Carlsen-Caruana Chess World Championship

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Judit Polgar was the strongest woman's player ever. In fact, when she won a game against Garry Kasparov, she became the first woman ever to beat a male world champion in any competitive sport (chess is a quasi-sport).

Hou Yifan is now the strongest woman player, but she is currently a Rhodes Scholar and is not playing as much as she once did.

The best women can compete with the top male grandmasters, but not quite at the world championship level.

Judit’s father was the “Urban Meyer” of grandmaster fathers. She and her sisters were raised in a chess boot camp from a very young age.

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

Judit’s father was the “Urban Meyer” of grandmaster fathers. She and her sisters were raised in a chess boot camp from a very young age.

I know. All three sisters were chess prodigies, and Judit and Susan both became grandmasters. It's extraordinary, for better or worse. They all seem to be pretty well grounded, so I don't think they suffered too much psychic damage.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Chess is a game. It is not a sport, or quasi-sport, IMO.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Chess is a game. It is not a sport, or quasi-sport, IMO.

Sport implies by definition the exertion of muscles, including the muscle between your ears. QED

Furthermore if pawns weighed five hundred pounds each, would it not be a sport?

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Chess is a game. It is not a sport, or quasi-sport, IMO.

We had this exact discussion on the main board, I believe, with regard to the three chess players in the N162 set.

Either way, Polgar's achievement of defeating a reigning male world champion is unique.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

We had this exact discussion on the main board, I believe, with regard to the three chess players in the N162 set.

Either way, Polgar's achievement of defeating a reigning male world champion is unique.

Didn't a woman win the Iditerod?

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Didn't a woman win the Iditerod?

Not without them dawgs.

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Didn't a woman win the Iditerod?

I have no idea.

If so, maybe I should have said Polgar was the first, and not the only.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

I have no idea.

If so, maybe I should have said Polgar was the first, and not the only.

Libby Riddles won the 1985 Iditarod followed by the great Susan Butcher who won in 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1990.

Judit Polgar, born in 1976, didn't become a grand master until 1991.

It looks like Polgar was the third, not the first. Sorry, Barry.