HomeFamous IQs › Judit Polgár

170 Reported

Judit Polgár

NationalityHungarian
Test instrumentStandardized childhood testing
DocumentationPolgár family documentation; chess press

Judit Polgár is the strongest female chess player in history. She earned the Grandmaster title at 15 years and 4 months - then the youngest in history of either sex, breaking Bobby Fischer's record. Her peak FIDE rating of 2735 (2005) remains the highest ever achieved by a woman in classical chess by a substantial margin.

Her reported IQ comes from childhood testing as part of the Polgár family's well-known intellectual development program. Her father László Polgár, a Hungarian educational psychologist, designed and documented a program for his three daughters around the premise that high-level expert performance could be cultivated through deliberate practice.

Polgár defeated eleven world champions in classical and rapid play across her career, including Kasparov, Carlsen, Karpov, and Anand. She retired from competitive chess in 2014 and has since focused on chess education and the Judit Polgár Chess Foundation.

Caveat: IQ figures from the Polgár family documentation are part of László Polgár's broader educational thesis. They are credible as test results but should be read in the context of the program.

References

  • Polgár, L. (1989). Bring Up Genius!
  • FIDE rating archives
  • Polgár, J. (2013). How I Beat Fischer's Record

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