The inaugural Hungarian Chess Championship was held in the city of

Győr Győr ( , ; german: Raab, links=no; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia ...

in 1906. Initially, there was no governing body responsible for its organisation, until the formation 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 ...

. The HCF first appeared in 1911, but failed to establish itself properly until 1923. The regularity of the Championship was patchy prior to 1950, due in part to the two

world wars A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

and inadequate funding. Since 1949 however, the HCF has been integrated with the Hungarian Sports Federation and so receives state support. Consequently, the Championship has since been held on an annual basis, with only the occasional omission. Exceptionally two consecutive events have occurred in the same year, due to the event being held at the year end. The events held in 1981, 1984, 1991 and 1997 were all termed ''Super Championships''. In both 1985 and 1988, the traditional national championship was substituted by an open championship and the winner of both editions was the Hungarian IM Béla Perényi. The venue for the event has mostly been the Hungarian capital city,

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. The events held post-World War II carry the official numbering (#) shown below, while the events held prior to 1945 are tagged with the letter 'p' (#p). The 1999 championship (49th Men's, 47th Women's) was held 1–9 February in

Lillafüred Lillafüred (Miskolc-Lillafüred) is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Hungary. Officially, it is a part of Miskolc, though it is almost 12 kilometres away from the city, in the Bükk Mountains. Lillafüred is a tourist resort. Hist ...

. In the men's section, the ten-player single

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero ...

(average

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved ch ...

2553) was won by GM

Zoltán Almási Zoltán Almási (born August 29, 1976) is a Hungarian chess player. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1993, he is a nine-time Hungarian champion, winning in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2019. Almási has compete ...

6.0/9, a half point ahead of GM

Gyula Sax Gyula Sax (18 June 1951 – 25 January 2014) was a Hungarian chess grandmaster and International Arbiter (1995). In 1972 he won the European Junior Chess Championship in Groningen. Sax was awarded the IM title in 1972 and the GM title ...

and GM Zoltán Varga. The ten-player women's single round-robin (average Elo 2261) was won by WM Nóra Medvegy on

tie-break In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests. General operation In matches In some situations, the tiebreaker may cons ...

over IM

Ildikó Mádl Ildikó Mádl (born 5 November 1969 in Tapolca) is a Hungarian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). Madl learned to play chess from her father. In 1978 she became a pupil of the che ...

, both with 6.0/9. Although invited by the Hungarian Chess Federation, some of the strongest Hungarian players chose not to participate in this event, including

Susan Polgar Susan is a feminine given name, from Persian "Susan" (lily flower), from Egyptian '' sšn'' and Coptic ''shoshen'' meaning "lotus flower", from Hebrew ''Shoshana'' meaning "lily" (in modern Hebrew this also means "rose" and a flower in general), ...

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the yo ...

Zsófia Polgár Sofia Polgar ( hu, Polgár Zsófia, ); born November 2, 1974) is a Hungarian and Israeli chess player, teacher, and artist. She holds the FIDE titles of International Master and Woman Grandmaster. A former chess prodigy, she is the middle sister ...

Péter Lékó Peter Leko ( hu, Lékó Péter; born September 8, 1979) is a Hungarian chess player and commentator. He became the world's youngest grandmaster in 1994. He narrowly missed winning the Classical World Chess Championship 2004: the match was draw ...

Lajos Portisch Lajos Portisch (born 4 April 1937) is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik". One of the strongest non-Soviet players from the early 1960s into the late 1980s, he participated ...

, and

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 ...

Men's winners

Women's winners

Crosstables

: : : Average Elo: 2299 <=> Cat: 2 : : : :

References

---- * *Fehér, Gyula (1991–2005), ''Magyar Országos SakkTájékoztató'', results 1991–2005 * (men's winners up to 1985) * * * * * * *
Short bio of Attila Schneider
Zsuzsa Verőci report * ChessBase online database * {{Top sport leagues in Hungary Chess national championships Women's chess national championships

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

Recurring sporting events established in 1906

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 ...

1906 establishments in Austria-Hungary