Judit Polgár and Richárd Rapport (Photo credit: FIDE) NEW DELHI: William Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream“Although she is small, she is fierce. Hungary was also never the biggest country on the chess map. Yet she has long played the game with a fearlessness that belies her size.A country of around 10 million people, without the resources of the Soviet Union or the institutional apparatus that defines modern chess powers, Hungary nevertheless produced players who stood side by side with the world’s best.
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And it has done so repeatedly, across generations, often without the support structures considered essential today.Hungarian chess is now led by world No. 13 Richard Rapport, the country’s best player and one of the most creative grandmasters of his generation.Tall and fair-skinned, with an infectious smile and long, silky blonde hair, Rapport is one of the most recognizable figures on the circuit. But bring up Hungarian chess and the smile gives way to rare seriousness.“I think for us we’ve had players, top, top level players, let’s say high level players, more or less ending up with me for as long as I can remember,” Rapport told TimesofIndia.com on the sidelines of the Global Chess League (GCL). “We had them in the 60s, even the 70s.Small country, but big namesBy the middle of the 20th century, Hungarian players were already shaping global chess culture.As Budapest became a chess center, coffeehouses became places where ideas were formed, much like the long, lingering puffs of cigarettes were smoked. Hungarian players have built a reputation for deep understanding of strategies and originality.But the golden age came most visibly in the decades after World War II. “We had Portisch,” added Rapport with a certain pride, knowing that for chess fans the name needed no embellishment.“Portisch is of course still alive and a great chess legend. He was number three, at one point number two (in the world).”
Lajos Portisch (FIDE photo)
Nicknamed the “Hungarian Botvinnik”, Lajos Portisch wasn’t just any strong player either; became a world icon in his time.The nine-time Hungarian champion was among the top world candidates for years and repeatedly contested for the World Championship after participating in the World Chess Championship candidate cycle a total of eight times (1966-1990).Alongside him were names like Zoltán Ribli and Gyula Sax, players who were regularly in the world top ten.“This team with Ribli, Sax and all those guys,” Rapport recalled. “They were like, let’s say top 10, at some point or for a longer or shorter period of time, but they were still there.Citizen momentThen came a chapter that really went beyond medals and ratings. “Then we had another era, didn’t we? Judit and Peter (Leko),” Rapport said. “Judit Polgár and Zoltan Almási too.”Judit Polgár, the youngest of the three famous Polgár sisters, did something that no Hungarian before her had done, and something that no woman has done since.She refused to be placed in a women-only competition, played exclusively in open competitions against strong male competitors, and forced the chess world to take notice.
Judit Polgár (photo by FIDE)
At her peak, she broke into the world’s top ten and beat the list of world champions. She became the first woman to surpass 2700 Elo in July 2005, beating 11 current or former world champions, including Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Viswanathan Anand.Next to her was Peter Leko, the current Hungarian No. 2 and another product of Hungary’s quiet excellence, who challenged Vladimir Kramnik for the world title in 2004.“It’s a very nice generation in a way,” Rapport sneered. It felt like continuity to Hungary. One great generation passes the baton to the next.Tromsø 2014: The last great Hungarian teamRapport’s own rise coincided with what many insiders consider the pinnacle of modern Hungarian chess: the 2014 Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, Norway.“So we won a medal (silver) at the Tromsø Olympics,” Rapport said. “And then it kind of ended a generation, I think, in 2014 when I joined the team.What made this team remarkable wasn’t just the medals.“We had about four players over 2700,” he explained further. “Which is great because we are a very small country.In elite chess, 2700 is the unspoken benchmark of absolute world excellence. For a small European nation to field four such players was almost unheard of.A sudden silence in the circuitWhat followed, however, was not a gradual decline, but something much stranger.“I’m still well over 2700 from this team,” Rapport added. “And Peter, let’s say, came back to play, which is very nice. But the other guys just quit. Just completely. They didn’t even lose their ratings. They just disappeared.”Within a few years, a whole generation of elite Hungarian players left top chess.
Péter Leko (Photo credit: FIDE)
The Hungarian team that won silver at the 2014 Olympics featured notable names such as Péter Lékó, Csaba Balogh, Zoltán Almási, Richard Rapport and Judit Polgár.Today, with Rapport 29, the others, now in their 30s or 40s, have either left competitive chess altogether or, like Lékó, appear only sporadically at top-level tournaments, mostly focusing on commentary and other roles.For a country that had always relied on continuity, the gulf was suddenly visible.Lack of institutional basisPerhaps the most striking part of Rapport’s reasoning is his admission that Hungary’s success was never built on solid institutional foundations.“I don’t think we’ve had support built around chess,” he said. “Professional support. We had support for amateur chess or hanging out. But we never had support for climbing the highest of heights.”“And somehow people still got there, individually or one way or another.As?“People just invest their own money, invest their own time, a lot of their parents’ time when they were young,” Rapport explained.For decades, this patchwork approach worked. But modern chess is a different animal. With the introduction of technology in chess, the game has become more demanding and resource intensive.So, where is Hungary’s next generation?“We don’t really have another generation,” Rapport stated bluntly. “We have some players, sure, but unfortunately it’s not quite the same taste. Maybe it’s also a bit of bad luck. Some talented kids leave chess for one reason or another.”
Richard Rapport (photo by Lennart Ootes)
However, the Hungarian number one does not want to be too negative.“I’m not super pessimistic about our chess situation,” he added. “But also far from very happy and very satisfied.Rapport understands Hungarian chess and believes that if the national chess setup is to seek an overhaul, the responsibility lies across the entire ecosystem, from administrators to players to local organizers.“Anybody could have done more,” he said. “Not only at the highest level, like the national team, but also at the lower level.However, Rapport is the best player in the country and also knows he will have to take the lead if things are to turn around for good.“As they say, the fish stinks from the head. If we do well, more people will be inspired,” he noted.He knows it won’t be easy.“It is a very difficult mission,” he concluded. “But I kind of hope to help our chess and maybe bring it back to its former glory.
