Mr ‘First Saturday’ – Laszlo Nagy in Budapest
By Diana Mihajlova
In many fields, the protagonists carry the fame at the expense and unjust neglect
of side workers. The cinema industry is one typical example: actors enjoy utmost
accolades while writers or producers are hardly ever mentioned. And yet without
their efforts there would be no work for the actors. Similarly, the chess stars
can only shine and pave their way to a successful career thanks to dedicated
chess organisers that provide opportunities for them to show their skills.
The First Saturday tournaments that run in Budapest, Hungary are by now world-renowned.
Their main attraction is that they run monthly and guarantee a necessary quota
of international rated and titled players, which is a prerequisite for obtaining
FIDE ratings, norms and titles. Chess players from all corners of the globe
flock to Budapest in order to try their luck at advancing their chess careers.
Many of the grandees of today have passed through the grinding mill of the
First Saturday including Magnus Carlsen, Emil Sutovsky, Vadim Milov, Teimour
Radjabov, Sofia Polgar, Hikaru Nakamura… to name but a few. It would be amusing
to know that both Carlsen and Nakamura made unsuccessful attempts at achieving
a norm! Peter Leko got his second GM norm, in the 1993 April First Saturday,
when he was 14 years old.
But little do we know about the man behind the famed First Saturday tournaments.
The one and only ‘Mr First Saturday’, as he has been nicknamed, Laszlo Nagy
has been running the First Saturday tournaments for 17 years. He is an International
Organiser (IO) and a member of the FIDE Organizers' Committee.
Organising chess tournaments would not be the most orthodox choice for a regular
business. Yet Laszlo Nagy managed to create a successful enterprise by choosing
this mind sport to provide for his ‘bread and butter’.
It started way back in 1992. A graduate in chemistry from the University of
Debrecen Nagy was for ten years employed by the Hungarian Army as a teacher
of toxicology and organic chemistry. In our conversation he often makes comparisons
using military terminology: It is like military organisation – with sergeants,
officers, generals, you know… levels of play, levels of grades – people seem
to need to be organised somehow …
When the communist system collapsed, Nagy felt that he had no career prospects
within the army and, as many of his colleagues were losing their jobs, he applied
for a voluntary redundancy. I was a chess candidate master; my best
rating was 2220, but I did not feel I could go much higher and I had decided
to become a chess manager. In September 1991, I quit my employment with the
Army and in February 1992, I started the ‘First Saturday’ tournaments.
With the little redundancy payment he bought the basic tools for his new business
– a fax, answering machine and a computer – and set up office in his one-bedroom
flat from where he still operates. It was a brave step; starting a business
from scratch is always a risky affair, but particularly in those volatile times
when Hungary was just barely coming out from decades under communist rule. The
beginnings were shaky.
What I remember best about the first tournament is coming back home and
telling my wife that we were more than 1000 dollar minus. She panicked and asked
how we were supposed to survive. I told her to be patient… It is like when you
want to fly – first you need to start on the ground. The following year we managed
somehow to make it even. It went on and off like this for a bit of time, but
I really loved doing these tournaments and with time it paid off. We soon made
some profit, and that promised there would be little salary and a survival for
the family.
Laszlo on occasions openly jokes with chess players: ‘It is thanks to you that
I can feed my family’.
Laszlo admits however that the original idea about the regular monthly tournaments
was not entirely his. In 1989, while still a teacher and employee of the Hungarian
Army, he was assigned by the Hungarian Government to lead a national team of
young chess players to a junior tournament in Vilnius, Lithuania (then the Soviet
Union). Among his charges were GM Zoltan Gyimesi, IM Nora Medvegy and IM Szolt
Korpich, the current secretary of the Hungarian Chess Federation, who at the
time were about 12 or 13-year-old youngsters. On this occasion, Laszlo met and
struck a friendship with Fedor Skriptchenko, the General Secretary of
the Moldovan Chess federation and father of IM Almira Scripchenko, a former
European woman Champion. Fedor Skripchenko had been nurturing an idea of organising
monthly chess tournaments that would start every 15th of the month in Chisinau,
Moldova and suggested a partnership between the two of them.
