In what is quickly becoming a can’t-miss annual tradition, Chess.com is partnering with GM Judit Polgar again in 2025 for Judit Polgar’s Global Chess Festival. This year’s main event is a community simul on September 30 starting at 7:45 a.m. ET/13:45 CEST at the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest, broadcast live on the internet by Chess.com. It is sure to be a memorable event for participants and observers alike!
Polgar, universally considered the greatest woman chess player of all time, retired from competitive chess in 2014 and has been using chess to promote children’s education ever since. The Global Chess Festival was first held in 2014 with the mission to “promote the thousands of faces of chess all around the world… share the beauty of chess with five million people… [and] connect and enjoy chess-related activities on the day of the festival.” The festival celebrated its 10th anniversary last year and continues this year as one of the premier chess promotional events in the world for people to play, experience, and be inspired by chess.
During the festival, Judit will be playing six games at the same time against devoted chess communities from around the world. Here they are!
- Anna Rudolf Chess
- Chessable Improvers
- Chessboxing Community
- Spanish Community
- Chess Is For Everyone Community
- Hungarian Stars
And the list of representatives for each community:
| Community | Representative(s) |
| Anna Rudolf Chess | IM Anna Rudolf |
| Chessable Improvers | NM Dane Mattson, Improvers of the Month @lib_rl, @Flan, @zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz44 |
| Chessboxing Community | Matt Thomas |
| Chess Is For Everyone Community | WIM Ayelen Martinez, Myriam Ben Farhat |
| Spanish Community | IM Divis Martinez |
| Hungarian Stars | Prof. Szilveszter E. Vizi |
Commentating throughout will be IM Tania Sachdev. WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni will be onsite, hosting the first half of the broadcast with Tania and conducting postgame interviews. And none other than IM Levy Rozman, one of the most recognizable faces in chess, will join Tania for the second half of the broadcast.
Polgar will receive 110 minutes for each game and each community 50 minutes, each with a 10-second increment. Thanks to DGT board technology, chess enthusiasts will be able to follow the action wherever they are in the world on Chess.com’s events page.
In addition to the Chess.com simul, the Global Chess Festival will feature other tournaments, special game variants—including, for the first time ever, RubikChess— as well as Chess Palace adventure courses and more! You can read more about the festival at its official website, about last year’s festival at the Chess.com recap, and about all the work of the Judit Polgar Chess Foundation at their website. This year promises to be another great time had by all at the Global Chess Festival.
Tune in at 13:45 CEST/7:45 a.m. ET on September 30 on YouTube and Twitch!
