Jewish Hungarian Chess Legend Judit Polgár Turns Down PM Magyar's Offer for Presidency

'I do ‌not ⁠feel enough strength within me to take on the historic responsibility of uniting a divided nation,' Polgár said. The largely ceremonial post has been left vacant amid Prime Minister Péter Magyar's efforts to dismantle former premier Viktor Orbán's bastions of power

July 21st, 12PM July 21st, 12PM

Hungarian chess legend Judit Polgár said on Monday that she will not accept the nomination for president, only a day after ‌Prime Minister Péter Magyar said he would ask her to take up the largely ceremonial role.

Electing a new president and drafting a new constitution are key elements of Magyar's plan to dismantle former premier Viktor Orbán's bastions of power, for which Magyar says he received a strong mandate from voters.

Magyar ended ⁠the 16-year rule of Orbán's nationalist Fidesz party with a landslide election victory in April.

On Saturday, Hungary's former President Tamás Sulyok signed a constitutional amendment passed by Magyar's ruling Tisza party that ended Sulyok's term as head of state.

Magyar said on Sunday that he would ask Polgár, widely regarded as the greatest ever female chess player, to take up the role of president until a new constitution is passed.

Polgár said in a Facebook post that she was grateful to be asked. "However, I do ‌not ⁠feel enough strength within me to take on the historic responsibility of uniting a divided nation, so I am unable to accept the request," she wrote.

"Our country needs unity, peace, and a president in whom every Hungarian can take pride," Magyar wrote. "The presidency is not a profession, not a job, but the highest form of service."

Magyar wrote in a subsequent post on Facebook that he respected Polgár's decision to decline the nomination, adding that he was sorry if his "enthusiasm, born of joy and absolute trust, caused communication errors that contributed to the situation and the decision."

Polgár, whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors and who became a grandmaster at the age of 15, at the time the youngest to attain the title, is widely considered the greatest female chess player in history. In 2019, she lit the ceremonial flame for the 15th European Maccabi Games, held in Budapest.

Earlier this year, a documentary about Polgár, titled "Queen of Chess," ⁠was released on Netflix. While the documentary made little mention of her Jewish identity, a 2014 Israeli documentary called "The Polgar Variant" chronicled the meteoric rise of her and her sisters, fellow chess prodigies Susan and Sofia Polgár. Susan Polgár, a World Chess Hall of Famer, told What I Wanna Know in 2013 that she had confronted chess legend Bobby Fischer over his antisemitic views.

Polgár also recounted her own experiences with antisemitism in a 2012 interview with the Independent. "In 1988 I received a letter with a picture of my father with his eyes cut out, and an anti-Semitic message," Polgár said at the time. "You don't forget things like that. We're still not doing too well in Hungary on this, and maybe it's worse now than when I was a kid."

Hungary's parliament will elect a new president who will be in office until a planned new constitution takes effect, or for a maximum of five years. "The ⁠president of the republic must be a person who guards the unity of the nation and constitutionality," Magyar told parliament earlier on Monday.