At that time, I was still employed as a military man and it was not feasible
to carry out Mr Skripchenko’s proposal. But three years later, when I abandoned
my military career and intended to organise chess tournaments, the idea came
back to me and I thought I would do something similar in Budapest. Chisinau
was not practical; it was still the Soviet era and it would not have been easy
to convince international players to travel over there. Budapest was somehow
more accessible and obviously, for me it was more natural to run tournaments
in my native city.
How did such a curious name ‘First Saturday’ come about?
‘Probably still under influence of military exactness I felt that 15th of
the month could not work; it could fall on any day…I needed to create some precise
system. I thought that for a nine round tournament it would be best to start
on Saturday because that would give players two weekends off work, school and
family life. So the Saturday start seemed to be logical. But that was
only one step solved. I needed to establish some working regularity
and concluded that to start on the first Saturday of the month would be most
practical. I just spontaneously called my tournaments ‘First Saturday’; the
name sounded to me catchy enough for marketing purposes.’
A family portrait: Laszlo and Ilona Nagy with their sons Tamas (left)
and Laszlo Jr.
At first sight it appears that Laszlo’s business is a ‘one man band’. However,
his wife Ilona makes an invaluable contribution to the success of the First
Saturday. This unassuming woman, ever friendly and approachable during her rare
visits to the tournament hall, controls the smooth and efficient running of
the tournaments from behind the scenes.
Ilona Nagy says: ‘The Internet and email has greatly helped my life, both financially
and practically. Before, all my time and energy were consumed in typing and
sending faxes, and the biggest chunk of our expenses was the phone bill. That
changed dramatically once we could use email and the Internet. However, telephone
communication is still very important, as many issues need to be sorted out
in a more personal and urgent manner particularly about visa and travel arrangements.
Foreign players are often subject to visa regulations that need to be attended
with a careful cooperation between governments and chess federations.’
My wife runs the administrative and financial side of the business. She
is there on the first day to collect the entry fees and give receipts to players.
I make contracts with players and she is the executive power. Her help makes
it possible for me to concentrate on communicating with players, which I believe
is very important as players appreciate a frequent and direct communication.
Both husband and wife are perfectly fluent in English, German and Russian,
which is a great asset in this primarily international business. Their younger
son, Tamas, a bright student with excellent command of English, is only 14,
but he is already an important team worker in this family business – he is the
web master of the tournament’s site,
which gets about 10,000 hits monthly.
Laszlo signs his correspondences with ‘Chessfriendly greetings’ followed by
the FIDE’s motto "Gens una sumus " and his own motto… "Pacta
sund servanda ", meaning ‘agreements must be kept’. People that enter in
dealings with Mr First Saturday realize that he is very sensitive to the given
verbal agreement that he believes should be fulfilled as a principle of good
faith and not necessarily by written legal forms. He may haggle about fees,
multiple participation discounts and so on, but you can be sure that he will
honour to the dot his given promise and you had better do the same. He gets
very incensed at dishonest and manipulative attempts.
Laszlo fiercely holds on to his business deals, which might cause some negative
gossip, but people who manage to see through his sometime quirky behaviour realise
that this giant of a man has a tender heart of a child, easily confused when
his good intentions are misunderstood. When the business side is truly and well
out of the way, he is happy to make friends and is always ready to help.
I love chess. If people love chess, I love them; and they love me. On this
line, we base our initial communication. People know that they can approach
me with any sort of inquiry and I help them with anything I can, even outside
of the sphere of chess. I have witnessed chess organisers who come on the first
day of the tournament to collect the entry fees and than disappear. But human
beings need communication. When people cannot talk about their concerns, they
become frustrated and sometimes aggressive.
Laszlo and IM Iweta Rajlich (POL), one of many long term ‘First Saturday
residents’ in Budapest
One day I saw him walking crestfallen in the corridors of the playing venue.
