Sofia Polgar: Amazing Artist - Dangerous Tactician

By Susan Polgar, Sofia Polgar and Judit Polgar

A Truly Unique Chess Book

The chess triumphs of the Polgar sisters are legendary. Now, in this very special book, Sofia Polgar tells her own exceptional story: from her development as a prodigy and remarkable tournament successes to her eventually settling down, with chess occupying a lesser role as she raised a family.

Sofia presents many of her games, each with her own brand of fireworks. Clear, straightforward annotations allow the reader to appreciate her accomplishments on the board, while away from the board, her many personal memoirs complete the picture.

There are many photographs, many of which haver never been previously published. They nicely complement the chronicle of both her meteoric rise in the chess world and her loving family who encouraged her at every turn.

What is not generally known is that Sofia Polgar is also a gifted artist – a talented painter. Dozens of examples of her brilliant creativity on canvas are featured throughout this large format book. These paintings are presented in full color and on special matte paper to enhance the reader’s viewing enjoyment.

Two editions of this truly unique book will be offered: (1) a large format (7x10) softcover edition; and (2) a large format (also 7x10), signed and numbered hardcover edition. This special hardcover edition will be limited to 200 numbered copies. Each will be signed and dated by Sofia.

From Susan Polgar’s Foreword: You are invited to enjoy the experience of the wonderful legacy of Sofia’s amazing chess career and art.

From Judit Polgar’s Foreword: I wish the readers a pleasant journey on this artistic excursion that provides great chess lessons while also offering nourishment for the soul.

Sofia Polgar: Amazing Artist – Dangerous Tactician is part autobiography, part art gallery and part tactical textbook, but above all it is a very special, unique look at the life and games of an artist both on and off the board.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Russell Enterprises, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781949859607

Book preview

FOREWORD BY SUSAN POLGAR

This book is a very unique mix of autobiography, chess instruction, art, and more. Knowing my sister Sofia since her birth, I can confirm that it perfectly reflects her personality, what she is like and what she stands for.

Sofia has been – somewhat unfairly – in the shadow of her sisters, but she has accomplished a great deal in chess in her own right. Had she been born into any other family, she would have received a lot more recognition.

In addition to being a multiple-time Olympic champion, Sofia is most famous for winning a major international tournament in Rome with an amazing score of 8½ points out of 9, ahead of a number of Soviet grandmasters. That unbelievable score meant a performance rating of 2930 (a world record at any open tournament in those days), which gave her front-page coverage in many chess magazines. Read more about it the chapter Miracle in Rome.

Throughout the book, Sofia introduces the reader to the basics of chess in a fun and entertaining way. She gives you an insight into the world of chess from her childhood memories through the years of being a professional chessplayer. She shares her perspective of her early years in chess with many funny stories, as well as the golden years of Polgaria, when we – the three Polgar sisters – conquered the chess world together as a family (see the chapter Olympic Experience).

She has divided this book into twelve chapters, mostly based on tactical elements such as Watch your Back (referring to the weakness of the back rank) or Attack on the Seventh Rank, etc., using almost exclusively her own games as examples. Sofia has always been known for her fearless attacking style of play and countless combinations, dangerous even for grandmasters. The various, most important (and beautiful) chess tactical motifs, are illustrated also by her own artwork along with fun quotes taken from the greats of chess to mainstream celebrities.

I remember that Sofia, even as a young girl (7-8 years old), used to love arts and would draw beautiful colorful drawings effortlessly, sometimes even during chess training. After her retirement from competitive chess, she prioritized taking care of her family, while at the same time arts (and specifically painting and drawing) became her passion. In this work, she explains the parallels between art in general and art in chess.

Even though she is now inactive as player, Sofia has found various ways to remain connected to chess. For example, through her chess-themed artworks as well as co-authoring with our sister Judit, a series of educational chess-books.

This work on one hand is a fun instructional chess book, and on the other hand, a journey for the reader, learning about Sofia and her family. You are invited to enjoy the experience of the wonderful legacy of Sofia’s amazing chess career and art.

Susan Polgar

FOREWORD BY JUDIT POLGAR

My sister Sofia is a wonderful person. A treasure. She has been an honest and true friend from the day I was born to this day. I like to think that will always be the case.

