In July 2026, Hungary's prime minister asked a retired chess player to become the country's president. She turned him down, but the fact that a nation saw a unifying head of state in Judit Polgar says everything about her legacy as the strongest female chess player in history.

This episode traces her journey from the subject of her father's radical educational experiment in Budapest to a record-breaking grandmaster, exploring how a controlled childhood and relentless focus shattered centuries of gender bias on the board.

• Her father Laszlo's belief that genius is built, not born, and his homeschool curriculum of chess and Esperanto
• Playing blindfold chess and winning prize money as a young child
• Refusing to play in women-only tournaments and breaking the Soviet streak at the 1988 Olympiad
• Breaking Bobby Fis ...