The legislation, introduced by Magyar’s governing Tisza party, removed Sulyok as part of the prime minister's broader effort to undo appointments associated with former prime minister Viktor Orbán, whom Magyar defeated in a landslide election victory in April.
Magyar has repeatedly accused Sulyok and other senior state officials of acting as “puppets” of Orbán's former government.
Born in 1976 to a Jewish-Hungarian family, Polgár was raised alongside her sisters Susan (Zsuzsa) and Sofia (Zsófia) as part of an unconventional experiment devised by their father, educational psychologist László Polgár.
Convinced that "geniuses are made, not born," he home schooled his daughters and immersed them in chess from an early age in an effort to demonstrate that exceptional achievement could be cultivated through specialised training.
The youngest international chess grand master, 17-year-old Judit Polgar (L) writes down her first move against chess champion Boris Spassky (R), February 16, 1993 (Credit: ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images)[Missing Credit]
The experiment became one of the most famous in the history of education and chess. All three sisters became elite players, with Judit and Zsuzsa emerging as the world’s best and second-best female chess players in the world.
At the age of 15 years and four months, Judit Polgár became the youngest grandmaster in history at the time, breaking a record previously held by Bobby Fischer. She remains the only woman ever to have been ranked among the world’s top 10 players and the only woman in history to surpass the 2700 Elo rating mark, reaching a peak of 2735.
Judit Polgár and Alec Baldwin play a game of chess during Judit Polgár vs. Alec Baldwin for Netflix's Queen Of Chess, in Utah, January 25, 2026 (Credit: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Netflix)Getty Images for Netflix
Rather than competing primarily in women's tournaments, Polgár chose to play almost exclusively in open competition against the world's strongest male players. She remained the world's highest-rated female player for 26 consecutive years before retiring from competitive chess in 2014.
Whether Polgár accepts the nomination has yet to be seen, but Magyar is expected to discuss what the role entails with her today.
Under the constitutional changes in Hungary, parliament – where Tisza holds a two-thirds majority – will elect a new president to serve until a planned new constitution takes effect, or for a maximum of five years.
