Béla Berger (12 August 1931, Szombathely, Hungary – December 2005, Sydney, Australia) was a Hungarian-Australian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

master. He took 5th in the Hungarian Championship at Budapest 1953 ( Béla Sándor won). In 1954, he played for Hungary "B" at fourth board in 1st Triennial Cup in Budapest. After the failure of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Berger emigrated from Hungary to Australia. In Australia, he twice won the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

state title (1957 and 1961), and came second in the 1959

Australian Chess Championship The Australian Chess Championship is a tournament organised by the Australian Chess Federation and held every two years. The tournament is largely restricted to Australian chess players, although it is common to allow a small number of strong overse ...

behind

Lajos Steiner Lajos Steiner (14 June 1903, in Nagyvárad ( Oradea) – 22 April 1975, in Sydney) was a Hungarian–born Australian chess master. Steiner was one of four children of Bernat Steiner, a mathematics teacher, and his wife Cecilia,(née Schwarz) ...

. Berger was one of Australia's representatives at the 1963 Pacific Zone 10 Championship in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

. National champion John Purdy was chosen first, and a quadrangular tournament was held for the second spot. Berger and Karlis Ozols tied for first; then the selectors voted in favour of Berger 3-0. The Jakarta result was Berger's best of his career. He tied for first on 5.5/8, and then won the playoff against Indonesia's

Arovah Bachtiar Arovah Bachtiar (born 25 March 1934) is an Indonesian International master (IM) (1978). He is a four-times Indonesian Chess Championship winner (1953, 1962, 1967, 1971). Biography From the early 1950s to the second half of the 1970s, Arovah Ba ...

. (He won the playoff 2-1 after 3 games; a fourth game was won by Bachtiar, but it had no bearing on the outcome, as the tiebreak system used favoured Berger). The win gave him the title of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

, and qualified him for the Interzonal of the 1964-66 World Championship cycle. Berger was one of only three Australians to ever qualify for an Interzonal, the others being Steiner and Ian Rogers. At the Interzonal he came 23rd out of 24. Berger tied for 7-8th at Manila 1968 (Meralco Open, Svetozar Gligorić won). While Berger retired from chess competition relatively early, He came out of retirement in 1991 to play an exhibition game against Charles Pizzato - a chess prodigy. https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/bela-berger-and-charles-pizzato-contemplate-the-path-to-news-photo/1078604228

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Bela 1931 births 2005 deaths Hungarian chess players Australian chess players Chess International Masters Hungarian defectors 20th-century chess players Hungarian emigrants Immigrants to Australia

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