‘Queen of Chess’ documentary on Netflix: Where is Judit Polgár now?
If you loved The Queen’s Gambit, then you are definitely going to want to watch The Queen of Chess on Netflix, a new documentary that began streaming today that profiles the real-life child chess prodigy Judit Polgár.
Directed by Rory Kennedy (Last Days in Vietnam, Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari), and written by Mark Bailey and Keven McAlester, this documentary details the rise of Polgár, a Hungarian girl who broke the record set by Bobby Fischer to become the youngest-ever chess Grandmaster when she was 15 years old. To this day, she is the only woman to break into the top 10 ranking of top chess players in the world.
It didn’t come easy. In the documentary, Polgár and her two sisters describe being the subject of an “experiment” by their father, who decided, on their behalf, that their entire lives would be dedicated to becoming chess champions. They didn’t go to regular school, didn’t celebrate holidays or birthdays, and they didn’t take weekends off. They trained, day in and day out. It sounds an awful lot like abuse. Their father, László Polgár, who is interviewed in the doc, claims he has no regrets. But as one reporter puts it near the end of the film, “The fact that [Judit] achieved all these things that [her father] dreamt of, and that she still remained a very normal and pleasant person, that’s some sort of a miracle.”
Read on to learn more about where Judit Polgár is now.
Where is Judit Polgár from Queen of Chess now?
Judit Polgár, now 49, has been retired from competitive chess for over a decade, since 2014. She lives in Budapest, Hungary with her husband Gusztáv Font, and their two children, Oliver and Hanna.
Polgár has been on a media tour with the film making team to promote the film, and traveled to Park City, Utah to be there for the documentary’s premiere at Sundance Film Festival last month.
On Friday, the day that Queen of Chess released on Netflix, Polgár posted on her official Facebook page, writing, “I have already received thousands of messages ❤️🙏 on different platforms for #QueenOfChess, Rory Kennedy’s documentary of my story, available on Netflix – link in the comments.”
At the end of the film, director Rory Kennedy asks Polgár point-blank how, looking back, she feels about being the subject of her father’s tyrannical “experiment.” In response, Polgár hedges.
“Of course, in one hand, it is not a nice way, of being part of an experiment,” Polgár says carefully, after a long pause and an awkward laugh. “I never felt myself being a genius. I know that the things I could reach, that was definitely 95 percent of my work and dedication. This came from my parents. My father 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.”
