Judit Polgar has many impressive stats just as a chess player. Her most savage stat is she was a top 100 player as an IM. She was 55th in the world at the age of 12.
Fun fact: Nona Gaprindashvili filed a Lawsuit against Netflix for a line that was said in the last episode of the Queen’s Gambit claiming she had played no men in her career. The lawsuit said the reference to her was “degrading her accomplishments and belittling her before an audience of many millions, causing her irreparable damage in her professional career”.
You can also add that even Bobby Fisher mentioned in an interview that Nona plays tournaments alongside the men. Interestingly, her name also appears in the book The Queen's Gambit, but there the author does not suggest anything like that, which is why the chess player only sued Netflix.
You just have to make a LOT of pauses on the video. But even then, I do not understand how they manage to protect a piece when 10 moves ago it was not attacked. But Yeah...I do agree with you :)
Well, we normies react to opponent's moves. The better normies anticipate the opponent's moves. Pro chess players anticipate the opponent's best possible move and reacts to that. That's why they have hours for a game on classical chess and we got bored that the opponent doesn't move for 3 minutes in a 10 minute game.
@@Rabarbaraaa Nah, mom said Judit beat her. But she doesn't really remember anything about the game. My mom was a regional champ in a small city in my country but she hasn't really played chess in the last 25 years. I'm like 1400 online but I'm yet to beat her even once
Years ago I once got to see Polgár Judit in person, I was just learning chess and she told us her journey and stuff like that and honestly it was amazing, but now that I'm a little older, I realise how much it could've meant to me. Anyways, happy women's day ladies from all ages, I wish you all a very nice day. (Also Levy, thanks for making videos, I love them.)
Yoo, I played against her in a simul... I was like 6 or 7 so I don't remember, only that I lost, surprise, surprise... I'm Hungarian if you are wondering
@@30noir It seems that in some parts of the world people are routinely referred to as "surname given name". In North America and (I think) western Europe it's the reverse except for official documents and lists of people (like a table of players in a chess tournament).
During the late nineties, I can't recall the exact year, I attended the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, Germany. The event took place in the Dortmunder Schauspielhaus, the central theatre of Dortmund. I took a seat in the gallery, from where I had the best overview over the games. For my convenience, I brought a pair of binoculars, to watch the players more closely. The games were projected to a screen, so they weren't needed to keep track of the games. That day, Judit Polgar faced Wladimir Kramnik. While I listened to the eloquent commentary of GM Dr. Helmut Pfleger through the theatre's headphone system, suddenly an elegant young lady appeared and asked if she could use my binoculars. Being really excited, she took seat beside me and watched the game of Judit and Wladimir several minutes. Later she came back, some more times, taking my binoculars without asking again. After all the games finished, when I left the theatre, I saw her again with her younger sister Judit. It was Szusa Polgar.
Seeing the first game made me so happy as I play the exact system she was playing! Not a lot of top level players play that way, but now her games will be a great resource to improve the system for me.
I love the spirit of this video. Koneru was and continues to be a beast and a huge inspiration for my friend (a female) to play chess even though people discouraged her for being female and starting at age 12 (which they thought was too late). She proved them wrong back in 2019 when she earned the national master title as a sixteen year old, only a little less than five years after learning the rules. I realize that I am often hasty to voice my criticisms of you Levy, but I do appreciate the spirit of your video, and I want you to know that I find your altruism to far surpass your minor faults, because none of us are perfect, and the fact that you still try to be the best person you can be is all anyone should ask of you.
Why is it that Chess is male dominated? Usually the reason why sports are more popular/male players are better is because of physical biology but chess is a game of brains rather than brawn. And as we see here, unlike traditional sports, the best of the female players can match up to the best of the male players. (and please no one answer with "well women are dumber", give an actual reason) I think it might have something to do with Culture because men are dominate in other sports and in throughout history men are generally the ones fighting in war, which chess is obviously based off of. Both of these may affect the number of male players.
Also, taking in consideration that the probability of a female player being in , say the top 100, is less, because the number of women participating/ taking interest in chess is exponentially less than the number of men. Of course, this trend is changing through the decades and more girls are taking interest in chess, now.
Judit played in the era of some of the best attackers of all time like Kasparov, Shirov, and Topalov. A lot of "Ov"s. Her calculation is breathtaking and seems 2nd to only Kasparov during that era. Truly a terrifying player
I have no issue with the Chess titles whatsoever. There are women's titles and OPEN titles. There are no men's. One can say that the titles for women are condescending. Maybe they are. However, women are able to be granted the open titles as well; and the women's titles help recognizing good and great women players. What would be accomplished by removing them?
Started watching you like 6 months ago when i was 200, im 700 now and trying to improve further. Thank you because you contributed alot to that indirectly
Is it just me or there's a pattern? Many of the opponents, from the games shown, seem to underestimate the woman's attack / initiative, they just gobble pawns/sacrifice pieces, being confident that they'll be fine, that proves not to be the case, and they get smacked (3:02, 19:31, 23:14, where even levy acknowledges the tendency). Of course if you believe there's no danger you should go for the material/sacrifice for the attack, but isn't this how you usually play against lower rated players? You assume they missed something/that you can outcalculate them, so you take your winning chance. I don't know anything about the players in this video, so I'm not saying any one of them is consciously doing this because they think their female opponent is weaker, and it might very well be the case that they are the higher rated player and have to push for the advantage, but maybe there is also some unconscious bias (meaning that they wouldn't play so boldly with a male opponent with the exact same rating). I'm not good enough at chess to evaluate if that's the reason, but bias works in many subtle ways, and not only off the board. If that's the case, kudos to levy for showing the dangers of underestimating your opponent.
