Open Hungarian Amateur Chess Championship

From the 14th to the 19th of July, I played an Open Hungarian Amateur Chess Championship in Budapest, Hungary. The nine-round Swiss system had 60 minutes plus 30 seconds per each move time control. As it was an amateur championship, only players under the 2300 rating were allowed to play. However, it still ended up being a well-occupied tournament with 153 players, from which 39 players were over 2100 rating and players were from 26 countries!

I started as the 66th-ranked player. The tournament started well for me winning the first 2 games after beating a stronger opponent in the second round. In the third round, I was white against an opponent with a higher rating. He was trying to win and over-pushed. Unfortunately, in time trouble, I blundered as well in a winning position, and the game ended in a draw.

In the fourth round, I got crushed, but I came back quickly and won the other two games. One of them was against a fide master! Unfortunately, the end of the tournament did not go as well as the start. I lost the seventh round, then I won on forfeit and lost the last round.

Even though the unsuccessful last three rounds, it was a great tournament for me. I had 5,5 points from the 9 games and I placed 28th as a first woman, but most importantly, I gained 75 rating points!

The winner of the tournament became FM Polyik Peter with 7,5/9 points. The second place was taken by IM Jakab Attila with 7,5 points as well, but his third tiebreak was half a point less than the winner. In third place was IM Szeberenyi Adam with 7 points.

It was one of the best tournaments I’ve ever been in. Everyone was very friendly, and I met many new people there, also I enjoyed getting to know Budapest with my friends and visiting the city sites.

Author

LUCIA ŠEVČÍKOVÁ