He revealed to me what troubled him: GM Fabiano Caruana who has achieved most
of his norms and titles playing at the First Saturday has related to Laszlo
that a journalist in the USA teased him that First Saturday is a ‘factory for
norms’, implying norms are easily or dishonestly achieved. I seemed to have
managed to console him by pointing out that this journalist has picked on a
particularly wrong target: Caruana had just made his impressive debut at Wijk
aan Zee – does that make this highly respected event also ‘a factory for norms’?
Young Caruana has proved his talent time and again and paving his way through
the First Saturday he reached many super tournaments up to the latest World
Cup.
Fabiano Caruana at his first 1st Sat tournament in June 2004 where he started
as an 11-year-old FM rated 2140. At the time he was still playing under the
USA flag, in the meantime, he had switched his allegiances and today plays for
Italy. His current rating is 2675. [Photo: First Saturday archives]
Fabiano and his family lived in Budapest for a number of years. Their main
reason for settling temporarily in the Hungarian capital was his coach GM Alex
Chernin who is a Budapest resident. But he combined his training sessions with
playing, almost monthly, at the First Saturday, where by the following year,
in May 2005, he achieved his first IM norm with 7.5/10 and a 2470 performance.
His final GM norm came in the July 2007 First Saturday tournament.
Some unsavoury comments are probably to be expected in the ever-suspecting
chess environment but when it comes to the First Saturday tournaments, nothing
can be further from the truth. When I asked Laszlo whether he was aware of any
anomalies taking place, he strenuously and indignantly denied it: Look, I
cannot possibly know what all chess players are up to among themselves. But
if I notice anyone attempting anything unacceptable – he is straight out of
my tournaments.
The never-ending dilemma about early or pre-arranged draws is present at the
‘First Saturday’ as well, but, to my observation, games are generally hard fought
battles. If anything, I have witnessed on many occasions heartbroken players
who have missed on a norm or a title for just half a point, or others very distraught
because they have encountered too great an opposition and lost precious rating
points.
A good arbiter is indispensable and Laszlo enjoys excellent cooperation with
the International Arbiter IM Miklos Orso, who is highly regarded by the First
Saturday participants.
Laszlo says: ‘I needed an arbiter. He was an English language teacher at
a local school and I suggested that he leaves the school and come to work for
me. I told him I could promise him a job until the end of his life. Even at
seventy if you are in good health you can be an arbiter. He took the risk, abandoned
his teaching job and has been with me ever since.’
Laszlo Nagy and Miklos Orso
Laszlo and the arbiter Miklos Orso greeting the players and outlining the playing
regulations at the beginning of a First Saturday tournament. The arbiter also
makes sure to ward off occasional problems: ‘Please do not run away if you start
losing games. It badly affects the pairings and demoralizes other players. Face
the battles as real sportsmen’ – which is met by suppressed giggles of the already
tensed competitors.
Aspiring arbiters can also make use of the First Saturday tournaments. FIDE
Arbiter Lyudmila Barishnikova from Azerbaijan offered a helping hand throughout
the December 2009 tournament. The working and learning experience will earn
her an International Arbiter norm.
FA Lyudmila Barishnikova (AZE), Laszlo Pataki who throughout many years
has
been assisting the chief arbiter and Laszlo Nagy.
The ‘First Saturday’ tournaments are truly international. Some players travel
many hours from far away countries; some have to persevere through a strenuous
process of obtaining visa documents; all have to bare the costs of entry fee,
travel, accommodation and living expenses in order to participate at a ‘First
Saturday’ tournament. Some manage to earn the coveted norm or title, some leave
empty handed. Such is chess! Many return repeatedly. It is like endeavouring
in a ‘school’ to pass the exams and earn a certificate or a diploma, which should
further the chosen (chess) career.
A ‘graduation’ photo: IM Ido Porat from Israel with his mother, his sister
Maya who is also a chess player and Laszlo Nagy, is proudly presenting one of
his IM norm certificates. Ido and Maya (2169) are from the famous Porat chess
family which has already produced two IMs, Ido (2441) and Shay (2464) and compose
the larger part of the Porat Chess Club that participated at the latest European
Club Cup. The youngest sibling, Hen (1778), is 12 years old.