All of them have fide ratings bruh,you would underestimate someones abilities only if their rating is below yours,not everything is sexism,stop looking at the world through that lens!
I think it definitely could be a factor in some games, especially when the woman is still underrated and climbing the rating ladder. But no way to tell in how many games it's a factor and how big. Either way, not taking your opponent seriously is a big mistake.
@FrogLoki I know, that's why I wrote in the comment that it could actually be due to an elo disparity. I would have liked to check, but honestly I have no idea where to find elo ratings for matches played years ago, and I did not feel like taking the time to find out, so that's why I framed the question as a guess, not something I knew for certain.
largely due to environmental factors rather than genuine biological differences. it's just that society assumes that women are more disinterested at chess due to biases derived from archaic essentialist views of gender, and are less likely to learn chess to the same capacity that men do. i would highly recommend reading into these subjects because they are extremely interesting and provide another perspective to look at our views on gender.
Maybe coz if it wasn't for the reason of sex, no one would have remembered these females players on the basis of pure chess Judit Polgar was the best female chess player, and she finished last in candidates, her peak ranking was 7 Do we celebrate player who finished last even in previous candidates. Today the best female player isn't even in top 70-80. Women can play but they have never played at top level like one would expect them to play
@@kaladinstromblessed5221 She has definetely been part of some good games but nowhere near the top 50 greatest ones. Those were on a whole other level.
26:05 The Polgar sisters' father was Laszlo Polgar, a chess teacher who homeschooled all three and trained them in chess from an early age. What it shows is that given the same training, women can achieve the same success in the sport as men, i.e. the fact that more women don't make it to the top levels is due not to biology, but to societal pressures both from the chess world and outside of it. Recognizing this is the first step to changing it.
What was her record compared to Kasparov, or Carlson, or annand? You’re taking a presupposition that what you’re saying is valid, even though it is theoretical in nature, as you must discount biology to such a large extent, which is measurable and observable...and then act as if environmental stimuli is capable of molding an individual more so than their genetic make up. Which is a fallacy; it’s the Pareto principle in action, the 80/20 rule; 80% biology and innate, 20% environmental adaptation or superficial style changes. Bobby Fischer would not have been Bobby Fischer without biology. As he said, “I’m not a chess genius, I’m a genius who happens to play chess,” which he was with a 180 iq. You could give him a malnourished upbringing, no school, etc, and he would still be more capable and able to utilize thought in a manner that almost no one else is the world really could. The computing ability is mild boggling, it’s not something taught, it can be built off of, but it must be there to begin with.
@@hunterboy1121 A 3 out of billions occurance is still negligible and can't be projected upon the larger group. As for the rest of the female GMs they never measured up to their male counterparts despite optimal conditions so that goes against your point.
Also the chess world is full of very nerdy men who are mainly all progressives and politically liberal? Where is this purported “boys club” at that is able to keep women out of a field by just existing? It’s like going to a comic book shop, women don’t tend to congregate there as it’s not full of high status males, or individuals that aren’t social awkward in some manner. Your old school dungeons and dragons meet ups back in the day would not be a very female environment for what reason? They were kept at bay by the males who must maintain purity in their role playing existence? Those dudes would have loved female interaction, yet women don’t tend to naturally enjoy those spaces, for obvious reasons. Ever think chess could be the same way? Or has hundreds of thousands of years of evolution and environmental pressure throughout the world just led to an absolute equality of outcome in regards to every human. Tay sachs and sickle cell obviously being diseases that are universal and not selective to only certain populations, everything “must” be egalitarian and equal in nature even though every aspect points away from that. The burden of proof is on you there bud, to prove that this boogeyman presence exists, not to everyone else to pretend it does 24/7.
o won´t lie. I did not expected Věra Menšíková to be here. I´ve heard of her before, because one of tournaments where i went to was call Memoriál Věry Menšíkové, but still. I didn´t know she was this famous. Btv. This tournament was the first one where i played against some player with titul (CM). It was a good game as i remember, but i obviously lost. I just wanted to say that. No reasoning.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how respectfully he was throughout the video towards every move and every player who played those moves just to make sure no wrong message is send. Especially at the end when he was taking names of chess players, not in the video but who deserved an honourable mention due to their work in the game, just loved the spirit and respect you gave all of them. I loved your work and you for so long but today you just tripled your respect in my eyes man!
@@MIDO44444 um yeah I know just that this topic was handled with the perfect amount of sensitivity it requires... And that is what intrigued me the most...
@@joshs7160 And here we arrive at a strange place. Where PC bullshit is met by slightly-more PC bullshit. Anyone with common sense quietly walks away, leaving the midwits to their unarmed duel.
Love this video! Great six players to feature. If you could add a few more, I'd choose Sonja Graf, Ludmilla Rudenko, Xie Jun and Alexandra Kosteniuk for their inspo on and off the board.
No Maia Chiburdanidze? She's always so underated. Was ranked 45th in the world in the 1988 FIDE ratings list, ahead of legends like Ivanchuk, Bareev, etc. (though ok, these guys were young, but still impressive).
Famously, she's crushed Nigel Short a number of times - who is quite famous for his comments about women in chess (that - by the way - he made after his 2 losses to Maia...)
I feel like there are very few videos titled something like “ best women chess players of all time”. It’s really cool that these players are getting coverage
First of all nobody really cares about the gender of the chess players, and second of all female GMs don't get coverage because they are few and far between, ultimately worse than their male counterparts in addition to most big championships/tournaments (grand prix, world championship etc...) being almost if not entirely male dominated.
Love this idea! Anyone interested in learning more about female chess players should check out Jen Shahade's book Chess Queens. Written by a great female player about great female players I highly recommend!
