Hungarian Jewish Chess-master Declines PM’s Offer to be Interim President

(July 21, 2026 / JNS) Hungarian Jewish chess grandmaster Judit Polgar on Monday declined an offer to serve as the country’s interim president.
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar had made the public request just a day earlier, shortly after President Tamas Sulyok, whom Magyar had portrayed as a puppet of former prime minister Viktor Orban, was forced from office.

Polgar, widely regarded as the greatest female chess player in history, posted on Facebook that she was grateful to have been asked to serve but felt she lacked the strength to take on the historic responsibility of uniting a divided nation and therefore could not accept.

Born in Communist-run Budapest to a Hungarian Jewish family, both of her grandmothers survived the Holocaust, and her grandfathers were sent to forced labor camps.

Polgar and her family have maintained a strong connection to their heritage, and she holds joint Israeli citizenship, according to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.