The three Polgar sisters have been known to the world since 1988, when we won the Olympic gold medal for Hungary in Thessaloniki. Our chess careers are different; Our sister Susan’s and mine are better known to the public. That is why I am so happy that Sofia has written her own story, in her own words. I am delighted that she made the decision to share her incredible journey.

From her personal perspective, she reveals how she grew up, how she felt and discovered the world through chess, and how she became an artist on the chessboard and beyond. She loves to reflect her feelings and thoughts on canvas.

I remember the atmosphere of our training sessions, and how much we giggled, smiled, and laughed. We were together in good times and hard times. When we played together in the same tournament, it was important that we could share and discuss everything. She was and still is a huge support for me. Her smile gives a positive vibration to everyone around her. It is always a pleasure and fun to talk and work with her, as we did at the first educational chess book, followed by more later. Her passion as a teacher-educator, her positivity, and her open, creative attitude and vision are contagious, all of which come through while reading this book, thanks to her unique writing style.

I wish the readers a pleasant journey on this artistic excursion that provides great chess lessons while also offering nourishment for the soul. Enjoy!

Judit Polgar, Budapest

Introduction

MY collection of chess games and visual art was selected with the purpose of passing on my love for the game, showing its aesthetic side with easy-to-understand explanations and inspiring players of all ages to think creatively. It is also my way of reaching out to people who like paintings and inviting them to appreciate the world of chess.

A few things computers cannot take away from humans is the thinking process, the joy of creativity and our ability to enjoy a fine piece of art. The way I see it, the Arts include chess puzzles and studies: tactics with beautiful combinations and well-planned strategies. Chess art may be created by brilliant study composers, as well as the play of excellent sportsmen, masters and grandmasters.

Chess is a lot like music: it can be enjoyed on so many different levels. When you start understanding the patterns and play the tunes – and in the case of chess, the moves – you acquire a new perspective about appreciating its inherent harmony. Learning to play an instrument is still on my bucket list, but I had already started learning the tactical patterns of the sixty-four squares by age four. In one way or another, chess has been a part of my life since then.

After a competitive chess career that spanned more than twenty years, I have spent years teaching club players. I have given private lessons, taught small groups and also larger classrooms in schools. This teaching experience gave me the tools to create learning materials for children and teachers. It has given me great satisfaction knowing that, each year, thousands of children learn from the books which I have created together with my sister Judit.

AS I reviewed material for inclusion in this book, I realized how the same patterns are repeated over and over on various levels. I came to the conclusion that the best way to pass on knowledge of tactics through my games is by teaching these chess themes.

There is no doubt that you will encounter the topics covered in the upcoming chapters in your own games.

Learn and enjoy! Or even better: Enjoy and learn!

CHESS SYMBOLS FOR NOTATION

Musicians are capable of hearing music by just seeing the score and chessplayers are able of viewing a sequence of moves by just reading the notation.

– Achilleas Zographos in Music and Chess

If it is not your first chess book, you can skip this page. If it is, I am honored! Just as there are names and numbers of an address, we can find our way around on the chessboard by letters and numbers. The board and the diagrams we use have a system of coordinates, with horizontal and vertical lines. Each square is determined by a letter (a through h: the files) and a number (1 through 8: the ranks).

Symbolic language

When there is no capital letter in front of the coordinate of a square, it is a pawn move. The notation of the chess pieces are indicated by capital letters.

A short example:

1.e4 (the white pawn moves to e4) e5 (the black pawn moves to e5) 2.Bc4 (the white bishop moves to c4) f5 (the black pawn moves to f5) 3.Nc3 (the white knight moves to c3) fxe4?? (the black pawn captures on e4, a blunder) 4.Qh5+! (the white queen checks on h5, a good move) 4…Ke7? (the black king moves to e7, a bad move) 5.Qxe5# 1-0 (the white queen captures on e5, checkmate and White has won the game.)

Family Background

THIS is not your standard family story, that is for sure! My story, as well as my sisters’ stories, have been widely written about in the media since the 1970s, so I do not intend to bore you much with the family history, but rather will try to give you the perspective of the sandwich girl – the middle sister of the so-called famous Polgar Sisters.

