Gábor Kállai (21 February 1959 – 31 December 2021) was a Hungarian

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 dist ...

Grandmaster.

Life and career

In team championships he has won several gold medals; in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

with ''MTK-VM'' and with ''Miskolci SSC'', in Switzerland with the team of Bern, and in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

with the team of Strasbourg. He has written nine books, published in multiple languages. ''Basic Chess Openings'' is his most popular work, published in Hungarian,

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and French. Since 2005 he has written a chess column in the Hungarian daily newspaper

Népszabadság ''Népszabadság'' (; means "Liberty of the People") was a major Hungarian newspaper which was formerly the official press organ of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party during the Hungarian People's Republic. History and profile ''Népsza ...

and from 2006 has presented a TV-program on Hungarian SPORT1 TV (SAKKK!). In 2014, he was named chair of MTK's chess section. As a chess trainer, he worked between 1983–1986 as a second of GM

Zoltán Ribli Zoltán Ribli (born September 6, 1951 in Mohács) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster and International Arbiter (1995). He was twice a World Championship Candidate and three times Hungarian Champion. A career in chess As a youngster, he was twi ...

, between 1980–1994 as one of the

coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

of Zsuzsa Polgár and in 2005, was appointed a FIDE Senior Trainer (the highest trainer licence of FIDE). From 2012 to 2013 he coached Kayden Troff and between 2012 and 2015

Jeffery Xiong Jeffery Xiong (born October 30, 2000) is an American chess prodigy. He earned the Grandmaster title in September 2015 at the age of fourteen, the fourth youngest player to qualify in the US. Chess career Xiong was aged seven when he played in ...

. In 2015, he was appointed a master instructor at the Hungarian Physical Education University. From 2001 to 2005 he was the Professional Director of the

Hungarian Chess Federation The Hungarian Chess Federation ( hu, Magyar Sakkszövetség - ''MSSz'') is the national organization for chess in Hungary. It is affiliated to the World Chess Federation and was founded in 1921. The chairman is Miklós Seszták. The Hungarian Ches ...

(HCF). He coached the Hungarian Men's Team for the 2002 Bled Chess Olympiad, guiding the team to the silver medal position. From 2005 to 2010 he was the Public Relations Director of the HCF. In 2006, he was a founding member of the Hungarian Association of Talent Support Organizations. From 2014, he was member of the board of directors at Bay Area Chess. Kállai died on 31 December 2021, at the age of 62.Meghalt Kállai Gábor nemzetközi sakknagymester

References

External links

* *
Gábor Kállai: Portrait of a Dedicated Chess Worker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kallai, Gabor 1959 births 2021 deaths Chess grandmasters Hungarian chess players Hungarian chess writers Chess coaches National team coaches Chess officials Sportspeople from Budapest