"We're making a video about some of the greatest queens in chess history... And this queen is trapped here" Heh... Hehe... Hehehehehe *awkward laughter intensifies* On a serious note tho, great video Levy, I greatly admire your respect for women!
I really like the historic games videos but I always wanted to see some women's games. I was really happy to watch this happen today, I think it was very nice from you and really needed. I love your work and I hope more women will shine through your videos.
there is nothing more insulting than a “woman (insert)” title. chess is not soccer. there is no physical barriers that obviously create the need for separate divisions. chess is a mental problem solving game, but a physical one. the need for division doesn’t exist, and it’s insane they still have the divide.
I feel like he’s just trying to expose more people to some women in chess that many people may not know of. A lot of the people in chess that pop up in CZcams videos (from my experience. I have just recently gotten into chess) are mainly men. So I’m having a bit of difficulty understanding why the title sounds insulting. If you don’t mind explaining it I would like to hear your side. I think if he said something like “women in chess are actually good” then that would be insulting
If there are no mental barriers why do they perform worse than men? You realise there are women only tournaments so they can have the chance to play on an equal footing and win, don't you? And you want to take that away from women? How misogynistic of you. For shame.
Hello Levy, I love the way you briefly summarize the plans for the opening whenever you review games. It's actually proved just as or even more helpful for me than watching your opening videos, because it quickly and simply explains roughly what my game plan is and what I should be going for. It's been really helpful for my climb from 600-900 because often opening theory is irrelevant here since so often opponents play some wild shit into you. Please keep doing that!
Vera was taught by Tarrasch when she moved from Rusia to England, when she was young. Very influenced by the chess comunity near Hastings (first world chanpionship Hastings 1895). A bit of extra info for you guys 👍
In a world of male dominance i am happy that you covered where the women really shines you made my evening happy women's day to all the womens out here
This is cool! I'm new to your channel, and every video I've watched so far has been dudes... so this video was useful for understanding the women's side of the game. Also... just a general history of chess was good!
Yes, Pia Cramling is more accomplished than just being Anna Cramlings mom. She was the second woman (after Susan Polgar) to earn the GM title on the same terms as men. It also feels kind of strange that she is even compared to her streamer daughter, since she is a much more accomplished chess player than Anna.
He only said that because he's collaborated with Anna and many people might know Anna, but not Pia, and would recognize the last name. He literally addressed that right after saying she was Anna Cramling's mom and was in no way comparing them. Stop being weird.
Hey Levy, love the content! Is there a reason chess is separated gender? A quick google search suggests that it makes it easier for more women to get into chess but that feels a bit copout-ish to me. Maybe that's ignorance on my part but I'd love to your thoughts
Hey levy ! Just a few words for you ... I have been watching all your recaps on these mega events and it's been a fascinating journey learning chess with you , you are going great brother , though hatred will come but , I have faith in you and I love the way you encounter all of these difficulties in life and always have that pretty smile on your face !!! Gotham family ❤️
You should've featured one of Kosteniuk's wins from the Airthings Masters that she recently played in. She did lose a couple of games, but otherwise did pretty good!
Kind of a hot take but the reason Judit rose to such monstrous heights had to do with the fact that she never competed for women's championship and stopped playing women only tournament, and as her father pointed out WGM title and female only tournaments are unnecessary.
For me best female player would always be Kostenyuk :) Cause she stays true to femalegoals and dreams, while being sucessful over th eboard. Extremely sucessful. And i am certain, she would make a mark in pretty close future.
@@camerondavis6607 Love and respect to her! It`s just... from interviews of her and her sisters i got a feeling, that she sacrificed a lot in terms of family for a chess. I respect the decision and it was her and her husband to make, but it make her more... man in my eyes, than woman :) No disrespect meant here, mind you. I just want to see women in chess not following men steps and mimicing them, but be themselves. So they could be good role model for any girl, regardless what path in life they choose. All said above is mostly my opinion and how i see things. I might be dead wrong about both judit and alexandra.
@@TokarevArtyom women would,indeed sacrifice a lot to be equal to their male counterparts,but that doesn't make them more men than women,it's just that they are more bolder than other women,who weren't Able to take the step.
@@sujataghose8238 You completely misunderstood what i said. And no, women dont need to sacrifice more to be on par with male counterparts. IN fact, Kostenyuk prooves it more, than anyone. And Judit`s sisters would tell you the same. We can argue about steepness of distribution on the extremes of skill pyramid for male and female individuals, but that is besides the point. Sacrifices in time need to be done by either male or female spotsman, it is not tied to sex, unless phisical limitations of sex applies. But even if we are aware of some differences in mae and female brain function, we have no decisive conlcuions n effects they made in games like chess. Nor does empyrical data supports such implications, aside of absolutely idiotic and flat conclusions based on amount of male?female GMs. I hope we are not talking with 0 knowledge on statistics, right? II said about time and attention, relationships, she sacrificed with her family, to get to the chess level she is now. But it is same type of sacrifice , that anyone would need to do to gain mastery. Talent plays a role here, obviously, but that is why i mentioned polgar sisters. Thing is, that sacrificing time with family, especially in early years of child, is a male way to do. Male role in early child development is not that big, so sacrificng that time to get more resources is what male bniology pushes us to do (male role in child development starts to kick in around 5-6 years and growth more, become prevalent around 12-14, but at that time child does not require that much undivided attention. Anyway, sacrificing time at THAT point would be against male role in development, but i digress). While female role in early child development can not be underrated. And that is why i think, that Kostenyuk better represents female player, than judit. Judit made male-type sacrifice. Which is totally her right. While kostenyuk did female type. And stil suceeded. Still, i draw my conclusiions based on several interviews and overal observations, so i can be wrong here.
