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My son Leon and I have been stranded in Budapest since 18th March 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic, and no visible signs of us returning home. Leon felt really excited upon hearing that Europe was slowly easing travel restrictions and that the first over the board tournament was being conducted from the 12th to the 20th of June in Balatonlelle – a small town near the famous Balaton lake, around 150 kms. from our apartment.
At this point of time repatriation had just begun for only those having compelling reasons to return, like pregnancy, sickness, senior citizens, students etc. These repatriation flights were from Frankfurt, and the cost for both of us including quarantine was a whooping sum of around 200,000 Indian rupees (2,500 Euros)! And the feedback that we received from those being repatriated was frightening. Since the risk of contracting the virus was high and the flight costs were so exorbitant, we decided to postpone our return until some normalcy prevailed.
I went ahead and registered for the Balaton Chess Festival Open. Balatonlelle is a hot tourist destination where most Hungarians look for excuses to escape for staycations or just weekend getaways. We booked a studio apartment with a kitchen through the organisers. The beauty of the Balaton lake, situated just five minutes walking distance, was extraordinary – the water wonderfully clean, calm and knee deep for quite a stretch. We were naturally tempted to go in for a dip, and were left with no choice but refrain considering the circumstances. I promised Leon though that we could swim on the last day after the tournament ended. The sunsets that we witnessed throughout our stay were absolutely priceless and a professional photographer's dream.
All safety precautions like masks, social distancing, etc. were strictly adhered to in Balatonlelle, and we felt most secure throughout our stay. Leon cruised through with an emphatic win of the tournament scoring 8.5 points out of 9. His rating performance: 2685! Here are a couple of games very nicely (and extensively) annotated by the lad:
One more?
I kept up to my promise and we celebrated with a prolonged swim in the famous Balaton lake. After the informal prize distribution we headed back to Budapest with heavy hearts and most definitely fond memories.
A typical tournament photo, here from a 2019 event: guess who is the opponent to fear!
Back in Budapest I called Judit Polgar and thanked her for being there for us during these challenging times, and told her we would be leaving Budapest and traveling to Serbia for tournaments. In the course of our conversation, she mentioned that she is extremely fond of spicy Indian cuisine! So I invited her to lunch at our simple Airbnb accomodations, and she accepted.
Now in spite of Indian not being my forte, I took the liberty of inviting her to join us for lunch at our apartment, to which she gladly obliged. We both were absolutely elated with her coming over and I immediately started off by asking Google what my chances were of getting fresh Indian produce here in Budapest. I was astonished to find a handful of stores selling products imported mainly from the U.K and of course India and Pakistan. I felt comforted to see fresh green chillies, coriander leaves, ghee (clarified butter) and coconut besides the usual spices, pulses, rice, pickles, etc.
The only challenge I was facing was with the desserts. Considering we are from Goa (where Indian sweets aren't as popular as the rest of India – thanks to the Portuguese influence that left behind a tradition for fresh home baked desserts). I decided to bake another cake in her honour as she highly appreciated the one I had baked earlier. The only issue here was that this apartment sadly had only two burners and no oven. I decided to call Leslie, through whom we had rented most of our apartments here. He got back saying that all his apartments were occupied, but that a friend of his, Peter Laczik was prepared to share his oven on one condition, that Leon plays chess with him during the baking process. Voila!
Peter Laczik: a game against Leon while the cake is baking
Now since pineapples and cherries were in full bloom at this time, I decided to bake a pineapple upside-down-cake, which I learnt from my dearest aunt Tia Berta Pereira.
Judit came over on around noon. I told her she would live a hundred years irrespective, as this very morning Leon’s coach GM Vishnu Prasanna had unknowingly selected her game against Vladimir Kramnik to study in-depth during Leon's group of students routine online coaching. Yes, what a coincidence indeed!! She was highly impressed with Vishnu's approach and was happy to know that Leon was in the best of hands.
Judit gifted Leon exquisite chocolates and started on a high note by having our traditional 'Chai' – Indian tea all the way from the Munnar tea plantations in Kerala. For starters we had paniyarams (resembling cheese balls but here the batter is similar to the idli/dosa batter), plain and masala (Mumbai style) dosas (India's answer to the French crepe), uttapams (thicker dosas with toppings) with coconut chutney and sambar (vegetable stew cooked with dal and tamarind) – all south Indian specialities of Tamil Nadu and widely rated as some of the world's healthiest food options. The main course included New Delhi style Rajma (red kidney beans in a thick gravy extremely popular in North India) with potato, spinach stuffed Haryanvi parathas (Indian flatbread) and a Hyderabadi chicken biryani (a perfect blend of long grain rice fried in ghee along with exotic spices before cooking and sandwiched with precooked chicken). It is topped using fried onions, cashew nuts, raisins, and garnished with coriander) along with garlic-chilli Sindhi papadums (thin, crisp, round flatbread).
On the table at the Mendonca-Polgar feast: Biryani, Sambar, Rajma, sprout salad, dosa bhaji [Click to mouthwateringly enlarge]
Judit made Indian bread varieties to go with bhaji
Judit and Leon get pineapple upside-down-cake for dessert
Judit clearly relished her meal, and we most definitely cherished her company!! We thanked her for gracing us with her distinguished presence and told her that all Indians must be extremely honoured, privileged and humbled by her love and passion for India and its exquisite cuisine.
For those of you who do not know Judit, her love for India and its cuisine is so immense that she could easily give any typical Indian housewife a complex. She knows how to make parathas, naans, pudlas, baturas and even teplas!! On this note, I decided to surprise her and take her on a gastronomic journey across (hopefully) uncharted Indian terrain.
By the way for those of you intending to visit Budapest, you can contact Leslie +36 202126837 for accommodation. He has a number of beautiful and ideally located heritage apartments. Personally, he is an epitome of Hungarian hospitality!
Judit was an inspiration for the young IM, but she was not the first chess legend he has met. Here we see Leon with the great Garry at the ASEAN Championship in 2014. Still quite a big difference in stature!
Leon Luke Mendonca was born on March 13, 2006. He became a full IM at the age of 12 years, 11 months and 3 days, doing this in Jan./Feb 2019, when in just seventeen days he played three events in Serbia and scored three IM norms, pumping his rating to 2446.
Now the goal of the 14-year-old is to become a GM as soon as possible. In the past year he has narrowly missed multiple GM norms. In our next report we will tell you how the lad did so once again, by a whisker, in the Paracin Open. A pretty harrowing tale.
Leon is is also a budding violinist and is currently preparing for his Grade 5 Trinity College-London Music Examination. But he quite endearingly remains a playful kid, as you can see in this video of him baiting dogs in Budapest - while ensuring social distancing!
