Make Me A Genius
This riveting, three-part series examines three groups of geniuses to answer questions about human intelligence. Do differences in gender, brain size and brain hemisphere dominance enable these remarkable individuals to excel so far beyond their peers? Or, can education and environment help fuel intelligence and enable anyone to become a prodigy, if given the opportunity?
At 38 years old, Susan Polgar has reached heights that few women have ever equalled in the chess world. Despite the common assumption that men’s brains are better at understanding spatial relationships, giving them an advantage in games such as chess, Susan went on to become the world’s first grandmaster. Susan’s remarkable abilities have earned her the label of ‘genius’, but her psychologist father, László Polgar, believed that genius was “not born, but made”. Noting that even Mozart received tutelage from his father at a very early age, Polgar set about teaching chess to the five-year-old Susan after she happened upon a chess set in their home.