Judit actually broke the record for the youngest women _or_ man grandmaster, taking the honor away from previous record holder Bobby Fischer.
Impressive. I’m not chess historian but wasn’t it harder to get the title back then
Fitting given Fischer’s disgust in women playing chess.
@@James-vc1kc he did meet the polgar sisters and apparently admired their ability.
@MrSynchh what was it easier. Explain please
@@austinp9530 they can. Hou yifan is a 'GM'.
You forgot my seven year old sister who helped me lab out all of my Italian variations
This is incredibly wholesome
Wholesome pin yes?
@@sethdurais2477 Yeah, come on Levy
Is a 7 yr old a woman? Just saying.
@@joshs7160 and I'm just saying, ssssshhhh, don't ruin this.
Judit Polgar has many impressive stats just as a chess player. Her most savage stat is she was a top 100 player as an IM. She was 55th in the world at the age of 12.
As a woman in a very male dominated field thank you Levy. Without those fighting in the past we would not have the oppurtunities we see today
Fun fact: Nona Gaprindashvili filed a Lawsuit against Netflix for a line that was said in the last episode of the Queen’s Gambit claiming she had played no men in her career.
The lawsuit said the reference to her was “degrading her accomplishments and belittling her before an audience of many millions, causing her irreparable damage in her professional career”.
You can also add that even Bobby Fisher mentioned in an interview that Nona plays tournaments alongside the men. Interestingly, her name also appears in the book The Queen's Gambit, but there the author does not suggest anything like that, which is why the chess player only sued Netflix.
It has became a habit to watch Levy at night and pretending to understand Chess🤣🤣🤣🤣
Lol same
Me too! I just sort of nod along with whats being said!
You just have to make a LOT of pauses on the video. But even then, I do not understand how they manage to protect a piece when 10 moves ago it was not attacked. But Yeah...I do agree with you :)
Well, we normies react to opponent's moves. The better normies anticipate the opponent's moves. Pro chess players anticipate the opponent's best possible move and reacts to that. That's why they have hours for a game on classical chess and we got bored that the opponent doesn't move for 3 minutes in a 10 minute game.
literally all of us
Gaprindashvili still plays every year in the Senior World Championship.
"Women in chess begins with Vera Menchik" she is our Beth Harmon
Rather Beth Harmon is Inspired by all the women that came before her
@@dharris5887 duh
Judit
@@johnpickens7626 what
@@johnpickens7626 get therapy and help you incel
Great way to celebrate today Levy. Nice job.
Celebrated with a pink hoodie too:)
He is great
I got my mindblown when my mom casually mentioned last year that she played against Judit Polgar when Polgar was a kid 😭
it's true, I'm your mom
Did she win??
@@Rabarbaraaa Nah, mom said Judit beat her. But she doesn't really remember anything about the game. My mom was a regional champ in a small city in my country but she hasn't really played chess in the last 25 years. I'm like 1400 online but I'm yet to beat her even once
@@sneakyonthebeat Where are you from?
How old was ur mom when she played her?
What was ur moms rating at most?
How old is she now?
How old are you?
Years ago I once got to see Polgár Judit in person, I was just learning chess and she told us her journey and stuff like that and honestly it was amazing, but now that I'm a little older, I realise how much it could've meant to me.
Anyways, happy women's day ladies from all ages, I wish you all a very nice day.
(Also Levy, thanks for making videos, I love them.)
Polgar is her surname.
Yoo, I played against her in a simul...
I was like 6 or 7 so I don't remember, only that I lost, surprise, surprise...
I'm Hungarian if you are wondering
@@30noir It seems that in some parts of the world people are routinely referred to as "surname given name". In North America and (I think) western Europe it's the reverse except for official documents and lists of people (like a table of players in a chess tournament).
@@kenkur27 generations🚕🇯🇵
@@kenkur27 For us in Hungary we have our surname first everywhere in every sort of documentation. Simply that is the natural way for this country.
This video inspired me add another rewatch to the clip of Gary losing to Judit in Russia vs. the World. So damn satisfying every time.
Lost so bad it made him sexiest for years lol
@@cooperrondinelli6576 the fact we speak this way of Kasparov's ONLY defeat against Polgar in 17 games (he won 12) is a testament of his greatness tbh
@@JimmyBoosterCrate agree, Kasparov in his prime is considered the best chess player ever
@@cooperrondinelli6576 "sexiest" is a hilarious typo by the way
@@sashaboydcom I didn't even realize 💀 I mean it's not wrong
During the late nineties, I can't recall the exact year, I attended the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, Germany. The event took place in the Dortmunder Schauspielhaus, the central theatre of Dortmund. I took a seat in the gallery, from where I had the best overview over the games. For my convenience, I brought a pair of binoculars, to watch the players more closely. The games were projected to a screen, so they weren't needed to keep track of the games. That day, Judit Polgar faced Wladimir Kramnik. While I listened to the eloquent commentary of GM Dr. Helmut Pfleger through the theatre's headphone system, suddenly an elegant young lady appeared and asked if she could use my binoculars. Being really excited, she took seat beside me and watched the game of Judit and Wladimir several minutes. Later she came back, some more times, taking my binoculars without asking again. After all the games finished, when I left the theatre, I saw her again with her younger sister Judit. It was Szusa Polgar.
that's so sweet of him fr🤍
Levy has a good heart:)
Love your content Levy!!! Keep up the good work. I have climbed from a 500 noob to a 1500 that’s still a noob 😂
I started watching him when I was a 500, now I'm almost a 1200 in only a few months
Ben Finegold helped me too
I was rated 479 a year ago, I played a lot, now I am rated 498.
