Read the text and answer the questions that follow.

The Chess Champion is a Woman

 

I

    Chess has been a game traditionally dominated by

    men, but that is changing. Several top women players

    have been very successful in recent years, including

    Judit Polgar. Born in Hungary in 1976, Judit comes

    from a chess-playing family. Her father, Laszlo,

    studied the lives of great intellectuals, and he decided

    that chess was an excellent discipline for the mind.

II

    Judit and her two sisters began studying chess at the

    age of four. Laszlo quit his job and stayed home

    to teach his daughters. The girls played chess most of

    the day, in addition to learning some school subjects.

    They went outside once a day to play football or to

    run around in the garden. This unusual programme

    of study was controversial. Once, armed government

    officials came to the door of the Polgar home, thinking

    that Laszlo’s daughters were in a potentially

    harmful situation.

III

    Despite the critics, Laszlo’s plan was successful.

By the age of five, Judit could already beat her father at chess, and at nine, she won an important

    competition in New York. When she was fifteen, she

    became the youngest Grandmaster ever, beating even

    the record of the legendary Bobby Fischer. In 1998,

    she was the first woman in history to win the US

    Open.

IV

    Judit has an aggressive style and a competitive

    personality. She also refuses to compete in any event

    that is strictly for women. Consequently, she

    is the only woman who has competed consistently

    against the top 20 players in the world. Some believe

    that one day, she will be the number one player in

    the world. In the meantime, she has broken down

gender stereotypes and has made it possible for other

    female chess players who are interested in competing

    fairly against their male counterparts.