Jewish chess champion Judit Polgar announced Monday evening that she would not accept the Hungarian presidency, just one day after new Prime Minister Peter Magyar said he would ask her to take the largely ceremonial post.
Magyar announced Sunday that he wanted to appoint Polgar, a day after outgoing President Tamas Sulyok, whom Magyar had portrayed as a puppet of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, was forced from office.
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Chess champion Polgar and Prime Minister Magyar
(Photos: Ilya Melnikov, Marton Monus/Reuters)
In a Facebook post Monday evening, Polgar said she was grateful to have been asked to serve but felt she lacked the strength to take on the historic responsibility of uniting a divided nation and therefore could not accept the request.
Polgar, who turns 50 this week, is widely regarded as the greatest female chess player of all time. She competed primarily against men throughout her career, reached the top 10 in the world rankings and defeated world champions including Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov.
She was among the inspirations for the hit series “The Queen’s Gambit,” and a documentary about her life, “The Chess Queen,” was released on Netflix earlier this year. The Polgar family is a prominent Jewish family in Hungary.
Her older sister, Susan Polgar, also known as Zsuzsa, now lives in the United States, while other relatives live in Israel. Another sister, Sofia, lives in Rishon Lezion. She was a chess master and is married to Israeli chess player Yona Kosashvili.
Continuing to dismantle centers of power; Magyar
(Photo: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP)
Polgar’s connection to Israel is personal and deep. “I am very proud to be Jewish,” she said in a February interview with the ynet studio, against the backdrop of a sharp rise in antisemitism around the world in recent years.
“I know how difficult things are for us now, and I stand very much with you in Israel. I have my own way of fighting and pushing forward. It is amazing to me how many difficult days Israelis are going through while still managing to smile and live their daily lives. I hope we all have the strength to keep smiling.”
Magyar’s offer came after Sulyok signed a constitutional amendment Saturday that was passed by the governing Tisza party and effectively ended his own term as head of state.
The move marked another important step in Magyar’s effort to dismantle the centers of power built by former Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Orban’s critics say those institutions allowed him to establish authoritarian rule in Hungary and severely erode the country’s democracy.
The amendment ordered Sulyok’s term to end immediately and cited a “serious loss of public confidence” in the president, who was elected in early 2024 by lawmakers from Orban’s Fidesz party.
Former Prime Minister Viktor Orban
(Photo: Petr David Josek/AP)
Orban was accused of turning Hungary into an undemocratic state by bringing the media and judiciary under his influence and sharply restricting the opposition’s ability to operate.
Magyar, a former member of Orban’s party, not only defeated him but also secured a parliamentary majority of more than two-thirds. That majority now allows his government to amend the constitution and repeal measures adopted under Orban that it considers undemocratic.
Lawmakers have already approved an amendment limiting any individual to a total of eight years as Hungary’s prime minister.
Since his April victory, Magyar had repeatedly called on Sulyok to resign, arguing that he failed in his duties as president by refusing to block antidemocratic measures advanced by Orban’s government.
Magyar frequently described Sulyok as Orban’s “puppet.” When Sulyok continued to refuse to resign last week, Magyar’s parliamentary faction approved a constitutional amendment that effectively removed him from office.