An amazingly high number of chess players set up home in Budapest for various
lengths of time, from a couple of months to several years, in order to facilitate
a regular participation at the famed tournament. Others even opt to purchase
a flat and make Budapest their second home – all because of the ‘First Saturday!’
In the late nineties IM Yelena Dembo (GRE, 2457) moved with her family to Budapest,
where she moulded her formative years at the First Saturday tournaments. During
her spell in Hungary, she was also a member of the Hungarian women’s Olympic
team in Bled, 2002.
The chess and computer couple Iweta and Vasik Rajlich, the crucial team behind
Rybka, lived in Budapest for more than four years. Their encounter at a First
Saturday game on the opposite sides of the board blossomed into a romance that
led to marriage. Playing regularly at the tournaments they both earned an IM
title and some GM norms. Most importantly, it is while in Budapest that Rybka
made its first splashes before hitting the heights of success.
IM Vasik Rajlich (USA, 2303) and IM WGM Iweta Rajlich (POL, 2455) on the famous
Gellert Hill with a Budapest panorama. After four glorious years in Budapest
they returned to settle in Iweta’s native Poland.
When USA IM William Paschal (2398) came to Hungary with intention to spend
some time playing at the First Saturday little did he know that his two year
chess adventure will keep him indefinitely in Budapest. A lovely Hungarian wife
and an adorable baby daughter, Panni, have altered his plans.
Bill and Panni enjoying a stroll in one of the many rich forests in the Budapest’s
outskirts. Panni might slow down Bill’s GM ambitions, but she deserves all his
sacrifices!
German IM Dimo Werner (2314 ) lived in Budapest for many years during which
time he regularly played in either the IM or GM sections. He was a committee
member and a helping hand to the First Saturday tournaments. Throughout the
years he became a highly esteemed ‘house trainer’; many chess players would
combine their participation at the tournament with valuable training sessions
with Dimo. With only absences to Germany in order to play in the Bundesliga,
and occasional international tournaments, Dimo had fully immersed in the Budapest
life, where he was a truly dedicated and indefatigable chess worker and respected
chess friend. Sadly, I am using the past tense because Dimo succumbed to a severe
stroke during a tournament last year that left him with brain and partial body
damage. He has since returned to be cared for in Germany and we wholeheartedly
wish him a full recovery.
Many players make Budapest their frequent destination and play at the First
Saturday several times a year.
Austrian IM Walter Wittmann (2294) has represented his country at many Olympiads
during his chess heyday. Today, as his lifelong legal profession as a public
prosecutor has come to an end, Walter is using his well earned free time to
return frequently to Budapest and to measure up his strength against the young
forces in the First Saturday’s GM section.
A large contingent of Vietnamese players have been using the First Saturday
tournaments to work towards improving their chess careers. Some of them travel
on regular basis, some settle in Budapest for longer fixed periods that usually
results in achieving norms and titles. GMs San Cao and GM Hoang Thanh Trang,
former regular participants at the First Saturday, are now based indefinitely
in Budapest and play under the Hungarian flag.
GM Hoang Thanh Trang represented Hungary at the latest
Olympiad playing on the first board for the women’s team
Brothers Tran Minh Thang (10) (left) and Tran Tuan Minh (13) are the latest
Vietnamese arrivals and made their debut at the December 09 tournament. They
are to stay for a year in Budapest, during which time they will be provided
with coaching sessions and playing at the First Saturday. Tran Minh was the
winner of the 2008 World Youth Championship in the under 8 section, and Tuan
Minh is the champion of the South Asian zone (ASEAN) and many times Vietnamese
champion in his age group. Their stay is sponsored by the Vietnamese Government.
Once in Budapest they, as many other Vietnamese players, are being cared for
by an ‘invisible’ benefactor – Hoang Thanh Trang’s mathematician father and
his family.
Some business savvy players have invested in a property in Budapest in order
to bring themselves closer to the First Saturday tournaments.
British player Mark Lyell, attracted by the Budapest property boom and the
First Saturday tournaments, purchased a flat in the Hungarian capital. Mark
is playing regularly and is on his way to securing an IM title, having already
pocketed two norms.
