Susan Polgar

Susan Polgar
Polgar in 2018
Personal information
Born (1969-04-19) April 19, 1969
Budapest, Hungary
Spouses
Jacob Shutzman
(m. 1994, divorced)
(m. 2006)
Children2
Parent
Relatives
Chess career
Country
  • Hungary
  • United States (2002–2019)
TitleGrandmaster (1991)
Women's World Champion1996–1999
FIDE rating2577 (March 2026) [inactive]
Peak rating2577 (January 2005)

Susan Polgar (born April 19, 1969, as Polgár Zsuzsanna and often known as Zsuzsa Polgár) is a Hungarian-American chess grandmaster. Polgár was Women's World Chess Champion from 1996 to 1999. On FIDE's Elo rating system list of July 1984, at the age of 15, she became the top-ranked female chess player in the world. In 1991, she became the third woman to be awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE. She won eleven medals at the Women's Chess Olympiad (4 gold, 4 silver, and 3 bronze).

Also a trainer, writer and promoter, Polgar sponsors various chess tournaments for young players and is the head of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) at Webster University. She served as the Chairperson or co-chair of the FIDE Commission for Women's Chess from 2008 until late 2018.