Queen?

Queen of Chess is a newly released documentary about chess grandmaster Judit Polgar. I understand the documentary focuses on her father’s efforts to train her and her two sisters to become grandmasters (GMs), and on her games against then world champion Garry Kasparov.

I haven’t seen the documentary because I don’t have a Netflix account, but I’m concerned that it was directed by Rory Kennedy, the youngest daughter of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. For example, the official Netflix trailer begins with a couple of lies: “Chess was a man-dominated sport” (reality check: chess is a male-dominated sport), and “Women were not allowed to play in male tournaments” (this is like claiming that women weren’t allowed to play American football against a team of males!).

Rory Kennedy has also made documentaries addressing topics such as the treatment of prisoners of war and the border wall policy with Mexico. She announced her support for Barack Obama as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate and later endorsed Hillary Clinton. After Biden withdrew from the race, Kennedy endorsed the mulatta Kamala Harris.

Yesterday I learned of the existence of the documentary that Kennedy filmed about Polgar: the woman who has played chess the best in the history of the game. Although I haven’t seen the documentary, I’ve been hearing very favourable opinions about it. What’s most irritating is that some chess YouTubers parrot the claim that Polgar’s example will “close the gap” for future generations of female players who are inspired by the Hungarian GM. These YouTubers base their arguments not on facts, but on the ideology that has infected the Aryan collective unconscious: egalitarian liberalism, the doctrine of despising our biological realities.

It was precisely to expose such dishonesty that I included my sarcastic essay “On Beth’s Cute Tits” in the book that gave the anthology its title. My essay contains this passage:

Some media outlets publish articles with titles such as “Is The Queen’s Gambit a true story?” They claim that the series is inspired by the woman who has reached the highest level of competition in tournament chess: the Hungarian Judit Polgar, now retired from competition but still commentating on professional chess games. But Polgar’s life was very different from that of the fictional Beth Harmon. True, in real life Polgar once beat world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. But what Netflix fans ignore is the outcome of all their matches. In real life, Kasparov beat Judit Polgar 12-1, with 4 draws!

I think it is important to present the scores of the best female chess player in history, Polgar, in her games against male world champions (to date, no woman has ever been crowned world chess champion). The source for the list below is Chess Life, an American magazine that is mentioned several times in the Netflix miniseries:

Kasparov – Polgar: 12-1
Carlsen – Polgar: 10-1
Anand – Polgar: 28-10
Karpov – Polgar: 20-14
Topalov – Pogar: 16-15
Kramnik – Polgar: 23-1

As we can see, Polgar is at a disadvantage against all her contemporary world champions. The only champion with whom she kept an almost equal score was Topalov. Her score against Karpov was not bad, and although her disadvantage against Anand is wide, her results are noteworthy. But against Kasparov, Carlsen and especially Kramnik, Polgar took real beatings. These are the hard facts of real life that no more feminist HBO or Netflix series are going to change. They want us to believe that women are interchangeable with us when it comes to physical activity and, now, intellectual sport.

I confess that Polgar is a good person. Although she’s retired from formal competition, I’ve seen her comment on games in international tournaments with other GMs, and I enjoy her commentary. But Netflix’s use of her life is outrageous. And the saddest thing is that today’s Aryan men, whom I’ve dubbed “lobotomized eunuchs,” don’t rebel against this narrative.

For those visitors who haven’t read it, now’s a good time to check out our multi-author anthology, On Beth’s Cute Tits.