Susan Polgar

The eldest Polgar sister who actually won the Women's World Championship, then refused to defend it in a dispute with FIDE. A champion on her own terms, not her father's experiment.

The Eldest Sister

Susan Polgar was born on April 19, 1969, in Budapest, Hungary, the eldest of the three Polgar sisters. Like Judit and Sofia, she was part of her father Laszlo's educational experiment. Unlike Judit, Susan chose to compete in women's events, and in 1996 she challenged Xie Jun for the Women's World Championship in Jaen, Spain.

She won the match convincingly, 8.5-4.5, becoming the first Hungarian Women's World Champion and proving that the Polgar training method could produce champions in women's chess as well as open competition.

The Dispute

In 1999, FIDE scheduled Polgar's title defense against Galliamova. Polgar requested additional time to recover from the birth of her first child and raised concerns about the match venue and conditions. FIDE refused her requests, stripped her of the title, and awarded it to Xie Jun. The decision was widely criticized as unfair, but Polgar chose not to fight it legally and instead moved to the United States, where she became a successful coach, author, and chess promoter.