@@rn6467 I feel
@@rn6467 I was rated 372 a year ago, I played a lot, now I am rated 121.
Hi..
Did u study various openings ?.
I'm 1200 ,still doesn't know any openings.
Just plays normal.moves
“And that brings me to the final game of the video. Judit Polgar” *Goosebumps*
Seeing the first game made me so happy as I play the exact system she was playing! Not a lot of top level players play that way, but now her games will be a great resource to improve the system for me.
As a hungarian chess player, I can say that we are very proud of the Polgár sisters. 🇭🇺
19:05 "Amazing attention span. You should be proud."
Me, who's been watching at double speed not really following the moves: "Thanks."
Chad subs watch at quarter speed.
Great Idea! Love the promotion of women's chess!
As if FIDE doesn't do it enough, LOL.
I love the spirit of this video. Koneru was and continues to be a beast and a huge inspiration for my friend (a female) to play chess even though people discouraged her for being female and starting at age 12 (which they thought was too late). She proved them wrong back in 2019 when she earned the national master title as a sixteen year old, only a little less than five years after learning the rules.
I realize that I am often hasty to voice my criticisms of you Levy, but I do appreciate the spirit of your video, and I want you to know that I find your altruism to far surpass your minor faults, because none of us are perfect, and the fact that you still try to be the best person you can be is all anyone should ask of you.
This was awesome Levy and very informative thank you!
Good joke.
@@josuke21 useful comment
@@bishop6308 less useful comment
@@bishop6308 what i meant by this was , he hasn't even watched the entire video but called it informative
@@josuke21 *No No . He's got a point*
Why is it that Chess is male dominated? Usually the reason why sports are more popular/male players are better is because of physical biology but chess is a game of brains rather than brawn. And as we see here, unlike traditional sports, the best of the female players can match up to the best of the male players.
(and please no one answer with "well women are dumber", give an actual reason)
I think it might have something to do with Culture because men are dominate in other sports and in throughout history men are generally the ones fighting in war, which chess is obviously based off of. Both of these may affect the number of male players.
Also, taking in consideration that the probability of a female player being in , say the top 100, is less, because the number of women participating/ taking interest in chess is exponentially less than the number of men. Of course, this trend is changing through the decades and more girls are taking interest in chess, now.
@@cococactus I agree, less women in chess means less female role models which creates a cyclical process
This is correct
Less female geniuses, statistically. That's science.
@@eleccy no
Clicked faster than levy cursing in his stream
youtube viewer here, you can't fool me I know Mr Gotham would never swear
@@lamp4696 never download twitch, if you do just don't write gotham in it.
*Quack Quack*
Judit played in the era of some of the best attackers of all time like Kasparov, Shirov, and Topalov. A lot of "Ov"s. Her calculation is breathtaking and seems 2nd to only Kasparov during that era. Truly a terrifying player
You left out one very important female chess player, Lucy Rozman
I always found it amazing how Polgar's father claimed that he will make his kid a genius even before he actually got married and had kids
187th day of translating Levy's titles into Neapolitan: "Amma festeggià ogg"
Ma cos c festegg?
- Peter Gabbian Parker
I have no issue with the Chess titles whatsoever. There are women's titles and OPEN titles. There are no men's.
One can say that the titles for women are condescending. Maybe they are. However, women are able to be granted the open titles as well; and the women's titles help recognizing good and great women players. What would be accomplished by removing them?
You could argue that a women's chess division is sexist, but it is the only thing sustaining female growth in the sport.
@@joshs7160 It's not. It's helping grow the sport
Great history lesson, also "The engine is a lunatic". Coffee actually came out of my nose!
10/10 content
Lol
Someone on the GFuel account likes chess
After the introduction, i already knew where to click for Judit Polgar :) Go Hungary! :)
Hou Yifan has one of the most amazing games hope levy will cover more of her games
Happy birthday women!!!!
He a little confused, but he got the spirit!
@@sal8290 lmao
@@sal8290lmaoo
Pick me
@@Unknown1Percent there seems to be no sign of intelligent life here
Started watching you like 6 months ago when i was 200, im 700 now and trying to improve further. Thank you because you contributed alot to that indirectly
While Susan Polgar may have been the 3rd woman GM, she was the first to earn it through the normal process of getting norms, etc...
no beth harmon?...ok
Of course, Beth Harmon may be the best and most inspiring of them all, but the fact is, she never existed. It's about real women.
Some wonderful games. That Judit versus Shirov game is one I return to often - absolutely beautiful game.
Is it just me or there's a pattern? Many of the opponents, from the games shown, seem to underestimate the woman's attack / initiative, they just gobble pawns/sacrifice pieces, being confident that they'll be fine, that proves not to be the case, and they get smacked (3:02, 19:31, 23:14, where even levy acknowledges the tendency). Of course if you believe there's no danger you should go for the material/sacrifice for the attack, but isn't this how you usually play against lower rated players? You assume they missed something/that you can outcalculate them, so you take your winning chance. I don't know anything about the players in this video, so I'm not saying any one of them is consciously doing this because they think their female opponent is weaker, and it might very well be the case that they are the higher rated player and have to push for the advantage, but maybe there is also some unconscious bias (meaning that they wouldn't play so boldly with a male opponent with the exact same rating). I'm not good enough at chess to evaluate if that's the reason, but bias works in many subtle ways, and not only off the board. If that's the case, kudos to levy for showing the dangers of underestimating your opponent.
All of them have fide ratings bruh,you would underestimate someones abilities only if their rating is below yours,not everything is sexism,stop looking at the world through that lens!
I think it definitely could be a factor in some games, especially when the woman is still underrated and climbing the rating ladder. But no way to tell in how many games it's a factor and how big. Either way, not taking your opponent seriously is a big mistake.
