On Tuesday night Hungarian time, Zsuzsa Polgár and Lajos Portisch, as well as the Dane Bent Larsen, who died in 2010, were inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame at Webster University in St. Louis. 

The Athlete of the Nation, the chess Olympic champion, eight-time world champion candidate, 86-year-old Lajos Portisch did not travel to the ceremony, but Zsuzsa Polgár - who has lived in the United States since 1994 - was personally present at the inauguration, where she also spoke about her compatriot.

"I refused, saying that in the current tense international situation, I don't want to go to America now. I could even bring a companion, and the travel and accommodation costs would be covered. This is what I decided for good," explained the 86-year-old chess grandmaster, who was of course summoned to the event in St. Louis, and he himself spoke to the audience in English via audio recording. In his honest style, he explained, among other things,

he doesn't like being called Grandmaster because that title no longer means anything.

Immediately after the Second World War, the best five or six chess players in the world were called grandmasters, but nowadays no one can tell, including him, how many there are in the world - so he likes to be called only Lajos...

"Lajos Portisch is a Hungarian and world chess legend. I've known him since I was five or six years old, at that time we played on the same team in Budapest in the MTK. Later we became friends," recalled the 54-year-old eldest Polgár sister, who is a chess Oscar winner, chess Olympian and world champion, and in 1991 she was the first woman to receive the male international grandmaster title based on fulfilling the grandmaster standards.

The members of the Chess Hall of Fame are recommended by FIDE based on their influence on the sport,

the former American Bobby Fischer, the former world champion, became the first to become immortal in this way in 2001. Zsuzsa Polgár's sister, Judith, was elected to the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2021.

MTI / Nemzetisport.hu

Photo: MTI/Gyula Czimbai