In the early ninety’s when chess players still got together in person, my good friend Stephen invited the usual suspects over for a little barbecue and some chess. He said he had some visitors we would enjoy meeting. I asked who, he said that Grandmaster Alex Sherzer would be there and the rest he would save until later. I prodded without success.
It turned out that Alex was not traveling alone, the others in his party were introduced as Lyle, Zoie and Sofia. The conversation quickly turned to chess, the PCA the Intel Grand Prix, as well as the merits of different players. I think at least some of us were wondering, could this Sofia be Sofia Polgar, I know I was. We didn’t have to wait long to find out. About five minutes into the conversation Tim said, “well ladies do you play chess.” To which they replied “oh a little.” Most chess players know the code “oh a little” means oh indeed I do, and I’m probably better than you.
A few minutes later not satisfied, Tim said to Sofia, “you look a lot like Judit Polgar”, a real conversation stopper. Stephen said, “well of course she looks like Judit this is Sofia her sister”. Tim said, “NO, not really” to which Stephen in his most serious tone replied, “Yes Tim really”. Tim didn’t say anything for several minutes. Then you could see the realization on his face, like the sun rising in the morning a glimmer of light reflected in his eye. Then just as quickly as if the entire day had passed in that one moment the sun set and his face turned a dark crimson red. There was nowhere to hide; all he could manage was a soft oh.
Sofia gave us all gave a chance to prove our skill at speed chess, all quickly fell victim to a very good player. Tim claims to have won one game, but after watching Sofia crush Alex Sherzer game after game, I don’t believe him. Tim was not alone however, the previous weekend Sofia, Alex and company were in Tucson, Sofia wasn’t playing but was at the tournament where no one recognized her.
Note: Sofia Polgar is a two-times Gold medallist with Hungarian national women’s team in 1988 and 1990. Her biggest success was in Rome, 1989 with a performance rating over 2900! (Kasparov’s current rating is 2838) In a field of strong GMs she won the competition with 8.5/9, which at the time was a record in open tournaments.