@FrogLoki I know, that's why I wrote in the comment that it could actually be due to an elo disparity. I would have liked to check, but honestly I have no idea where to find elo ratings for matches played years ago, and I did not feel like taking the time to find out, so that's why I framed the question as a guess, not something I knew for certain.
How anyone can watch games like these and think women can’t play at man’s level are simply insane.
largely due to environmental factors rather than genuine biological differences. it's just that society assumes that women are more disinterested at chess due to biases derived from archaic essentialist views of gender, and are less likely to learn chess to the same capacity that men do. i would highly recommend reading into these subjects because they are extremely interesting and provide another perspective to look at our views on gender.
Maybe coz if it wasn't for the reason of sex, no one would have remembered these females players on the basis of pure chess
Judit Polgar was the best female chess player, and she finished last in candidates, her peak ranking was 7
Do we celebrate player who finished last even in previous candidates.
Today the best female player isn't even in top 70-80.
Women can play but they have never played at top level like one would expect them to play
@@VijayThakurMD No
@@VijayThakurMD pretty much every best chess games list of top players have a judit polgar so please keep your cringe view to yourself and fuck off
@@kaladinstromblessed5221 She has definetely been part of some good games but nowhere near the top 50 greatest ones. Those were on a whole other level.
Levy: The position is objectively equal
Also Levy: white does have a bit of an advantage
Objectively - with engine analysis
Advantage - easier to play as a human.
I don't get what's so hard to understand?
@@scoutbane1651 I think he's just making jokes mate
@@MyDarkMuffin Fair, sorry I have ASD and thought this person was genuinely confused. mb
26:05 The Polgar sisters' father was Laszlo Polgar, a chess teacher who homeschooled all three and trained them in chess from an early age. What it shows is that given the same training, women can achieve the same success in the sport as men, i.e. the fact that more women don't make it to the top levels is due not to biology, but to societal pressures both from the chess world and outside of it. Recognizing this is the first step to changing it.
Yeah of course a single case shows the nature half of the population
How about 3 cases from the same time?
Literally all the other female GMs?
What was her record compared to Kasparov, or Carlson, or annand? You’re taking a presupposition that what you’re saying is valid, even though it is theoretical in nature, as you must discount biology to such a large extent, which is measurable and observable...and then act as if environmental stimuli is capable of molding an individual more so than their genetic make up. Which is a fallacy; it’s the Pareto principle in action, the 80/20 rule; 80% biology and innate, 20% environmental adaptation or superficial style changes. Bobby Fischer would not have been Bobby Fischer without biology. As he said, “I’m not a chess genius, I’m a genius who happens to play chess,” which he was with a 180 iq. You could give him a malnourished upbringing, no school, etc, and he would still be more capable and able to utilize thought in a manner that almost no one else is the world really could. The computing ability is mild boggling, it’s not something taught, it can be built off of, but it must be there to begin with.
@@hunterboy1121 A 3 out of billions occurance is still negligible and can't be projected upon the larger group. As for the rest of the female GMs they never measured up to their male counterparts despite optimal conditions so that goes against your point.
Also the chess world is full of very nerdy men who are mainly all progressives and politically liberal? Where is this purported “boys club” at that is able to keep women out of a field by just existing? It’s like going to a comic book shop, women don’t tend to congregate there as it’s not full of high status males, or individuals that aren’t social awkward in some manner. Your old school dungeons and dragons meet ups back in the day would not be a very female environment for what reason? They were kept at bay by the males who must maintain purity in their role playing existence? Those dudes would have loved female interaction, yet women don’t tend to naturally enjoy those spaces, for obvious reasons. Ever think chess could be the same way? Or has hundreds of thousands of years of evolution and environmental pressure throughout the world just led to an absolute equality of outcome in regards to every human. Tay sachs and sickle cell obviously being diseases that are universal and not selective to only certain populations, everything “must” be egalitarian and equal in nature even though every aspect points away from that. The burden of proof is on you there bud, to prove that this boogeyman presence exists, not to everyone else to pretend it does 24/7.
That Judit Polgar combination was absolutely savage.
o won´t lie. I did not expected Věra Menšíková to be here. I´ve heard of her before, because one of tournaments where i went to was call Memoriál Věry Menšíkové, but still. I didn´t know she was this famous.
Btv. This tournament was the first one where i played against some player with titul (CM). It was a good game as i remember, but i obviously lost.
I just wanted to say that. No reasoning.
78/83 is an incredible record, but it's not a 98% winning record
if the rest were draws it's a 98% score
97+*
CELEBRATION TIME!
From the Goodfellas intro: "That's Francisco... Francisco Vallejo Pons, we called him that because he always takes free paws"
That thumb in the thumbnail 😂
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how respectfully he was throughout the video towards every move and every player who played those moves just to make sure no wrong message is send. Especially at the end when he was taking names of chess players, not in the video but who deserved an honourable mention due to their work in the game, just loved the spirit and respect you gave all of them.
I loved your work and you for so long but today you just tripled your respect in my eyes man!
He does that on all of his videos with the exceptions of Guess the Elo and how to lose at chess series XD
@@MIDO44444 um yeah I know just that this topic was handled with the perfect amount of sensitivity it requires... And that is what intrigued me the most...
@@Shubh__05-r8y Why do female players require an additional level of sensitivity?
@@joshs7160 And here we arrive at a strange place. Where PC bullshit is met by slightly-more PC bullshit. Anyone with common sense quietly walks away, leaving the midwits to their unarmed duel.
@@adamj2381 It's just the internet, it isn't really that serious.
