[georgeoliver]

I understand your point, I guess I'm not one to feel that 'realistic' in the sense you described is a very important metric when critiquing media. For example, would anyone say that the musical Hamilton is 'realistic'? Probably not, but that hasn't decreased its massive popularity.

As a tournament player myself (of course, a rather shoddy amateur) I felt the series got the details of tournament play right. The fact that the prodigy was a teenage girl was besides the point.

[cambalache]

That's fair. Do you know whose story would have been awesome, the Polgar sister's, specially Judit.

Their story demonstrates 2 things.

Within an specific limited discipline, "genius" can be manufactured if specialized long training and time is invested since childhood.

Individual variability still matters a lot. Out of all the 3 sisters, Judit was the only who went to become a truly world-class player.

[thom]

I've always found the Polgar story a bit weird, despite the way their father obviously characterised it. Was their chess education really that different from any other resulting chess pro?

[cambalache]

Well,his method is not that different of what I have seen other parents have done with their talented kids. Tiger Woods, Ichiro Suzuki, Son Heung-min, Andre Agassi, the Williams sisters, among others, were coached relentlessly since they were almost babies. You can discuss how healthy it is, but the results are there. Judit is by a ridiculous margin the strongest female player in the history.

[thom]

I suppose my point is, it just feels slightly patronising that the story is presented as this weird brain experiment when I don't think we bat an eyelid at the same upbringing for male players. This is (for better or worse) what it takes to reach 2700.

Also, do you categorise the gulf between Polgar and Hou Yifan as a ridiculous margin (about 50 Elo)? Obviously Polgar was better at her peak, stayed there longer, and clearly had a dedication to the game than Hou never seemed interested in, but I think on the level of natural talent they'd actually be close.

[cambalache]

ELO inflation is a real thing in chess.Caruana ELO is 60+ points over Fischer. Polgar reached top 10, Yifan will never be a top 50 player. A top 10 player is in the rounds for the candidates tournament, a top 60 player is lucky if she or he is invited to a 19+ category tournament.