"Interview with Susan Polgar"
 World Chess Champion
 Four Gold Medal Holder

ANDREW RACZ:   Susan, you are the female equivalent of Bobby Fisher and Kasparov. Your life started more dramatically than that of Judy Garland. Few lives start in the unusual fashion that yours did.

SUSAN POLGAR:   Well, it was very fascinating. I guess until I was about almost four years old, I was just like an average child playing with various toys and games. Then one day just around my fourth birthday, I was searching for a new toy and I found some interesting looking figures, the chess pieces, as I found out later. I asked my mom what they were, and she didn't know how to play with them, she said. You need to wait until Daddy comes home. He came home later that night, and I was very anxious to find out how to play with them.

A few months later, after I started playing and practicing, I played my first championship tournament.

All the other girls being two to three times my age. That was, of course, a big boost to my self-confidence.

Q:   You go through four or five, six, seven, eight, you were different, correct? You were different than all the other girls.

A:   Well, I was different in the sense that I had a big part of my life focusing around chess.

Q:   That's very different because most people at that age don't focus on anything so important.

A:   That's right. I knew my life was very different. I had chess in my life, and I knew that my life is different. I was home schooled. I had to pass, of course, the state tests and go from grade to grade just like any other child, but being home schooled I had more time to focus on chess. I had a very interesting but different life.

Q:   When you were ten, Hungary was still a communist country.

A:   That's right.

Q:   The West is always interested in how did your life contrast a communist background?

A:   As you know, the communist regime, one of its main policies was that everybody is equal and to have a leveling effect, so for somebody who was more talented and more ambitious, it was very hard to stand out. They were trying to push people down.

Q:   Didn't the Hungarian government like to elevate you because you represented something unusual?

A:   It was a little bit more complicated than that. Initially in one sense, no. They wanted to reap success. It was successes and for me to play only where I could have immediate success. My parents and I believed that in order to have extraordinary results, I needed to have appropriate challenges. And that meant at the time to play mostly in open tournaments, meaning open for men and women. The Hungarian Chess Federation and Sports Authority at the time did not appreciate that, that I wasn't willing to play in their women-only tournaments and get immediate success. But in order to achieve high results, it's necessary to have very high goals set. If you don't set your goals high, you're never going to get there. My dream always was to become a Grand Master and not just a champion among women.

Q:   Grand Master is an international title.

Q:   But in order to be a Grand Master, you had to start playing in international tournaments.

A:   That's correct.

Q:   Which were the first few countries you played in?

A:   Well, internationally I played in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, which were part of the Easter Bloc countries back in the early eighties. Then my very first out of the communist bloc tournament was in England in 1981, when I was twelve.

Q:   Did you get the same publicity as the soccer players in 1953?

A:   Well, not quite. I got a lot of publicity, I have to say, in Hungary especially. My first foreign appearance was also in those countries, but of course chess is never on the same level of popularity as soccer is in Hungary. Although I have to tell you that when I won my first Olympic medal for Hungary, together with my sister in 1988, we were really treated I think like the soccer team, including a reception with the Prime Minister and receptions all over the place, on television. We were on the cover of practically every newspaper. We were on talk shows and everything like that.

Q:   There was a time I remember when the three Polgar sisters...

A:   That was in 1988 when we for the first time broke the dominance of the Soviet Union which had won, up to that point, every chess Olympiad. Not only did we broke that tradition of the Soviet Union always winning... Back in those days in Hungary, the Soviets weren't much liked by the population, even though theoretically we were on the same side.

Q:   The Hungarians hated the Russians. The Hungarian people hated the Russians.

A:   That might be an extreme word, but something along those lines. The people were very happy, not only that we won but that we beat the Soviets.

Q:   Around 1988, winning at a very early age in London...

A:   London was 1981. 1988 was in Thessolonika in Greece.

Q:   That was the Olympics.

A:   That was the Olympics in 1988.

Q:   At that time, still in a communist country, did you have a privileged life, and what sort of dreams did you have?

A:   Definitely. 1988 and Olympic gold meant a big change in our lives, as to respect, as to popularity. The whole country became my friends.

Q:   Did you bring some lightness to Budapest, to the Hungarian middle class life? Did you and your sisters bring some unusual light into Budapest? Like Humphrey Bogart's Casablanca?

A:   I think so, yes. We were really treated as national heroes. People would recognize us on the street. I have to say we got some privileges with that, that people were extremely nice and I would say almost thankful for the pride that we brought to our native country. But I have to say, 1988 was already at the end of the communist regime, so it was in the air that it's close to the change.

Q:   So the world now comes to '89, some tremendous change. Hungary had a new prime minister. In the 1990s, and Hungary was ostensibly a free country then, and the whole of Eastern Europe was free and the Russians had plenty of other problems, how did your life change?

A:   Well, as I said, after 1988 when we won the Olympic Gold, basically we had complete financial security and a lot of respect. Those types of problems kind of ended, I have to say. We became national heroes and we were almost like Michael Jordans of Hungary. We were really celebrities.

Q:   So in other words, in the 1990s, let's say, we were in Hungary all through the 1990s?

