On FIDE's Elo rating system list of July 1984, at the age of 15, she became the top-ranked female chess player in the world.

[7] Polgar and her two younger sisters, Grandmaster Judit and International Master Sofia, were part of an educational experiment carried out by their father László Polgár, who sought to prove that children could make exceptional achievements if trained in a specialized subject from a very early age.

Most of her family eventually emigrated to Israel, but Susan Polgar moved to New York after marrying an American citizen in 1994.

Despite restrictions on her freedom to play in international tournaments, in July 1984, at age 15, Polgar had become the top-rated female chess player in the world.

[13] In January 1991, Polgar became the third woman awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE, after Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze.

Her title defense against Xie Jun of China was scheduled to take place in 1998 but FIDE had been unable to find a satisfactory sponsor.

As a result, Polgar requested a postponement because she was pregnant and due to give birth to a child, Tom, in March 1999.

[20] Polgar sued in the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland for monetary damages and the restoration of her title.

[1] The United States Chess Federation named her "Grandmaster of the Year" in 2003, the first time a woman has won that honor.

She helped train and played the top board for the United States women's team at the 2004 Chess Olympiad held in October in Calvià on the island of Mallorca, Spain.

[23] In October 2005, Polgar joined former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and former World Champion Anatoly Karpov in Lindsborg, Kansas, to promote "Chess For Peace."

In June 2006, Polgar organized and played in the 2006 New York City Mayor's Cup, a 30-minute competition and the highest-rated double round-robin tournament in US history.

In 2007, Susan Polgar signed on as the head coach for the Texas Tech Knight Raiders chess team.

[25] In April 2011 the Texas Tech Knight Raiders won the President's Cup;[26] this made Polgar the first female head coach to lead a chess team to the national title.

[27] In 2012, Polgar and the SPICE program, along with members of her top collegiate chess team, moved to Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri.

As a result, Polgar was recognized as 2012-13 College Coach of the Year by Final 4 organizer Booz Allen Hamilton, the US government and military contractor.

[33] In 2007 Texas Tech and Susan Polgar hosted the first SPICE Cup which has since become the highest rated international round robin chess tournament held in the United States.

[36][37][38] On October 2, 2007, one of the candidates for the executive board position, who had been defeated by Susan Polgar, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of the 2007 election, alleging misconduct.

Polgar subsequently published a statement asserting that the board members who voted in favor of this request made a number of misrepresentations.

[47] In 2014, Polgar was awarded the Furman Symeon medal, which is given annually to the best chess coach who works with both male and female players.

U.S. women's champion Nazí Paikidze was among several players who refused to participate in the championship in protest against the mandatory hijab.