Judit Polgár

Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess player. She is generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. Since September 2015, she has been inactive as a tournament player. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the youngest to have done so, breaking the record previously held by former World Champion Bobby Fischer. She was the youngest ever player to break into the FIDE top 100 players rating list, ranking No. 55 in the January 1989 rating list, at the age of 12. She is the only woman to be a serious candidate for the World Chess Championship, which she did in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005; she had previously participated in large, 100+ player knockout tournaments for the world championship. She is the first, and to date only, woman to have surpassed 2700 Elo, reaching a career peak rating of 2735 and peak world ranking of No. 8 in 2005. She is the only woman to be ranked in the top ten of all chess players, first reaching that ranking in 1996. She was the No. 1 rated woman in the world from January 1989 until her retirement on 13 August 2014.