A Hungarian girl dreams of conquering international men’s chess. After a 15-year battle against world champion Garry Kasparov, Judit Polgár revolutionizes the sport’s patriarchal culture to become one of the greatest chess prodigies in history and the greatest woman chess player of all time.

Veteran documentarian Rory Kennedy returns to the Sundance Film Festival with this empowering portrait tracing Judit Polgár’s trailblazing story. Raised by her father in communist Hungary as part of an unusual experiment to cultivate genius, Polgár quickly made her mark in the world of chess. By the age of 12, she was the number one female player in the world; less than four years later, she broke Bobby Fischer’s legendary record to become the youngest grandmaster in history. But Polgár was determined to refute the ingrained sexism of the game by beating the greatest chess player in the world, Garry Kasparov. Queen of Chess chronicles their historic, long-running battle of the sexes, punctuated with a dynamic visual aesthetic, a rich archive, and a rousing girl-power soundtrack. — BT

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