Head of State
Hungary: Chess star Polgar rejects presidential bid
Updated July 20, 2026 – 8:59 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The best female chess player of all time has decided not to run for Hungary’s highest state office. Prime Minister Magyar, who apparently suggested Polgar without being asked, is not looking good.
The exceptional Hungarian chess player Judit Polgar has rejected the nomination for the office of president that was offered to her. She wrote on her Facebook page that she highly appreciates Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s gesture of proposing her as an independent and non-party candidate. “At the same time, I do not feel sufficient strength within me to take on the historic responsibility to unite a divided nation,” she added.
Magyar proposed the 49-year-old Polgar for the highest state office on Sunday. She owed her successes “not to political ties or relationships, but to her exceptional talent,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
The position of head of state is in Hungary vacant since Monday. On that day, a constitutional amendment took effect that removed the previous incumbent, Tamas Sulyok. This was from Magyar’s predecessor, the right-wing populist Viktor Orbanhas been used. After the overwhelming victory of Magyar’s bourgeois Tisza party in the April 12 parliamentary election, Sulyok had become intolerable for the new government.
The previous President of Parliament, Agnes Forsthoffer from the Tisza party, took over the official duties of the President on an interim basis on Monday. Parliament must now elect a successor to Sulyok within 30 days.
Polgar is considered the world’s best female chess player of all time. She competed mainly in men’s tournaments and beat grandmasters such as Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. In July 2005, she was ranked 8th in the world chess rankings – making her the only woman to date to be among the top ten top chess players. In 2014 she ended her career in top chess. Since then, she has dedicated herself to her foundation, which supports children and young people in developing logical and problem-solving skills.
Magyar apparently did not discuss her nomination for the presidency with her. He had simply expressed his hope that Polgar would accept the offer. His actions met with unusually strong criticism from his supporters. While the Tisza faction in parliament declared that it wanted to “unanimously” support Polgar’s candidacy, numerous supporters and some experts criticized the lack of a broader social debate about the future staffing of the highest state office.
