Hungarian PM nominates Jewish chess grandmaster Judit Polgar to serve as interim president

Announcing nomination, Peter Magyar says Hungary ‘needs unity, peace and a president whom every Hungarian can be proud of’

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said Sunday that he had nominated Jewish Hungarian chess grandmaster Judit Polgar to serve as an interim president, after outgoing president Tamas Sulyok signed a constitutional amendment a day earlier to end his term in office.

Sulyok was asked to sign the amendment as part of Magyar’s drive to dismantle former prime minister Viktor Orban’s bastions of power, after ousting the strongman in an April election landslide.

Parliament, where Magyar’s party has a two-thirds majority that allows it to change any laws, will elect a new president who will be in office until a planned new constitution takes effect, or for a maximum of five years.

In a post on Facebook, Magyar said that Polgar is the right person to serve as head of state, as her “name has been synonymous with talent and perseverance for decades.”

“Our country needs unity, peace and a president whom every Hungarian can be proud of,” he wrote. “The presidency is not a job, not a workplace, but the highest service. The president’s task is to serve and represent every Hungarian.”

Polgar’s fame, he said, “is not due to her political affiliation or connections, but to her exceptional talent, diligence, exemplary burden-bearing, and integrity.”

He expressed hope that she would accept the invitation, saying it would be “a huge honor” if she did.

Judit Polgar and her two sisters — Zsuzsa (Susan) and Zsofia (Sofia) — along with Ildiko Madl won the 1988 Chess Olympiad for Hungary’s female team, ending Soviet dominance.

Judit Polgar played in tournaments against men and became one of the top players in a male-dominated sport. She is the most talented woman to have ever played the game and the only woman to have crossed the 2700-rating threshold that many consider the “Super GM” distinction.

In February, “Queen of Chess,” a documentary about Polgar, was released on Netflix.

“I will meet her tomorrow, and will ask whether she is ready to serve our country in a new role until the new constitution is passed,” Magyar wrote in a Facebook post.

There was no immediate public comment from Polgar.