Thomas Heyl (GER, 2073 – like a true German he worships beer!) in a highly
recommended Hungarian restaurant called ‘Kis Kakukk’ (Little Cuckoo) near the
playing venue. Thomas previously travelled from Germany on many occasions but
now he uses his recently purchased Budapest flat to hop over a few times a year
and, after many attempts, at the last year’s September tournament managed to
win the FM A group. Having one leg in Budapest, he has now good reason to aim
towards securing a place in the IM section, and perhaps further…
First Saturday tournaments represent a particularly important platform for
young hopefuls that necessarily accompanied by their parents make it to Budapest
in order to gain experience and progress in their coveted chess careers.
Melissa Greeff (2079) is among the South African players who are recipients
of a financial reward by their Chess Federation. This initiative of the SA Chess
Federation aims at helping talented players to gain experience and potential
career advancement by playing at tournaments abroad of their own choice. The
First Saturday is high on their list and many players including IMs Watu Kobese
and Kenny Solomon made it to Budapest on several occasions. Melissa travels
around the world accompanied by her mother and occasionally her younger sister.
Their latest chess adventure was the World Youth champion in Argentina, Oct
– Nov 2009, where Mellisa scored 5.5 points. 15-year-old Melissa’s greatest
success so far has been the 2009 African Individual Chess Championships
(women) where she won first place and a WGM title.
14-year-old Mstislav Yefimov (RUS) from Vladimir, a town near Moscow, came
to Budapest accompanied by his parents, both architects. Following in the steps
of his famous compatriot GM Mark Taimanov, Mstislav successfully combines a
career as a young musician, specialising in piano and chess, where he shows
an impressive upwards curve, reaching 2050 elo rating.
Fahim Mohammad (10) and his father made it to Budapest all the way over from
Dhaka, Bangladesh. Fahim is still at the beginning of his chess career (1836)
but he made a stir at his debut in the Oct 09 FM section, winning 6.5/9. It
was a pleasant surprise to meet him again at the latest Paris
Championship.
Naturally, the home-grown talents take a full advantage of the First Saturday
tournaments being at their doorstep.
The newest addition to the Hungarian grandmasters is 17-year-old Peter Prohaska
(2501) seen on the photo next to GM Hou Yifan, the Chinese wonder-girl who also
made a foray to
a First Saturday tournament. Peter made his final GM norm in the November
2009 tournament, and since the beginning of this year he is a full-fledged grandmaster.
Peter was a gold medallist in the 2006 World Youth Championship (under 14) and
got bronze in 2008 (under 16).
IM Richard Rapport (2444) is expected to follow suit. The 13-year-old was granted
the IM title last year; in August 2009 he made his first GM norm with 7/ 9 and
a 2644 performance.
15-year-old Bence Szabo (2261) returns to the First Saturday as often as he
can escape his school obligations. In the last year’s November tournament, 7.5/
9 and a 2458 performance brought him his first IM norm.
Petra Papp (16) managed the prerequisite 6.5/ 9 to gain a Woman Grandmaster
norm in October 09. With a 2276 rating she is slowly gaining a spot in the Hungarian
women’s chess elite.
And there are young Budapestans that start as unrated in the lower FM sections
but with such tournaments in their own city they are able to play virtually
every month. The most talented ones reached quickly the 1900 mark. Among them
are:
Richard Farkas (12), who within few months pocketed 1900 Elo points and was
whisked off to the famous Hungarian Maroczy
Chess School for further, timely shaping.
…and Gergely Kantor, a 10-year-old boy, very fidgety while playing but steady
in achieving good results – 1909 Elo in less than a year!
Laszlo now contemplates introducing a higher level, super GM tournament, but
he feels that financially it would not be sustainable with the current resources
and he will depend for this on some sort of sponsorship. I am trying to talk
to rich people, but it is not easy to talk to rich people. Already the existent
GM tournaments, which are most costly because he needs to employ a certain quota
of grandmasters, experience some hardship.
‘FIDE now has imposed a rule that at least a third of the participants in
a GM section have to be grandmasters. They want to make it harder for GMs to
obtain their titles, because there are already too many GMs. That means that
in order to be able to employ an additional GM I need to increase the entry
fees for the candidates. Or, this could be regulated with a potential sponsorship
that I am working on obtaining.’
