Judit Polgar

“My style became very technical. I sacrificed a lot of things. I was always hunting for the king, for the mate. I'd forget about my other pieces. Until a point it worked, and I won games that way.”

“There are two ways to have educational chess in schools, either through after school programs or using chess as a tool in classrooms to improve children's thinking.”

“We had to cope with the media writing things which were not true, which were insulting. At around 13 I decided I was just not going to pay attention.”

“It's very important where you put your goals.”

“We had a happy childhood, our parents were strict but loving, and I was together with my sisters, who were my best friends.”

“My sister Susan, who was the first one, was pretty good in mathematics and then chess, and my father chose chess because it was easier to measure the results.”

“I believe that I am as tough as other women who are very successful and have had to prove their abilities over and over again.”

“I want to show how rich chess is and what kind of history it has, through culture, literature, and education.”

“I'm convinced that if my goal hadn't been to be in the absolute best category I can, I would not have been able to be for 26 years the number one in the ladies' category.”

“Chess demolishes differences. It's a language of different generations.”

“Since retiring from competitive chess, my focus is on education and organising children's tournaments: I make a point of never separating girls and boys, nor awarding special prizes for girls.”

“I was very successful from a very young age... there was never a bad period.”

“If you are in a tournament, you have to think of yourself - you can't think of your wife or children - only about yourself. Otherwise, you wake up, eat, prepare, do everything you can to be in good shape.”

“I played against men most of my life because our goal was that I wanted to reach the highest potential to be an absolute world champion.”

“When I was 15, I became the youngest grandmaster in the world, breaking the record set by Bobby Fischer more than three decades earlier.”

“The biggest challenge is to fulfill your own ideas about yourself.”

“My husband supports me a lot - he would probably go higher in his field if he didn't.”

“I was very lucky to be a part of a family where I got all the support I needed and I think this was essential for me to be able to reach my results.”

“I started to become internationally successful starting at the age of 9.”

“You have to concentrate on yourself, to look at your own interests. You need fighting spirit. My parents, sisters and trainers helped, but I have fighting spirit.”