Book Recap #7: Judit Polgar's How I Beat Fischer's Record with Jen Shahade

This month for Chess Books Recaptured, my good friend Jennifer Shahade joins me to talk about a book that we both absolutely love, How I Beat Fischer’s Record by legendary GM Judit Polgar.

Of course, Jennifer is a great person to discuss this book, as she herself is quite an ambassador for female chess players, and among other distinctions, Jen is the two-time US Women’s Champion, and the host of 2 award winning podcasts, Ladies Knight, and The Poker Grid. In this podcast, Jen and I share our favorite quotes, stories and games from this 2012 Quality Chess publication, and we also contextualize the life and legacy of GM Judit Polgar. Please read on for lots more details, hyperlinks and timestamps.

For embedded hyperlinks, go to the podcast website here:

https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2020/5/22/bonus-pod-recapping-judit-polgars-how-i-beat-fischers-record-with-jen-shahade

0:00- We kick off by discussing how we decided to discuss Judit’s book, and to talk generally a bit about how Jen personally, and the chess world generally, are being affected by the coronavirus.

Mentioned: Ladies Knight Podcast, The Grid Poker Podcast, Jen Shahade’s Twitch Channel The Polgar Sisters, Training or Genius? by Cathy Forbes, IM Not a GM Speed Chess Championship, IM Greg Shahade, St. Louis Chess Club’s Clutch Chess

10:00- We drill down more specifically into Judit’s book and her story. What is the background of the Polgars? Do Judit’s books get the credit they deserve? For what level is the book most helpful?

Mentioned: From GM to Top 10, A Game of Queens, David Llada, IM Eric Rosen, Lennart Ootes, GM Susan Polgar

Forward Chess- Use Promo Code “Judit” if you buy one of her e-books from them!

20:30- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. To check out the exciting new course from World Champion Magnus Carlsen, go here:

https://www.chessable.com/the-magnus-touch-free-strategy-lesson/course/40115/

Mentioned: IM Greg Shahade, IM John Bartholomew

23:00- We talk about how Judit changed women’s chess by eschewing Women’s Events in favor of mixed events. Will another woman follow in her footsteps?

Mentioned: GM Hou Yifan, GM Humpy Koneru, GM Humpy Koneru on The Ladies Knight Podcast, Free Excerpt of Judit’s Book from Quality Chess here:

https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/HowIBeatFischersRecordExcerpt.pdf

31:00- We discuss some of our favorite quotes and stories from the book.

Mentioned: GM Boris Gelfand, GM Susan Polgar, Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, My 60 Most Memorable Games, GM Pal Benko, GM Mikhail Marin, GM Boris Gelfand, GM Vasil Ivanchuk

Gelfand-Polgar 1989, GM Jonathan Rowson, Magnus Kingdom app

48:00- It was tough to pick only a few favorite games each from the book, but we did! Here they are:

Polgar-Chilingrova 1988

Polgar-Lars Bo Hansen 1989

Tisdall-Polgar 1988

Zifroni-Polgar 1990

Polgar-Flear 1989

Tolnai-Polgar 1991

Xie Jun- Polgar 1988

1:05:00- What are the chess improvement takeaways from this book?

Mentioned: GM Judit Polgar’s interview on Perpetual Chess, GM Alejandro Ramirez, Polgar at London Chess Conference, Irving Chernev’s Chessboard Magic, GM Garry Kasparov

01:27:00- Thanks so much to Jen for helping out this month. You can follow her on Twitter here. This month’s donation went to the US Chess Women Initiative.

01:28:00-

Next month we will be recappingThe World Champion’s I Knew by Gennadi Sosonko, and Vjekoslav Nemec, from Chessentials.com, will be helping me out!

Here are the Blindfold puzzles:

Puzzle #1 1500 level White to move and win - White- pawns f4 and g5, king on d4, Black- pawn on a4, king on b4

NOTE ON PUZZLE #2 I READ THE PUZZLE WRONG, IN ADDITION TO THE PIECES I NAMED, WHITE ALSO HAS A QUEEN ON A2

Puzzle 2 2100 level?- White to move, mate in 2

White: King on a1, queen on a2, pawns on e3 and e5, Rook on h1, knight on c7

Black- king on g7, pawn on g6, knights on g8 and e7, rook on f8

Puzzle #1 1500, (no answer)

https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=p/sxHjHhQ80fM5Wyr61XVDyFOXYjK/iYLp/yrSAVD4QDSejK9esxUSalDqwfPRMa

Puzzle #1 (with answer)

https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=C5uNj27llXNFWn+fpTM5aJ5KAh6KUuvEy4NUwoMGsQu1GzQDUuWenT4JDbZIYkOT

Puzzle 2 (no answer)

https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=J7FWNzeNYfxbPbbZ0zvfhLMidbk2WTeOzHsDINW2lzM+ASdC3LiG6ffAHEHt+fYR

Puzzle 2 (with answer)

https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=52M6/pp9vjMEa4VHOSY8zwERFKd4U2rcHcmxDigzJUCyIZqEBGQD9CCR0+SjpAe2

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Release date

Lydbog: 22. maj 2020