Echesspedia

 The Hungarian Chess federation was created in 1911 but due to lack of funds it closed two and half years later. In 1923 a second and successful attend was achieved.

The first ever Hungarian recorded person playing chess was Jolanta (13th century), who was the granddaughter of the Hungarian King Endre the second. The first chess piece found was from the time of king Sigmund 1387-1437.
The first Hungarian language chess-book was published in 1758. The authors were Gyula Makovetz, István Abonyi, dr. Jenő Bán and András Ozsváth.

End of XVIII century Von Kempelen created the first chess machine. Budapest beat Paris in a correspondence match 2:0 from 1843 to 1845. Jozsef Szen was the first Hungarian chess composer and first world class player. The first Hungarian magazine was published in 1899: Budapest Chess-Reviev, and from 1911 Hungarian Chessworld. Rezso Charousek won the 1896 Budapest world-class tournament together with Mikhail Chigorin. Gyula Breyer, another potential world-class, died at a very young age.

Geza Maroczy was probably the most successful tournament player between 1906-1911 but never had the opportunity to challenge Emanuel Lasker for the world title.

In 37 participations Hungary has won the men’s chess Olympiad five times: in 1924 (unofficial), the first Olympiad in 1927, the second Olympiad in 1928, in 1936 (unofficial) and in 1978, the team headed by Lajos Portisch broke for the first time since 1952 the Soviet hegemony. The team also collect 6 times the silver medal, 3 times the Bronze medal and 31 individual medals.
At the European level, Hungary has won 4 silver medals and five bronze medals.

The women’s team which was composed by the three Polgar’sisters won the Women Olympiad twice, in 1988 and 1990. Four times they finished second.

Hungary won the World Correspondence World Team Championships in 1949-52 and took silver medal in 1958-61 and 1977-82.

Among the chess prodigies, Judit Polgar and Peter Leko both achieved the unofficial title of youngest ever Grandmasters.

The known players are Geza Maroczy, Julius Breyer, Laszlo Szabo, Gedeon Barcza, Lajos Portisch, Andrea Adorjan, the Polgar sisters, Zoltan Almasi and Peter Leko.

 The national champions were: 1906 Balla, 1907 Forgacs, 1911 Balla & Barasz, 1912 Breyer, 1913 Asztalos, 1922 Havasi, 1924 Nagy, 1928 Vajda, 1931 Steiner, L, 1932 Maroczy, 1933 Rethy, 1934 Rethy and Lilienthal, 1935 Szabo, 1936 Steiner, L, 1937 Szabo, 1941 Fuster, 1942 Barcza, 1943 Barcza, 1945 Florian, 1946 Szabo, 1947 Barcza, 1948 Benko, 1950 (1) Barcza, 1950 (2) Szabo, 1951 Barcza, 1952 Szabo, 1953 Sandor, 1954 Szabo, 1955 Barcza, 1957 Barcza, 1958 (1) Portisch, 1958 (2) Portisch, 1959 Szabo, 1961  Portisch, 1962 Portisch, 1963 Bilek, 1964 Portisch, 1965 (1) Bilek, 1965 (2) Portisch, 1966 Barcza, 1967-8 Szabo, 1968-9 Forintos, 1969 Dely, 1970 Bilek, 1971 Portisch, 1972 Csom, 1973 Adorjan, Ribli & Csom, 1974 Ribli, 1975 Portisch, 1976 Sax, 1977 Sax & Ribli, 1978 Pinter, 1979 Pinter, 1980 Lukacs, 1981 Portisch, 1982 Schneider, 1984 Adorjan, 1985 Farago, 1987 Horvath Jo, 1988 Perenyi, 1989 Schneider, 1990 Videki, 1991 J. Polgar, 1992 Adorjan, 1993 Adorjan, 1994 CS Horvath, 1995 Groszpeter, 1996 Tolnai, 1997 Horvath CS, 1998 Varga, 1999 Kustar, 2000 Almasi, 2002 Ruck, 2003 Almasi, 2004 Berkes, 2005 Gyimesi, 2006 Almasi, 2007 Berkes, 2008 Almasi, 2009 Almasi, 2010 Berkes.