Judit Polgár is the strongest female chess player in history. She held the women’s world number-one ranking continuously from 1989 (at the age of twelve) until her retirement in August 2014. Her peak FIDE rating of 2735 in 2005 ranked her as the world number-eight overall — the only woman ever to enter the world top-ten.
She and her sisters Susan and Sofia were raised in Budapest under a controversial educational programme designed by their father László Polgár, who argued that geniuses are made, not born. All three Polgár sisters became strong international players; Judit was the strongest by far. She earned the Grandmaster title in December 1991 at fifteen years and four months — breaking Bobby Fischer’s record as the youngest GM in history, which had stood since 1958.
Throughout her career she refused on principle to play in women-only tournaments, preferring to compete in the open events where the world’s strongest players entered. She beat Garry Kasparov in 2002 (the first woman to defeat a reigning world number one in classical chess), and has career wins over Anatoly Karpov, Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Magnus Carlsen, and Boris Spassky.
She announced her retirement from competitive chess in August 2014 after the Tromsø Olympiad. Since retirement she has been active in chess promotion, education, and broadcasting, and is widely cited as the player who proved that the highest reaches of chess are not gender-limited.