Chess: “The environment in which women grow up is not inspiring enough”

Reading time: 7 min.
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In chess, it's the mind, not the body, that counts. But why, then, are almost all grandmasters men? Judit Polgár, the greatest female player in history, has an answer that goes far beyond the board.
Interview by David Kulessa
Hungarian grandmaster Judit Polgár, 48, has defeated a total of eight world chess champions in her career: Magnus Carlsen , Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov , Vladimir Kramnik , Boris Spassky , Vasili Smislov, and Viswanathan Anand . Almost exactly 20 years ago, she was number eight in the world and is thus still the only woman to ever reach the top ten of the world rankings.

Chess is a game of infinite possibilities – the opposite of life in prison. How do these two fit together? A visit to Tegel Prison with the national prison chess team.
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