Judith Polgar in UCD!

ComDubh

Judith Polgár is giving a talk in UCD on Thursday, May 25 in the Fitzgerald Debating Chambers starting at 6pm. She will also be presented with the James Joyce Award from the UCD Literary and Historical Society. If you wish to attend, please register here: http://www.icu.ie/events/941.

Judith Polgár is the first woman to make an impact at the top echelons of professional chess. She became the then world’s youngest grandmaster in 1991 at the age of 15, and went on to enter the top 10 world rankings at the peak of her career in 2005. I don’t have an abstract for this talk, but her public speeches usually deal with succeeding as a woman in a male dominated arena, the 'nature versus nurture' debate, and the role of chess in education and creative thinking.

Her impact as a woman in professional sport is best expressed by Gary Kasparov’s assessments of her achievements. In the early part of her career he remarked: "She has fantastic chess talent, but she is, after all, a woman. It all comes down to the imperfections of the feminine psyche. No woman can sustain a prolonged battle,” an opinion which he later revised to: "The Polgars have demonstrated that there are no inherent limitations to [womens'] aptitude—an idea that many male players refused to accept until they had unceremoniously been crushed by a twelve-year-old with a ponytail."

Should be a great event! The venue is filling so please sign up soon.