Love this video! Great six players to feature. If you could add a few more, I'd choose Sonja Graf, Ludmilla Rudenko, Xie Jun and Alexandra Kosteniuk for their inspo on and off the board.
My name is Veera.
No Maia Chiburdanidze? She's always so underated. Was ranked 45th in the world in the 1988 FIDE ratings list, ahead of legends like Ivanchuk, Bareev, etc. (though ok, these guys were young, but still impressive).
Famously, she's crushed Nigel Short a number of times - who is quite famous for his comments about women in chess (that - by the way - he made after his 2 losses to Maia...)
I feel like there are very few videos titled something like “ best women chess players of all time”. It’s really cool that these players are getting coverage
Okay simp
best women chess players of all time maybe win participation award if they compete with men.
@@pnarimani6055 lmao somebody didn't watch the video
First of all nobody really cares about the gender of the chess players, and second of all female GMs don't get coverage because they are few and far between, ultimately worse than their male counterparts in addition to most big championships/tournaments (grand prix, world championship etc...) being almost if not entirely male dominated.
@@pnarimani6055 loser
Fun fact: Max Euve was Fide president at one point
I'm pretty sure he was world champion at one point too.
That last game was unbelievable, can't believe that anyone could smash Alexey Shirov from move 10
Hou Yifan is the best, since he does chess just for past time and yet she is number2,
Love this idea! Anyone interested in learning more about female chess players should check out Jen Shahade's book Chess Queens. Written by a great female player about great female players I highly recommend!
Jen is great, I miss her chess commentary.
Thanks Chandler! Glad you enjoyed it. xx
Hey levy, just to clear the confusion, Koneru Humpy is the youngest female GM in chess history.
It's hou yifan tho
Hou yifan 14y5m
Koneru humpy 15y1m
Judit polgar 15y4m
Humpy Koneru became a gm at the age of 15yrs
shout out to my amazing girlfriend who insists on playing me everyday and beat me playing as black for the first time this week.
"We're making a video about some of the greatest queens in chess history... And this queen is trapped here"
Heh... Hehe... Hehehehehe *awkward laughter intensifies*
On a serious note tho, great video Levy, I greatly admire your respect for women!
Watching this and I think Lu miaoyi will become the youngest... 12 years old and rated 2399 rn
At 12 Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan was 2500+ already
im a female chess player since 2 years. my elo is now 1400, my life goal is to reach grandmaster
Holy shit Levy, those games were insane! Good job my guy, great watch.
Women are amazing and the women in chess are badass. Happy women’s day!
Pick me
@@Unknown1Percent loser
Day 1 of translating Levy's titles into Czech:
"Dnes musíme oslavovat!"
Good luck with your journey
Finally somebody, who starts counting on "1" no 200 something
@@bullymaguire632 thanks,it honestly takes just like 20 seconds, why wouldnt i do it? :)
@@disarray168 lol
Good luck bro
Am I a bad person for being disappointed that there is no "pin of shame" chud to laugh at under this video?
you're not alone, at least
Kind of, but humans are kind of shitty by nature, so it's all good.
i'm going through new comments :D
@@AlphaRW lmao same. SOO much pin bait in here
"Ehh if you're gonna create an attack you gotta do it with the queen" 😭
POV: you are searching for sexist posts in the comments section.
hahah saame
I already found a lot lmao
And sadly I found some. What is it with that old disproven argument of men=bigger brains=more intelligent?
hell yeah
I really like the historic games videos but I always wanted to see some women's games. I was really happy to watch this happen today, I think it was very nice from you and really needed. I love your work and I hope more women will shine through your videos.
Judit vs shirov was pure savagery
Francisco Vallejo "I'll greedily take all your kingside" pons
there is nothing more insulting than a “woman (insert)” title. chess is not soccer. there is no physical barriers that obviously create the need for separate divisions. chess is a mental problem solving game, but a physical one. the need for division doesn’t exist, and it’s insane they still have the divide.
I feel like he’s just trying to expose more people to some women in chess that many people may not know of. A lot of the people in chess that pop up in CZcams videos (from my experience. I have just recently gotten into chess) are mainly men. So I’m having a bit of difficulty understanding why the title sounds insulting. If you don’t mind explaining it I would like to hear your side. I think if he said something like “women in chess are actually good” then that would be insulting
If there are no mental barriers why do they perform worse than men? You realise there are women only tournaments so they can have the chance to play on an equal footing and win, don't you? And you want to take that away from women? How misogynistic of you. For shame.
Here before the pin of shame for a sexist comment
there's too many good candidates
Awesome video. Very classy and informative. Thanks so much for this 🤘
78/83 = 98 %. Oke
YEEEE POG WOMEN
I love how the title of the video is "We must Celebrate!" And it's my 18th birthday
happy birthday!
Happy Birthday 😄
Happy birthday!
Bunch of simps.
@@Unknown1Percent We get it, you hate life.
Hello Levy,
I love the way you briefly summarize the plans for the opening whenever you review games. It's actually proved just as or even more helpful for me than watching your opening videos, because it quickly and simply explains roughly what my game plan is and what I should be going for. It's been really helpful for my climb from 600-900 because often opening theory is irrelevant here since so often opponents play some wild shit into you. Please keep doing that!
Vera was taught by Tarrasch when she moved from Rusia to England, when she was young. Very influenced by the chess comunity near Hastings (first world chanpionship Hastings 1895). A bit of extra info for you guys 👍
In a world of male dominance i am happy that you covered where the women really shines you made my evening happy women's day to all the womens out here
Are we still talking about chess? lol
Male dominance? Lmao
I don't remember seeing a male yelling at everyone for nothing all the time
@@ahmeduchiha 🤡
@@ahmeduchiha lol haha 😂
Happy International Women's Day to everyone who identifies as a women! We rock!
