Susan Polgar in “My Brilliant Brain”

The famed GM Susan Polgar, the eldest of the famed Polgar Sisters was the subject of an interesting documentary on how the three sisters received specialized training to become strong chess players. Much of the documentary was set in New York and Hungary and Polgar described her evolutionary process as a player. Polgar now runs the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Education (SPICE) located at Texas Tech University.

One of her most interesting mantras of Lazslo Polgar was to take his “oridinary” girls and put them through a system to be the best at whatever they embarked on. In this case, chess was the subject. It is a game often associated with experiements on intelligence. However, the game remains dominated by men, so the film took a look at the gender intelligence question.

The “My Brilliant Brain” series had other personalities featured, but this one provides insight on chess development and one of the historic figures in the game. The film is somewhat dated (2008), but the information contained therein is relevant and should be the basis for further research.