Susan Polgar (born April 19, 1969, as Polgár Zsuzsanna is a Hungarian-American chess grandmaster. was Women’s World Champion from 1996 to 1999. Susan is now one of the greatest minds there are in the women’s chess field.
On the FIDE rating list of July 1984, at the age of 15, she became the top-ranked female player in the world. In 1991 she became the third woman to be awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE. She won twelve medals at the Women’s Chess Olympiad (5 gold, 4 silver, and 3 bronze). Also a trainer, writer, and promoter, Polgar sponsors various chess tournaments for young players and is the head of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) at Webster University. She served as the Chairperson (or co-chair) of the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess from 2008 until late 2018.
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
Susan Polgar was born and raised in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. to a Jewish family. She has two sisters, Judit and Sofia. Both of them are also in the same field as their elder sister. Judit holds the title of Grandmaster while Sofia holds the title of International Master. Susan belongs to the long lineage of Jewish who have been the victims of the cruel and devastating Holocaust. Her both grandmothers are even witnesses and survivors of the heartbreaking Auschwitz concentration camp.
Though her family spent their early days in Hungary, they later moved to Israel. While her family moved there, Susan moved to the USA after marrying her first husband instead. She has two sons from her first husband. However, she divorced her first husband in 2006 and married Paul Truong in the same year. The couple now resides in St.Louis, Missouri. Susan, along with her sister, was homeschooled by her father. Her father is László Polgár, who is a chess teacher and an educational psychologist.
Her studies and upbringing were part of an experiment conducted by her father, where he believed that geniuses were made and not born. It is considered one of the biggest and most amazing experiments ever conducted in human education. Her father taught them everything in their own home. Later, for her contribution, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Texas Tech University.
Career
Her journey in the chess world started with her father, who taught her everything there was to know about it.
Her career as a chess player started at the age of four when she won her first-ever chess tournament in an under eleven girls category. It was the first step toward her career. Then she went to win the under sixteen girls’ chess championship at the age of twelve.
There were even restrictions for her to play in international tournaments, yet she was able to become one of the top-rated female players. She was just fifteen at that time. She was already making her name among the female chess players. At seventeen, she took part in the zonal competition where she even competed with the men. Later, the FIDE( The international Chess Federation) added a hundred bonus Elo rating points to all the female chess players except Susan. The explanation was that Susan was already playing against men. It made her lose her top rank.
She was playing for Hungary, but in 2002, she shifted her federation and started playing on behalf of the USA. She had the title of Grandmaster given by the FIDE. Yet, again she was declared the Grandmaster of the year in the USA too. She became the first woman to achieve that title.
She also bagged the U.S. open Blitz championship title by defeating seven other grandmasters. She claimed her title again in 2005 and 2006. Susan not only played herself but also taught others. She formed a team to compete in the Chess Olympiad in 2004. Her team secured second place as a group, but she won gold in her games. She became the player with the highest performance among the women.
During this time, she held the largest simultaneous exhibition in Florida. This event broke the records for the highest number of games played simultaneously, the consecutive number of games played, the highest number of games won, and the highest win percentage.
She also joined Former World Champion Anatoly Karpov and Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to advocate Chess for peace. In 2006, she again represented the USA in Germany and won the title by defeating Elisabeth Pähtz. She then went to shift her federation back to Hungary.
During this time, she also started giving chess classes to children in her Polgar chess center in New York. Later it was relocated to Texas Tech Uni, as she joined as the coach for the Tech knight riders. They won the Final Fours of the college ( Presidents cup) chess competition for five straight years from 2013-2017 with her as their coach. Her team has also been able to either win or get tied in the Pan American Intercollegiate championship from 2012-2018.
She was the first female coach to lead a men’s division team to the Final Four. For being a great coach, she received the Furman Symeon medal. For this same reason, she was also awarded a top coaching medal by the FIDE.
Susan is the Grandmaster and one of the best when it comes to being a coach. She is also the founder of SPICE (Susan Polgar Foundation Institute of Chess Excellence). Through her foundation, she has been sponsoring and organizing various chess tournaments like a national level championship for both genders, tri-state scholastic chess challenge, SPICE cups, etc. She has a very successful and satisfying career.
PERSONAL LIFE
Susan got married twice in her 52 years of life. She was married to Jacob Shutzman for the first time, who was a computer consultant. However, the marriage did not last forever, and after being married for 12 years, they got divorced in 2006. In the same year, she got married to her longtime friend and business manager, Paul Truong. The couple has been living a happy life ever since then.
NET WORTH
Susan Polgar has a net worth of 1.5M- 5.5.M. USD. Though being a professional chess player is her career and prime source of income, she has various other side hustles, which add more to her preexisting income. She is a well-respected and great coach for the Texas Tech Knight Raiders. She is also the head of SPICE and the chairperson of the U.S. Chess Federation(USCF).
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