Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 26 Title: Chess Festival is a "playground" Hou Yifan is still far from the world's top ten
——Interview with legendary female chess player Polgar Jr
Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Jingyu
Yudit Polga (also known as Little Polga) from Hungary, a legendary female chess player, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency recently that the chess festival held by the Little Polga Chess Foundation every year is a "playground" for her to realize various chess-related ideas; Hou Yifan, the world's first women's first person, is very talented, but there is still a long way to go to enter the top ten of the men's world.
The 41-year-old Polga Jr. is visiting China at the invitation of the Ivy League Chess Beijing Chess Museum, and the two sides are discussing possible future cooperation. During his visit to China, Little Polga also participated in the theme forum on chess and core literacy education hosted by the National Elephant Ivy League, and will engage in wheel wars with 35 "Polga Teenagers" selected from all over the country.
Polgar Jr., who announced his retirement at the 2014 Olympic Team Tournament, told reporters that there is now a lot of time spent on promoting his chess foundation and chess. At present, the foundation has invested a lot of energy in two aspects, one is the chess education program and the other is the global chess festival.
According to Polgar Jr., in Hungary, her chess education program has reached about 250 schools, and tens of thousands of children have learned chess through related projects.
She revealed that when she was younger, chess had more of a sporting and competitive component for her. As she grew older and competed around the world, she slowly learned to appreciate music, art, culture, food, jewelry, etc., and found that there are many things related to chess. Therefore, her dream now is to discover all the ideas related to chess, and to attract more people around the world to pay attention to and like chess. The Global Chess Festival, founded by the Little Polga Chess Foundation, is held every year on the second Saturday of October. Polgar Jr. said the festival was a "playground" for her to realize chess-related ideas.
"We organized a big chess festival in Budapest, which is open to everyone and free admission. It's a 'Family Day' that blends elements of chess, art, sports, education, music and more. As long as it's fun, positive, fun, we're willing to try. At last year's event, we invited Hungarian athletes who had just won the Rio Olympics to interact. Thousands of people have attended our chess festival every year in recent years, many of them from abroad, and we also look forward to the participation of enthusiasts from China. ”
In the world of chess, the three sisters of Polgar are famous. At a very young age, their parents were determined to raise them to become world champions. Instead of going to school like children their age, they focused on learning chess. As a result, all three sisters became the top women's masters. Among them, Polga Jr. achieved the highest in chess. At the age of 15 and 5 months, she became a chess grandmaster, breaking the record for the youngest chess grandmaster held by Fisher; she was the only female chess player ever to rank among the top ten in the world and the only female chess player to reach a height of 2700 points (the highest ranking was 2735); for 26 years from 1989 to 2015, she dominated the women's world ranking and was regarded as the most powerful female chess player ever.
However, little Polga did not use his parents' way to educate his son and daughter, nor did he recommend that other parents "copy" their parents' parents' education methods.
"My sisters and I grew up with a different way of life. I myself (as a kid) was happy, but wouldn't recommend it to other parents. "The main problem is that this is a problem for parents. Parents will be confused or not energetic enough. Let's not forget that my parents were both teachers, and for them this was something special to do in their field — an educational experiment, which was unusual. ”
In Polgar Jr.'s view, usually parents have their own work to do, and it is impossible to just be busy with their children's education all day and travel around with their children.
"In fact, my parents eventually gave up their jobs and concentrated on educating us, taking us on trips at home and abroad, being our managers and coaches, getting visas... Now, travel is an easy thing to do, and when I was young, there were a lot of difficulties, including finding sponsorship, which was a very special kind of life. I think that maybe many parents can't spend decades educating and supporting their children like they do. It's not a matter of one or two years or three or five years, at least 10 years of investment, and I don't know what the result will be. In this process, there will be difficult times, such as half a year ago, the child's chess skills have not progressed, and you will feel that the child has not trained seriously. In fact, for any competitive project, whether it can be successful is determined by too many factors, physical, technical, psychological, etc., but also depends on whether there is a competitive spirit in the personality. My personality is very competitive, and some people are not. All in all, it was an unusually difficult journey. ”
Little Polgar's son and daughter are both in their teens, and both of them can play chess, but their interests are not so great. She and her husband have focused their education on language, and both children now speak English and Spanish. In addition, the little Polgars will take them on a trip around and experience different cultures.
"I would advise parents to focus on their children, let them spend time and energy on meaningful things, stimulate their children's curiosity, let them play, be happy, and learn, but they can't just wander around and play games all the time." If there is no special amount of time to accompany the child, then at least the time spent with the child should be effective and of high quality. ”
As a parent, Little Polgar thinks he can play eighty or ninety points.
"For me, the most important thing is to give my children confidence. Support them in what they want to do, help them focus and try harder. If they don't like it, don't be too reluctant. However, balance must be maintained. (Laughs) Actually, it's impossible to maintain balance, which is a torture for parents. ”
In the interview, little Polga also talked about the current world's first woman, the 23-year-old Chinese chess player Hou Yifan. Like Polgar Jr. back then, Hou Yifan has now chosen to abandon the women's event and focus on fighting against the men's masters in order to impact the higher world rankings.
"She's very talented. I've always felt that if her goal was more than just women's world champion, then she would have achieved more in chess. This is one of the most important secrets of my success that year, and that is to aim high. ”
Little Polgar believes that Hou Yifan is not to blame for not participating in the women's competition. She did the same herself.
"I think she's right. There's nothing wrong with abandoning the women's game and facing new challenges. For her (Hou Yifan), participating in the men's World Championships is very challenging. Under the current format, she may not win the championship, but there is no doubt that she is the best female chess player today. ”
Little Polgar believes that hou Yifan still has a long way to go to reach the height of his year.
In some matches and matches, she has proven herself to be able to compete against male chess players and to defeat some male masters. She hadn't gotten there yet, though. She was talented, but the closer she got to the peak, the more difficult each step became, and she couldn't make a big stride now. I don't know if her rating will be able to enter the top ten in the world, but there is still a big gap now. However, I think that if she wants to reach her goal, the best way to do it is to play against a male chess player. ”
Image: Courtesy of Ivy League Beijing Chess Hall; Editor: Xu Zheng