Laszlo manages to secure some sponsorship from local restaurants and a few
times during a tournament, players are nicely surprised with welcome energy
boosters – sandwiches, Hungarian pogacsas (cheese and nuts scones), chocolates
or cakes. The Budapest City Administration helps the ‘First Saturday’ with a
symbolic 500 Euro per year subsidy. Similar symbolic help which he manages to
scrape together just about provides the printing of score sheets. The main financial
source is the entry fees from players. However, a significant sponsorship, private
or corporate, would certainly further help this worthy cause. Chess unfortunately
does not have the marketing power that football and other sports do, and many
workers are within this ‘industry’ for the love of it. One thing is certain:
chess players from all over the world appreciate the existence of ‘First Saturday’
and from all corners of the globe pop over to Budapest to try their luck at
improving their score and, at the same time, to sample the delights of this
beautiful city and country.
The First Saturday’s playing hall is found within the premises of the Hungarian
Chess Federation in central Budapest’s 5th district, Falk Miksa street 10, which
is being rented to Mr Nagy under a renewable yearly contract. Falk Miksa
street runs directly into the Kossuth square where the Hungarian Parliament
is situated.
The Parliament buildings are an imposing architecture that competes successfully
with many famed counterparts in the world
Falk Miksa utca (street) is lined up on both sides with art and antique
shops and
galleries that house some exquisite examples of Hungarian arts and crafts
It ends up with the Hungarian Museum of Ethnography, which stands opposite
the Parliament. The museum displays a permanent collection of artefacts depicting
the Magyar way of life and hosts ethnographic international temporary exhibitions.
Only a street away from the playing venue flows the Danube, whose shores make
for wonderful promenades. The nearby leafy Margaret Island (Margitsziget) is
the largest park in Budapest and many players use it for either a relaxed stroll
or jogging.
Margaret Island on the Danube is within walking distance from the playing
venue
The Budapest sights and the spoilt-for-choice Hungarian restaurants provide
a pleasant respite after either a won or a lost game.
At a dinner after a round: Arild Johansen (NOR, 2075), IM Samuel Shankland
(USA, 2491), who narrowly missed a GM norm, Charles Frey (USA, 1944), Andrew
M Lewis (ENG, 2066) and Laszlo (2024)
Laszlo also organises an annual Open – the Budapest
Spring Festival, which runs in March during the Budapest Festival of the
Arts. The next one is scheduled for 19 – 28th March.
For players keen to spend a longer time in Hungary, another facilitating opportunity
would be the IM and GM tournaments that run in Kecskemet, a small picturesque
town about 80 kilometres south east from Budapest. The Kecskemet tournaments
run between the First Saturday tournaments and many of the Budapest ‘chess residents’
have been playing at both. Originally organised by Tamas Erdelyi, the director
of the publishing house ‘Caissa’, (link) now the two organisers have joined
forces and from 6th Feb 2010 First Saturday is taking under its wing the Kecskemet
tournaments.
‘Mr First Saturday’ is the unsung ambassador of Hungary. His tournaments draw
to Budapest innumerable chess players from all over the world. ‘First Saturday’
offers unparalleled chess experience and undoubtedly, it will enter the annals
of chess history.
About
the author
Diana Mihajlova is a chess player and artist who has been
exhibiting internationally (under the name Yana Mitra) since 1988. She was born
in Macedonia (former Yugoslavia). A linguist by profession she has started her
working career as a university lecturer, which took her to extensive studying
and working sojourns in various countries around the world. In 1989 after finishing
a three-year lecturing contract in Perth, Australia, she decided to abandon
her academic career and to dedicate herself to a full-time painting while still
free-lancing in the languages field. She first started exhibiting while still
in Australia where after winning some important national art prizes her work
received a quick recognition and was included in important exhibitions and collections.
After her return to Europe she continued her painting career by exhibiting in
galleries in Paris, where she lived the following two years. Since 1993 she
settled in London where she currently lives and works. You can see her paintings
at the Yana Mitra
web site.
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