In 1974, the year I was born in Budapest, it was a very different world, with Russian troops still in Hungary. When I first opened my eyes, it was behind the Iron Curtain of a Communist regime.

My family lived in modest surroundings, but had enormous dreams and ambitions. Both my parents, my mother Klara and my father Laszlo, were teachers and had an incredible idea of how to educate us. Even before my sisters and I were born, my Dad had the support of my Mom for his experiment. In fact, years later, my parents gave numerous interviews about raising us, and they both earned their PhD about their unique way of bringing us up.

The book Bring Up a Genius! was written by Laszlo Polgar together with Endre Farkas in 1989 and was a best seller in Hungary. In a nutshell, my parents firmly believe that every healthy child can become a genius, if given the right conditions and guidance. Unfortunately for many parents who might consider following in their footsteps, the English edition has not yet appeared.

Initially my father planned on having six children to prove his ideas, but my mother decided that the family was complete after the third child. By the time I was four, Susan, five years older than I, was home-schooled and already a master-class chessplayer. I have learned so much from her. She was a pioneer in many ways: not going to school every day was unheard of at the time and hardly appreciated by the authorities. She also competed against adult males, rather than schoolchildren and girls.

So this is the kind of atmosphere I was born into: a loving family where the parents do everything for and with the children, teaching us school subjects while make the preparation for tournaments a top priority. Outside of our home, nothing came easy: my parents and Susan were questioned and were rarely understood and attacked by almost everyone, especially by the educational system and the Hungarian Chess Federation.

As a small girl I hardly cared about all that. I simply wanted to do what my sister was doing, playing around with those beautiful wooden pieces.

My parents are phenomenal teachers and they knew quite well how to ease me into chess training. At first, I would play with the chess pieces as I did with other toys, trying to build a tower or castle with the rooks for example. At age four, I started to learn the rules of the game, one piece at a time until gradually I learned all the rules and how to play. It did not take long until I too started to compete in weekend tournaments and scholastic championships.

My father was the mastermind behind bringing us up to become champions while it was my mother who kept everything in balance and helped us become healthy and happy individuals. Mom was always in the background and never got enough credit from the media for what her three daughters achieved. She also deserves the most thanks for my becoming the person, woman and mother I am. She was my role model and taught me to appreciate the little things in life, from a tiny flower to a little smile, a wonderful sound or a delicious taste, everything that makes this life precious.

Her positive thinking and optimistic approach to everything and everyone is a great gift that I can only hope to pass on to others. My mother’s appreciation for beauty and my father’s creative thinking both created a great foundation for becoming an artist, both on and off the chessboard.

AS for the fighting spirit that is running in my veins, it is probably due to the fact that my grandparents were survivors of the horrors of the twentieth century. My grandmothers Manci and Szeren and grandfathers Bela and Armin, may they rest in peace, had a unique miracle story of coming back from the sufferings of the Holocaust. Each one of them miraculously came back, skin and bones and with the tremendous heartache, realizing that almost everyone in their families had been killed by the Nazis and their allies. Six million Jews were systematically murdered in World War II. My grandparents were the lucky ones, with the numbers tattooed on their arms and nightmares for the rest of their lives, but with a chance to build a new life from the ashes.

Grandma Szeren wrote in one of her letters: We were destined to live. So with all the dark shadows hanging above their heads, they did start living again, and gave life to my parents. As a third generation of survivors, I still have a bad feeling when seeing train tracks…

Like in many post-war families, when growing up, we would occasionally hear things such as, Eat! Your grandparents were happy if they got a potato skin in the camps… Or Everything you have can be taken away from you. The only thing that cannot be taken away is what you carry in your head. So make sure to study a lot!

Basic Chess Lessons

YOU’LL find a lot of tactics at different levels in this book. It is intended for club players, art lovers, and naturally to all Polgar fans as well. From my teaching experience, I came to the conclusion that below a certain level, there are not enough books which explain what is going on – move by move – in games of the masters. Many of my students have asked me when I show them grandmaster games: OK, nice game, but why did the player resign? I’ll do my best not to leave you in the dark with such questions! Keep in mind the basic chess lessons bellow when reviewing the positions in this book and also when you play your own games!

For What It’s Worth