Anna Rudolf


Anna Rudolf is a Hungarian chess player holding the FIDE titles of International Master and Woman Grandmaster. She is a popular chess personality, having worked as a commentator and analyst at many major tournaments including the 2016 World Chess Championship and 2018 World Chess Championship. She is also a chess streamer on Twitch and an occasional vlogger through her YouTube chess channel.

Chess career

Rudolf spent her childhood in Bátaszék, a small town in southern Hungary. She started to play chess along with her sister Kata at the age of four. Many competitions and successes followed. From a young age she maintained a position as one of Hungary's top players. Her achievements include winning the European Junior Rapid Championship and the Hungarian Women's Championship in 2008, 2010, and 2011. She represented Hungary at the Chess Olympiad from 2008 to 2012.
Rudolf achieved her International Master and Woman Grandmaster norms at the 2007 Vandoeuvre Open, where she was accused by some of her opponents of cheating by receiving signals through a tube of lip balm in her purse. This accusation was never substantiated.
Rudolf created video content for Chess24.com in English and Spanish, and has appeared as a celebrity player in that site's "Banter Blitz" sessions. When she is teamed up with friend and fellow presenter Sopiko Guramishvili, the pair are known as "Miss Strategy" and "Miss Tactics".
A regular commentator for Chess.com, she covered the 2018 and 2019 PRO Chess League Finals with IM Daniel Rensch, WFM Alexandra Botez, and GM Robert Hess. She has covered other events since then, including the 2019 Women's Speed Chess Championship.
She also streams on Twitch on the channel "Anna_Chess". As of October 2019, her Twitch channel is followed by over 15,000 people. Rudolf has a YouTube channel which features some of her Twitch stream highlights, but she also posts YouTube-specific content in which she does game analysis and provides instructional commentary. She occasionally posts non-chess-related videos on her YouTube channel as well. As of April 2020, the channel has over 39,000 subscribers and 2.3 million total views.
She studied Russian and English at the University of Pécs; then, in 2010, she moved to Madrid, where she has combined teaching chess with tournament play. Rudolf has not played high-level competitive chess since 2017, preferring instead to focus on her commentary and media activities.

Notable games

Rudolf vs. Alina Kashlinskaya, Gyorgy Marx Memorial IX ; Scotch Game: Potter Variation
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nb3 Bb6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Qe2 0-0 8.Be3 Re8 9.f3 d6 10.0-0-0 Be6 11.Kb1 Ne5 12.Qd2 Nc4 13.Bxc4 Bxc4 14.g4 Nd7 15.g5 Qb8 16.h4 Bxe3 17.Qxe3 b5 18.h5 b4 19.Ne2 Qb6 20.Ned4 a5 21.g6 a4 22.Nc1 Ra5 23.gxh7+ Kxh7 24.Qf4 Qc5 25.b3 axb3 26.cxb3 Rb8 27.bxc4 b3 28.Ndxb3 Qa3 29.h6 Ne5 30.hxg7+