A:   Yes. I moved here basically towards the end of 1994.

Q:   In America. But let's say until 1994, you were like a light, like a great actress.

A:   Definitely. Somebody who the people were very proud of. You mention my name, everybody from the president, to the cleaning lady, to the policeman, to the waitress, everybody will know my name. I have to say it hasn't changed too much. If you mention the Polgar sisters, I think most people would still know. Maybe not the new generation, kids that are fifteen, twenty years old. But anybody of my generation, let's say, would know my name.

Q:   I hope you use it because I used all my life all over the world for Hungary that I'm a cousin of Bayor Gizi. In the Belgian Congo, President Thsombee's doctor was Hungarian and was a big help, and Professor Andrew Teller, of course. The first time when I came here, the author Zilahi Lajos of course was a good friend of hers. But it opened up a lot of doors to me, and I hope it does for you, too. Let's take the last few years. You came to America, and in America you have one disadvantage compared to Hungary, which Mr. Zilahi told me. I said Uncle Louis in Fifth Aveue or Madison Avenue, how can you be depressed? He said look, son, I was a celebrated author in Hungary. Everybody knew my name, everybody knew me on the street. Here in New York, nobody knows me. So I said, well, Uncle Louis, Elizabeth Taylor maybe gets some attention but nobody else. So you are in the U.S. with many more chess achievements behind you. Actually, you got indirect publicity because of Bobby Fisher. How do you find yourself in the year 2006 in America?

A:   I'm very excited, as the ambassador of chess, and I'm promoting chess full steam. I have big dreams. I have accomplished a lot in the past several years, the Polgar Foundation and beyond. I'm having big hopes for the coming year and years to get chess a lot more attention, not only as a game, as a competition, as a hobby for people, but also as an educational tool.

Q:   But look, as an individual, you are a unique individual. First of all, there hasn't been a single famous female chess player in the world. In my readings I didn't find anyone. I found plenty of Russians but not a single female. Secondly, the world is now more or less looking for values, and chess is definitely a very peaceful value. You have four gold medals behind you. What is it you feel you can accomplish in America for yourself, forgetting other organizations?

A:   Well, I'm more concerned with giving back to the community and if I benefit from it, that's fine. But my dream is really to change the image of chess, to get chess to the forefront. That's my dream. As I said, I don't mind if I benefit from it, of course, that's welcome, but I'm really looking at the bigger picture.

Q:   The bigger picture is that there are tennis players who last five or ten years in the limelight. I remember Spitz's name as a swimmer, but he's also disappeared. You have Ali, the heavy-weight boxer, that I happen to know personally. But chess is something that lasts for decades for an individual. Plus, let's face it, Bobby Fisher did not capture the personal professional attention, but there is no question he created chess in the North American continent. That means there is an interest in chess.

A:   There are about 45 million people in America who play chess. Not everybody is Bobby Fisher.

Q:   Why aren't you better than Bobby Fisher for being great in chess?

A:   Well, I may be greater in some ways. He was maybe a better chess player if you look at his game.

Q:   But nobody understood it.

A:   I have to tell you, at the same time that 99 percent of the people would not understand the difference between the level of my game and his game.

Q:   Now you sound like an investment banker.

A:   It's true.

Q:   Tell me, is it possible for the one and only repeated Gold Medal female chess player like you in the United States to become as famous as any other actress like Bette Davis or Elizabeth Taylor? Is it possible to achieve that intellectual and theatrical status?

A:   I absolutely believe that. I believe that with the right marketing and having the right events to help that come true, I think I do have that potential.

Q:   Suppose next week or the week after, before Christmas, Mr. Kerkorian threw a big simultaneous party for you, 300-350 people, televised, and he said, well, I made a little money on General Motors, I'm investing in something which when I'm ninety I can play myself. What would happen?

A:   It would be fantastic.

Q:   But it could happen, okay?

A:   That sounds fantastic.

Q:   And it could change your life.

A:   That's right.

Q:   And you would be on the way to being Audrey Hepburn.

A:   Well, that would be fantastic. And I believe it will happen, if not this Christmas or maybe next year, I know it will happen.

Q:   This is December 6, 2006. I remember in Budapest Christmas was a big day. We got presents, the families got together. There was a nice warm atmosphere, and we had this atmosphere even in 1944 and 1945. Today the world emotionally and maybe realistically has very rarely been in worse shape. This is the backing you leave. When the backing is dark, it will be ten people died in Iraq. It's a bad atmosphere. If somebody emerges, light intellectual, it has a very great possibility. The background is in your favor. I think the U.S. is waiting for some light intellectual breakthroughs. The country would give anything. Let's say people talked about your chess, Kerkorian and General Motors chairman next to you, they want to talk about it much more than they talk about Syria and Lebanon and Hezbollah and all these idiots.

A:   Right.

Q:   Unfortunately on the television, out of the seven billion people alive, the lunatic fringe, 150 million, take all the attention. Somebody could come along and break through and say, look, there is something nice in life. And that may be delivered by you. Okay?

A:   Fine. I'd be more than happy to do that.

   Andrew Racz

(Article 44 - posted December 14, 2006)

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