Hungarian chess legend Polgár beats the Norwegian chess world champion!

Judit Polgár in March 2022. Source: Facebook/Polgár Judit hivatalos oldala

During an unscheduled chess match, the international grandmaster from Hungary, Judit Polgár, beat the current chess champion, Magnus Carlsen!

The World Chess Champion Candidates Tournament in Madrid had a break on Saturday and an unscheduled match was arranged. Judit Polgár, the women’s world number one for 25 years, played against reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway. Polgár retired in August 2014 and is one of the commentators for this tournament.

Polgár and Carlsen, chess legends

Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess player, international grandmaster, eight-time open chess champion, two-time women’s chess Olympic champion. She has been awarded the Women’s Chess Oscar seven times, including the Oscar for the female chess player of the century.

Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian chess player, grandmaster, five-time world champion in classical timed chess and world champion in rapid and blitz chess.

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Polgár posted on her official Facebook page that she ran into Carlsen in Retiro Park, who was playing chess with club members. Since she was also there, they exchanged a game, which Polgár, who was playing with the light pieces, won.

Polgár beat Carlsen

As Telex reports, in a seven-minute commentary available on YouTube, you can see how Polgár made the best chess player of the modern era surrender by taking down his queen. Carlsen saw no point in continuing after 19 moves.

In total, Polgár has beaten eleven men’s world champions in classic or fast games. Between 2006 and 2014, she played 17 games with Carlsen, and she beat him in Mexico in 2012, when she played dark and the game was decided after 50 moves!

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The World Chess Champion Candidates Tournament

The tournament continues on Sunday and concludes on Monday, with Hungarian participant Richárd Rapport having won once and lost twice in the 12 rounds so far. Russian Jan Nyepomnyasich is currently leading and is expected to challenge Carlsen, just like he did last year.

“Madrid is brilliant! 😊 I arrived and was immediately in the middle of a magical event,” posted Judit Polgár on Facebook. “The chess club in Retiro Park has a charming building, surrounded by lots of outdoor chess tables, where you can play chess until 2am 🤗 And who was playing there with the locals when I arrived? 📣 World champion Magnus Carlsen! He was amazing, super cool! Could it have been any better? Yes! Magnus and I played a quick game (3-3 minutes) and I won!😊 What a day!❤️”