{"id":550679,"date":"2026-07-20T14:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/550679\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T14:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:47:14","slug":"strategic-move-by-hungarys-magyar-as-he-picks-chess-prodigy-for-president-peter-magyar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/550679\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategic move by Hungary\u2019s Magyar as he picks chess prodigy for president | P\u00e9ter Magyar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hungary\u2019s prime minister, P\u00e9ter Magyar, has announced plans to ask Judit Polg\u00e1r, widely considered the greatest female chess player of all time<\/a>, to take on the largely ceremonial role of president.<\/p>\n

Magyar said he would meet Polg\u00e1r on Monday to discuss the matter. \u201cOur country needs unity, peace and a president that all Hungarians can be proud of,\u201d he wrote on social media. \u201cJudit Polg\u00e1r\u2019s name has been synonymous with talent and perseverance for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement by Magyar follows a months-long standoff<\/a> between the newly elected leader and Tam\u00e1s Sulyok, the president appointed during former leader Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s time in power.<\/p>\n

Since his landslide victory<\/a> in April, Magyar has repeatedly called on Sulyok to step down, accusing him of being an Orb\u00e1n \u201cpuppet\u201d who had failed to stand up for the country as Orb\u00e1n\u2019s rightwing, nationalist Fidesz party was criticised for weakening democratic institutions and undermining the rule of law.<\/p>\n

Last week Hungary\u2019s parliament \u2013 where Magyar\u2019s Tisza party holds a two-thirds majority \u2013 voted to back a constitutional amendment that included an immediate end to Sulyok\u2019s term<\/a>. From there, Sulyok had five days to sign off on the amendment.<\/p>\n

Judit Polg\u00e1r aged 12. She was the top-ranked female player for 25 years. Photograph: Yves Forestier\/Sygma\/Getty<\/p>\n

The manoeuvre was criticised by several rights groups in Hungary, including Human Rights Watch, who warned<\/a> that the rushed constitutional changes to oust the president were \u201creminiscent of [the] Fidesz era\u201d. Magyar, however, has insisted that the changes are needed as part of a wider push to loosen Orb\u00e1n\u2019s lingering grip on the nation.<\/p>\n

As news emerged that Sulyok had signed the legislation, bringing an end<\/a> to his time in office, Magyar proposed nominating Polg\u00e1r as his replacement. The idea was first floated in an open letter signed by 16 prominent Hungarians, including Ern\u0151 Rubik, theinventor of the Rubik\u2019s Cube.<\/p>\n

Born in Budapest, Polg\u00e1r, who will turn 50 in a few days, was the top-ranked female player for 25 years when she retired in 2014. At the age of 15, she became the youngest grandmaster in the world, breaking the record<\/a> set in 1958 by Bobby Fischer.<\/p>\n

Her rise in the male-dominated world of chess \u2013 which included victories against several male world champions, including Garry Kasparov in 2002 \u2013 was captured<\/a> in the 2026 Netflix documentary Queen of Chess.<\/p>\n

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Magyar said he would ask her to serve in the new role until a new constitution was passed. The appointment, which must be voted on by parliament but is expected to pass easily given Tisza\u2019s majority, carries a maximum term of five years.<\/p>\n

Since being swept into power on the promise of \u201cregime change\u201d, Magyar and his centre-right Tisza party have moved swiftly to dismantle the bastions of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 16 years in power, from suspending news broadcasts<\/a> by public media outlets with ties to the former prime minister to abolishing<\/a> the sovereignty protection office, which had allowed intelligence services to access information on individuals and organisations without judicial oversight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hungary\u2019s prime minister, P\u00e9ter Magyar, has announced plans to ask Judit Polg\u00e1r, widely considered the greatest female chess…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-550679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}