István Abonyi (18 August 1886 – 5 June 1942) was a Hungarian

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

master, who was born and died in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. 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 f ...

developed the

Budapest Gambit The Budapest Gambit (or Budapest Defence) is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4, d4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6, Nf6 :2. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6/2. c4, c4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d ...

. Abonyi played it against the Dutch surgeon

Johannes Esser Johannes 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 have co ...

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 The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

on 20 July 1924, during

1st unofficial Chess Olympiad The 1st Team Chess Tournament was held together with the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, 12–20 July 1924, at the Hotel Majestic. Fifty-four players representing 18 countries were split into nine preliminary groups of six. The winner of each roun ...

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 International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) was founded on 26 March 1951 as a new appearance of the International Correspondence Chess Association (ICCA), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the Internationaler Fernschachbund (IF ...

(IFSB). For many years, Abonyi was the president of the

Hungarian Chess Federation The Hungarian Chess Federation (, - ''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 Chess Federation organizes a ...

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