Are Geniuses made or are born? If you believe that Geniuses are born then someone in Hungary may have proven you wrong already. László Polgár is a chess teacher and psychologist. He is the father of the famous "Polgár sisters": Zsófia, Zsuzsa and Judit whom he trained from the very birth to be chess prodigies. All his daughters excelled in chess so much that two of them became the best women chess player in the world and the third became the second best. It wasn’t by accident he claims, it was intentional. Whether you believe this or not, you are sure to find his theory interesting if you care enough to know the details.
How to make a Genius
During his student years, László studied intelligence intensely. He went on to say “when I looked at the life stories of geniuses, I found the same thing.. They all started at a very young age.” He believed that when you train a child intensely on a particular subject from a very tender age, that child will grow up to be a genius. He went on to conclude that every healthy child is a potential genius. Long before the birth of his daughters, Lazlo had written a book titled “bring up a genius”. This is the technique that he used to train his children to be chess prodigies.
Polgár Sisters Carrying on the Legacy
The eldest sister, Judith who was the first female Grand master is a strong believer in her father’s philosophy that “Geniuses are made, not born”. She has competed at the highest level in chess, defeating a good number of the toughest chess players in the world. Although she has resigned from competitive chess, chess is still a huge part of the lives of the three sisters. It is certain they will train their children the same way. Judith says her father believes in optimizing childhood instead of just wasting time watching TV or playing outside. The Polgár family remains a strong supporter for homeschooling and early intensive training of children in a specialized field to this day.
