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More than 30 years since its inception, ‘First Saturday’ is still going strong. Constantly reinventing itself, it has been kicking and running against all odds, without interruption until today.
Even when all other world and chess activities came to a standstill during the covid quarantine, for First Saturday it was business as usual. Of course, with all precaution measures in place, and a short break, but it never completely put up the shutters. Some players got caught in the turmoil and found themselves stranded in Budapest.
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Among them was Leon Luke Mendonca, at the time a 14-year-old Indian talent trying his luck at achieving norms at the ‘First Saturday’ tournaments. He and his father were already a few months in Budapest when airports started closing down and the Indian government closed entry into their country. But this was a blessing in disguise as Leon did not stop his chess activities and, after the ordeal, emerged with an additional 150 rating points and a final GM norm. He has now become a regular fixture on the international chess scene.
Leon Luke Mendonca at a First Saturday session
It would be inconceivable that any serious chess player has not heard or even passed through the travails of the 'First Saturday.'
Most of today’s top professionals have succumbed to the attraction of this ingenious concept that aims at providing chess players with the opportunity to earn norms or rating and subsequently further their chess career. The model has been adopted by many organisers at various corners of the globe, but the credit for the original set up goes to Laszlo Nagy, known as Mr First Saturday.
Mr First Saturday
In 2010 we first wrote about the 'First Saturday' tournaments with a portrayal of its inventor, Mr Laszlo Nagy. In 2012, we marked the famed tournament’s 25 years of existence with a pictorial report.
Ten years later, ‘First Saturday’ gets a rejuvenation injection and a new look.
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Since 2021, not once but twice a month, players can fight for norms, a rating or rating points in consecutive tournaments. Another Hungarian, GM Czebe Attila, gave a helping hand to the First Saturday by co-organising an additional monthly tournament called Vezerkepzo (it translates roughly as ‘creating leaders’). The two tournaments run one after the other with only a respite of a couple of days between them. With such a re-invented enterprise, players can play two tournaments in a month without long breaks in between. Armed with a bit of cash and a good will to succeed, they can settle in Budapest for an extended period of time chasing the elusive norms. All they need is to play well!
Czebe Attila with tournament’s participants in front of the playing hall
However, a forewarning should not go amiss: it is not a smooth swimming towards earning a norm at the First Saturday. Battles are fierce, and many of today’s household names came and went without pocketing a norm. These include: Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Sam Shakland and Hou Yifan.
Richard Rapport had it easier, having the most coveted tournament on his doorstep. He played many First Saturdays where he achieved two GM norms. Fabiano Caruana made all his crucial norms at the First Saturday, but his family made Budapest their home since he was 11 years old and for many years he played regularly, on a monthly basis.
Other parents with their prodigious offspring followed suit after Caruana’s success, if not for years then for several months settling in Budapest. Abhimanyu Mishra, the Indian-American prodigy, is also a First Saturday ‘product’. Playing back-to-back at the monthly closed tournaments, he even earned the accolade of becoming the youngest GM in chess history.
Abhi flanked by the two organisers, Attila and Laszlo
Mishra achieved his last GM norm after beating Leon Mendonca. The two of them were in Budapest on a long norm-chasing stay.
Mishra vs Mendonca in Budapest
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Understandably, European players are the most numerous, being geographically closer. However, the long distance does not prevent players from all corners of the globe from making it to Budapest, lured by the First Saturday. After India, China would be a nation with the highest number of participants at the First Saturday. Vezerkepzo tournaments count with a considerable number of participants from Vietnam and Singapore.
The latest May tournament’s participants from faraway: Cheng Peng (CHN), Liu Zhaoqi (CHN) who made an IM norm, and Low Zhen Yu Cyrus (SGP)
Among the newer home-grown talents, GM Benjamin Gledura has been steadily making a name for himself among the rising international stars. He, like Rapport, has been playing at the First Saturday since he was a child and got most of his norms there. A European U10 winner, third place at the 2019 Tata Steel Challengers, with victories over Anatoly Karpov (the Global ChessFestival 2015) and Viswanathan Anand (Gibraltar Masters 2016), he is ranked 101st in the world with a 2645 Elo rating.
Benjamin Gledura, a former regular at the First Saturday
Mr Nagy goes even further: for the remaining days of the month the most ardent players are availed of another tournament called ‘6-day Chess’, co-organised with Mr Halak Miklos. So, for example, the May schedule was...
...which means non-stop chess!
Never short of good ideas, Mr First Saturday throws in another bonus: players from around the world are helped to obtain a resident permission and a Schengen Visa, which can be used for travelling and playing in other countries within the Europe Schengen area. In collaboration with a certified immigration lawyer, Dr. Magyar-Berényi István, all legal formalities are taken care of for players who would participate in at least one First Saturday or Vezerkepzo tournament.
The Budapest Hotel
The Danubius Budapest Hotel provides the playing hall and accommodation for participants and guests. On the First Saturday website, all the necessary information can be found. But better still, Mr Nagy himself is always happy to chat on WhatsApp at + 36 30 230 1914. He speaks fluent English, German and Russian.
Japan has not yet produced a chess grandmaster, but their most active International Master and the country’s number one, Shinya Kojima, has a longstanding relationship with First Saturday that greatly helped his chess career. During one of his many First Saturday tournaments, his wife made a short video which includes an interview with Mr Nagy.
Shinya Kojima, the only Japanese International Master
Visiting Budapest, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, dubbed the ‘Paris of Eastern Europe’, is a marvellous addition to the experience.
