October 23 2003 - Tom Bottema

Judit Polgar is not amongst the participants of the grandmastergroup A of the Corus Chess Tournament 2004. Ever since she got married, when she does not play where she was expected, immediately rumours spread that she is in the family way. Polgar has a different explanation for her absence in Wijk aan Zee: "I have been playing a lot of tournaments in the last twelve months without a break, and I will play some more in the forthcoming weeks. Basically, I am just tired of chess and so that is the reason why I do not come to the Netherlands in January. But do not worry, when I am invited for the edition of 2005,I will probably play again."

Polgar just scored one of her best performances in chess by winning the tournament in Hoogeveen where also Ivan Sokolov, Anatoli Karpov and junior world champion Levon Aronian competed. The current number eleven in the world considers it her best result in Hoogeveen ever although she won the tournament three times before: "Obviously, this was the strongest field I had ever to compete in here, not in the least because of the strength of the junior world champion. Secondly I was quite pleased with my level of play. Even in my loss against Sokolov I did not play so bad."

After some years in which she did not seem to improve much, she gained a lot of strength in the last twelve months. With an elo-rating well over 2.700 and a lot of good results in strong tounaments she is a factor to reckon with for everybody in any tournament. "Because of the mathematical system FIDE is using, gaining elo-points is the easy part of the story. Keeping them at the 2700 level and higher really proves if your play has improved. Since at the moment I am not only capable of doing that but even gaining more points, to me it is the prove that I am on the right track."

According to herself the emotional stability she reached after getting married helps a lot. "I am happy with the direction of my life. My husband and I moved into a new appartment which costs a lot of time organizing everything, but once finished gave me a lot of satisfaction. More than in the past I am able to make the training hours one need to improve at this level."

Chess has - of course - always played a dominating role in Polgars life. "Also because of the fact that I am having succes in chess, but in some way it is the most important thing in my life. Unfortunately it remains that way when you play bad. For instance, in Hoogeveen after I lost to Sokolov in the fifth round, I ruined everything I built in the previous rounds. But you can not get away from it, you have to stay focused."

Wijk aan Zee has its advantages and its disadvantages, according to Polgar who played many times at the Corus Chess Tournament. "The weather in Wijk aan Zee is not so nice in the winter and the tournament is tiring for me. "On the other hand Polgar is enthusiastic about most restaurants in Wijk aan Zee but has a special place in her heart for the Sante Bar. "This saté-dish is unbelievable of course, but my favourite is the sole fish that they have on the menu. I can advise it to everybody." And as Polgar states "The organizers do everything they can to create a special atmosphere in which they succeed both for the grandmasters as for amateurs. The tournament is of course a living history; chess needs that kind of tournaments of which there are only a few.