How strong is the finance minister of Poland? Andrzej Domanski vs Judit Polgar

by Sagar Shah - 06/05/2026

On 5th of May 2026, on the sidelines of the Super Rapid and Blitz tournament 2026 in Grand Chess Tour, a very special event took place. The Finance Minister of Poland Andrzej Domański met the legendary Judit Polgar. Together they discussed how chess can be spread to more people and the game can be made accessible to all. But after all these discussions, they also played a game with each other. Check out the game to see how strong the Finance Minister of Poland really is at chess!

Judit Polgar vs Finance Minister of Poland

It was 4 p.m. on the 5th of May 2026 and the 2nd round of the Super Rapid 2026 was in full swing. I usually do not leave the tournament premises while the games are going on. But this offer was special. I was invited to cover the meeting between the Finance Minister of Poland and the greatest female chess player ever Judit Polgar. And when I got to know that the Finance Minister of Poland Andrzej Domanski is a FIDE rated player (Elo 1477 in classical), I felt this was too good an offer to decline.

On the way out we saw IM Alina Kashlinskaya and her son! Did you know: Alina is married to super GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek!

This meet was made possible thanks to Lukasz Turlej, who is Polish and Secretary General of FIDE | Photo: Rafał Oleksiewicz

The finance minister had not yet arrived. Judit meets Jacek Gdanski, President of the Polish Agency for Audit Oversight. Jacek is also a GM! | Photo: Rafał Oleksiewicz

The finance minister arrived and being a chess lover he was extremely happy to meet Judit | Photo: Rafał Oleksiewicz

Judit sat down with the Finance Minister and together they discussed the benefits of chess and how they can take the sport to more people to improve the quality of life for the young generation. | Photo: Rafał Oleksiewicz

After the talks ended, it was time for some action!

Judit and Andrzej Domanski sat opposite each other to play a game of chess!

The game was super exciting! Andrzej showed that if this work was less demanding, he would have been a much higher rated player.

Andrzej Domanski vs Judit Polgar

The game, of course, began with the Sicilian

White has a decent position out of the opening and breaks with b3.

In order to spice up things, Judit took on c4 with the d-pawn

Judit's last move ...f5 is a mistake. How can White punish it?

It's quite difficult to pinpoint which is the moment Judit has made a mistake. But here if the Finance Minister had found the intermezzo Bg5, Judit would have been in some trouble. As it turns out White played Nc5 and Judit was out of the woods.

It's time to unleash some tactics. Black to play.

Judit found the very nice Nxd4! cxd4 Qxd4+ with the neat point that after Qe3 Qxe3 Nxe3 Bb6 wins the game.

What I found quite impressive was the resilience and fighting skills shown by Andrzej Domanski. Although he is 3 pawns down, it did feel he has some chances with Re8+ and the queen entering in to h6. But it wasn't sufficient, and Judit went on to win the game.

The strongest Finance Minister in chess in the world vs the strongest female player in the world!

Would it be safe to say Andrzej Domanski is the strongest Finance Minister in the world when it comes to chess?

After the Finance Minister left, the two grandmasters fought it out against each other! We will not reveal what happened here! This is something that someday Judit or Jacek may want to share with the world!