I'm a guy but I identify as woman today
@@poohoff lol i was just thinking that
@@poohoff you're soooooo funny can I get your autograph pleaseeeee
@@poohoff You did it! You made the one joke!
@@poohoff if you identify as a woman you aren't a "guy identifying as a woman" you're a woman bro.
That Humpy game was insane
This is cool! I'm new to your channel, and every video I've watched so far has been dudes... so this video was useful for understanding the women's side of the game.
Also... just a general history of chess was good!
Yes, Pia Cramling is more accomplished than just being Anna Cramlings mom. She was the second woman (after Susan Polgar) to earn the GM title on the same terms as men. It also feels kind of strange that she is even compared to her streamer daughter, since she is a much more accomplished chess player than Anna.
He only said that because he's collaborated with Anna and many people might know Anna, but not Pia, and would recognize the last name. He literally addressed that right after saying she was Anna Cramling's mom and was in no way comparing them. Stop being weird.
I love that he is the only one that knows how to pronounce hungarian names. Favourite youtuber of all time, not only in chess
You know he’s looking that shit up beforehand, surely😂
@@novacaine1 yepp, for sure since he's not hungarian lol. I appreciate the gesture very much anyway
That last game is every bit as mind blowing as the kasparov octopus knight game. Wow. Great video
Hey Levy, love the content! Is there a reason chess is separated gender? A quick google search suggests that it makes it easier for more women to get into chess but that feels a bit copout-ish to me. Maybe that's ignorance on my part but I'd love to your thoughts
Chess doesn't have a definite seperation. There are women only titles but the other titles like IM, GM etc. are open. Anyone can claim them
@@nexuswho Oh, this I did not know. Thanks for clarifying
Hey levy ! Just a few words for you ...
I have been watching all your recaps on these mega events and it's been a fascinating journey learning chess with you , you are going great brother , though hatred will come but , I have faith in you and I love the way you encounter all of these difficulties in life and always have that pretty smile on your face !!!
Gotham family ❤️
though hatred will come? what tf is this a prophecy?
@@andyyang3029 haters gonna hate
You should've featured one of Kosteniuk's wins from the Airthings Masters that she recently played in. She did lose a couple of games, but otherwise did pretty good!
incoming pin
Lol 😂
Vera Menchik is a grandmaster in my heart
Sort of expected we'd have a pinned comment by now considering the topic of the video
there's too many good candidates it's hard to pick one.
So many men here are upset lmao
Kind of a hot take but the reason Judit rose to such monstrous heights had to do with the fact that she never competed for women's championship and stopped playing women only tournament, and as her father pointed out WGM title and female only tournaments are unnecessary.
That shouldn't be a hot take, but there's far less incentive to go that route if you're also trying to make a living.
Finishing last in tournament is not something I will call monstrous task
Hell even anish scored more than her and we make fun of him and rightly so
Great video. Would love to see more of Vera Menchik's games.
Honestly happy there's no pin of shame today.
For me best female player would always be Kostenyuk :)
Cause she stays true to femalegoals and dreams, while being sucessful over th eboard. Extremely sucessful. And i am certain, she would make a mark in pretty close future.
what about judit?
@@camerondavis6607 Love and respect to her! It`s just... from interviews of her and her sisters i got a feeling, that she sacrificed a lot in terms of family for a chess. I respect the decision and it was her and her husband to make, but it make her more... man in my eyes, than woman :) No disrespect meant here, mind you.
I just want to see women in chess not following men steps and mimicing them, but be themselves. So they could be good role model for any girl, regardless what path in life they choose.
All said above is mostly my opinion and how i see things. I might be dead wrong about both judit and alexandra.
@@TokarevArtyom women would,indeed sacrifice a lot to be equal to their male counterparts,but that doesn't make them more men than women,it's just that they are more bolder than other women,who weren't Able to take the step.
@@sujataghose8238 You completely misunderstood what i said. And no, women dont need to sacrifice more to be on par with male counterparts. IN fact, Kostenyuk prooves it more, than anyone. And Judit`s sisters would tell you the same. We can argue about steepness of distribution on the extremes of skill pyramid for male and female individuals, but that is besides the point. Sacrifices in time need to be done by either male or female spotsman, it is not tied to sex, unless phisical limitations of sex applies. But even if we are aware of some differences in mae and female brain function, we have no decisive conlcuions n effects they made in games like chess. Nor does empyrical data supports such implications, aside of absolutely idiotic and flat conclusions based on amount of male?female GMs. I hope we are not talking with 0 knowledge on statistics, right?
II said about time and attention, relationships, she sacrificed with her family, to get to the chess level she is now. But it is same type of sacrifice , that anyone would need to do to gain mastery. Talent plays a role here, obviously, but that is why i mentioned polgar sisters. Thing is, that sacrificing time with family, especially in early years of child, is a male way to do. Male role in early child development is not that big, so sacrificng that time to get more resources is what male bniology pushes us to do (male role in child development starts to kick in around 5-6 years and growth more, become prevalent around 12-14, but at that time child does not require that much undivided attention. Anyway, sacrificing time at THAT point would be against male role in development, but i digress). While female role in early child development can not be underrated.
And that is why i think, that Kostenyuk better represents female player, than judit. Judit made male-type sacrifice. Which is totally her right. While kostenyuk did female type. And stil suceeded.
Still, i draw my conclusiions based on several interviews and overal observations, so i can be wrong here.
Ayo Levi you had a whole month to do black chess history.
While valid, bit weird to make this point today
@@jordylont1879 That's not weird at all.
Yea Like white history month for sprinting events😂😂
Love the 30+ minute videos lately
Next :I’m a feminist and i like dominated women?