Thread by @ToanTruongGTX

This is Laszlo Polgar.

He's the psychologist who turned his 3 daughters into chess grandmasters at 15.

He had ZERO chess skills, but his daughters defeated prime Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov, and Viktor Korchnoi.

Welcome to the first-ever Genius Factory: 🧵

In 1960s Communist Hungary, Laszlo Polgar had a radical theory:

Geniuses aren't born, they're made.

The establishment laughed. His peers called him crazy. So he decided to prove his theory with his own children...

Before having kids, he placed a newspaper ad seeking a wife who would join his experiment.

Klara, a Ukrainian teacher, responded.

They married with one agreement: their children would be subjects in his educational experiment.

Their plan? Choose one field and immerse their children in it from early age.

The field: chess.

Not because they loved it (Laszlo barely knew the rules), but because success in chess was objectively measurable.

Their first daughter, Susan, was born in 1969.

By age 4, she spent 5 hours daily on chess with her father's custom method.

At 5, she solved a chess puzzle that stumped adults.

This was just the beginning.

Sofia came next in 1974, then Judit in 1976.

All three were homeschooled with chess as their core curriculum.

The Polgar home was transformed into a chess lab with 10,000+ chess books, filling their Budapest apartment.

The girls learned languages through chess books in English, Russian, German and Spanish.

They studied math through chess problems.

They built stamina through activities that enhanced chess-specific cognitive abilities.

The results were stunning:

Susan became a grandmaster and world champion.

Sofia achieved international master status.

But it was the youngest, Judit, who truly shocked the world.

At age 9, Judit defeated a chess master.

At 12, she entered the world rankings.

At 15, she became the youngest grandmaster ever, breaking Bobby Fischer's record.

The chess establishment was stunned.

Judit went on to defeat 11 world champions including Garry Kasparov.

Kasparov had declared women inherently inferior at chess.

After losing to her, he admitted: "She is, after all, a genius."

The academic world took notice.

Anders Ericsson used the Polgar sisters to develop his "10,000 hour rule" of deliberate practice.

The notion that "genius" was primarily genetic faced its most serious challenge.

Critics called Laszlo a "chess Frankenstein" and claimed the experiment was cruel.

But all three sisters maintain they had happy childhoods, were never forced to play, and are grateful for their upbringing.

Laszlo's thesis from his 1989 book "Bring Up Genius!" has gained support:

Exceptional achievement comes from specialized early training, supportive environments, and thousands of hours of deliberate practice.

The Polgar sisters shattered the gender ceiling in chess.

Before them, no woman had qualified for the World Championship. Susan became the first.
Before Judit, no woman had reached the world's top 10. She peaked at #8.

Today, Laszlo is 77.

His daughters run successful chess academies.

His experiment created not just champions, but a profound challenge to our understanding of human potential.

The sisters weren't naturally gifted at chess.

They were MADE into prodigies through a radical educational experiment.

"Geniuses are not born, they are educated." —Laszlo Polgar

What the Polgar experiment teaches us:

• Deliberate practice trumps natural talent
• Our potential is vastly greater than we imagine
• Specialized early training creates extraordinary ability
• The right environment transforms the ordinary into exceptional

For parents and educators:

With the right system, dedication, and environment, we can nurture remarkable abilities in children.

Not by force, but by creating conditions where deep passion and mastery can flourish.

At 15, I convinced my parents to let me homeschool. It was scary but, honestly, the turning point in my life.

Without the traditional system, I had to design my own education and hold myself accountable—developing self-discipline and purpose I never knew I had.

This freedom to learn my way showed me a truth I'll never forget:

What we consider "genius" isn't a genetic lottery but deliberate grunting work.

The extraordinary potential exists in all of us. We're ONE genius away from saving the world.

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