István Abonyi (18 August 1886 – 5 June 1942) 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 ...

master, who was born and died in

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 ...

. In 1912, Abonyi played the Abonyi Gambit (1.Nf3 d5 2.e4) for the first time. István Abonyi with

Zsigmond Barász Zsigmond Barász (January 1878 – 28 May 1935, Budapest) was a Hungarian chess master. He took 2nd, behind Zoltán von Balla, at Győr in 1906 (the first Hungarian Championship) losing one match to him (0.5 : 2.5) there; took 9th at Budapest in ...

and

Gyula Breyer Gyula "Julius" Breyer (30 April 1893 Budapest – 9 November 1921) was a Hungarian chess player and 1912 Hungarian national champion. Chess career In 1912 Breyer won the Hungarian championship in Temesvar. In a 1920 tournament in Berlin he fi ...

developed the

Budapest Gambit The Budapest Gambit (or Budapest Defence) is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. d4 Nf6 :2. c4 e5 Despite an early debut in 1896, the Budapest Gambit received attention from leading players only after a win as Black by Grandmast ...

. Abonyi played it against the Dutch surgeon

Johannes Esser Johannes "Jan" Fredericus Samuel Esser (13 October 1877 in Leiden – 9 August 1946 in Chicago) was a Dutch plastic surgeon who pioneered innovative methods of reconstructive surgery on soldiers wounded in the First World War. He is thought to ha ...

in a small tournament at Budapest 1916. He published analysis on the Abonyi Variation of the Budapest Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.e4 Nxe5 5.f4 Nec6) in 1922 in ''Deutsches Wochenschach.'' He was one of the 15 founders of FIDE on 20 July 1924, during 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad in Paris.OlimpBase :: Chess Olympiad Paris 1924: information
/ref> On January 21–22, 1928, Abonyi played 300 opponents on 105 boards in Budapest, scoring 79 wins, 6 losses, and 20 draws. From 1935 to 1939, Abonyi was the president of the International Correspondence Chess Federation (IFSB). For many years, Abonyi was the president 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 ...

and edited the Hungarian chess magazine
''Magyar Sakkvilag''
(Hungarian Chessworld).

References

1886 births 1942 deaths Hungarian chess players Chess theoreticians Chess administrators {{Hungary-chess-bio-stub

See also

References