be no way
that Kasparov will be fighting on,

because it's hopeless.

And then the moment came.

He gave his hand.

Judit Polgár, the great attacking genius,

ends up finally defeating Kasparov
in a nuanced, subtle endgame.

This is the one and only moment
in history when a female player beats

the strongest,
the greatest player of all time.

And not only does she beat him,
but she crushes him.

She doesn't give him a single chance.

At that point,
the 12-year-old girl with the ponytail

was long forgotten.

I mean, it was just
one of the best players in the world.

I cannot stress enough

how important this moment was to us women.

Because we thought,
"Okay, hang on a second. We can do that."

As a young girl,
this was such a huge inspiration to me.

It proved that impossible is possible.

Obviously, it was not
my ideal game scenario.

She just…

She just delivered,
and that's how I lost the game.

Here is the hero
of the day, the Kasparov slayer.

So what is your professional opinion?
Were you satisfied?

-Yes.
-Yes, but go on!

-No comment.
-Don't be silly!

I've never heard such a thing before.

I was dreaming
for a long time that one day,

I will win against Garry Kasparov.

It was like a great satisfaction.

Well, Judit beat Kasparov.

My sisters and family was not there,

but immediately I called them
to share this moment.

It was such a joy.

It's something we waited for
our whole lives, and she managed to do it.

What I dreamt when I was 4,
I accomplished a good part of it,

but she took it to the next level.

I was very, very proud of her.

My father was extremely happy.

I think he was jumping
up and down from happiness.

It was a fabulous achievement for her,

and that's why I felt that

our experiment worked.

But you can only say that Judit was
one of the best players in the world.

To be the number one
among the world's top players,

she would have had to work
three or four hours a day more.

I am just glad to see Judit happy.

That moment,
it finally gave me the feeling that

in one game, in an event…

I can beat anybody.

Who took the bomp?

Judit was the greatest
female chess player in history.

There's no doubt about that.

She transformed chess.

Every day and night…

She's also a phenomenon
in that sense that she was a guinea pig

of her father and mother's ideas.

And I think the fact that she achieved
all these things that he dreamt of,

and that she still remained
a very normal and pleasant person,

that's some sort of a miracle.

Without any flattery, we could say
that she did something revolutionary.

She proved that a female player
could be a top competitor.

That was something that many of us,

frankly speaking, myself included,
would not think was possible.

Who took the bomp
From the bompalompalomp?

Who took the ram
From the ramalamading-dong?

Looking back all these years,

and being the subject of that experiment,

how do you feel about it?

Of course, in one hand,

it is not a nice way
of being part of an experiment.

I never felt myself being a genius.

I know that the things I could reach,

that was definitely, like,
95% of my work and dedication.

And this came from my parents.

My father, of course, was the one
who showed me the beauty of chess.

But also, what I could do.

That I could be great.

People have to believe in you.

And you have to believe in yourself.

I think the most important thing
is that from today,

you have to be better than yesterday.

And tomorrow, you try to get better.

Never give up.

And always fight until the very end.