On the 4th International Tungsram Tournament:

When Capablanca lost his world championship title in 1927, that is, when he “failed unexpectedly”, people immediately began looking for the cause: where had he made the decisive mistake? Not at the board, but away from it. He himself wrote about it:

“Practice must not be interrupted; one must never behave as I did. For nearly two years, or rather three years, I played hardly at all, and I inevitably suffered the consequences of mental inactivity and lack of practice.”

That became a warning example for everyone. Even after a few months’ absence one may fall into the same error: the player feels unsteady because, as they say, he is not in constant training and does not play frequently in tournaments.

Looking over the field of the Tungsram tournament, I could not find a single player who would not have been aware of this. Today every chess player who wants to retain his strength and achieve results tries to start in several tournaments each year. Yet even on this basis one cannot draw a clear dividing line between good players. Rather, it is the quality of training, the degree of talent, fighting ability and natural character that distinguish one player from another, along with form in the given period and tournament luck.

As is now known, Jonathan Nunn suddenly appeared in the field. The former European junior champion, the winner of the tournament, barely noticed that he had been entered for a relatively modest event: no one counted him among the favourites. In fact everything then worked out ideally for him: his chief rival, the Soviet Kuzmin, could not show enough form, while his other rivals neutralized one another. First of all, this concerns the Americans, Mednis and Nunn. Mednis had a substantial lead after the fourth round, but then — as if by a grandmaster’s “snore” — his games against Adorján and Kuzmin became hopeless. Luck turned away from him there, while Nunn, despite his weak opening slip, did not invoke the gods. They took him under their protection, and so he managed to fulfil the grandmaster norm as well. He scored 10 points, which was possible because the field’s Elo average of 2454 placed the tournament in Category IX. He achieved seven wins. Among them there are several attractive games. It is also worth studying his analysed and selected games from the winner’s point of view.

During the nearly three weeks of the tournament, our grandmaster István Csom produced the most convincing sporting performance. Hard struggles and hard-won games were characteristic of him. On that basis, a few whole-point games were followed by a few more modest ones, but he still preserved his undefeated record. In fact, he may have been the closest player to first place, since Nunn could have finished the tournament with two losses — against him and against Adorján — after the fourth round. But in the crises, Nunn always had time to find a move.

András Adorján and Gennady Kuzmin shared third and fourth places. The table — or more precisely the Berger–Sonneborn score — made Adorján a grandmaster before anyone else, while in terms of rating points Kuzmin showed more. The Soviet grandmaster’s wins against Mednis and Jansa are worth mentioning.

Kuzmin’s play and result caused some disappointment. In fact he was not in very poor form. The explanation is that he appears sensitive as a chess player: his sporting results fluctuate, and at the same time he is likely inclined toward a distinctive form of problem-solving that, when his form is unsatisfactory, rebounds on him. It is a fact that he could not match his Soviet victories of previous years.

Grandmaster László Vadász rightly retains 5th–6th place in our list. By right, because his Berger–Sonneborn score was higher, and because he played better. It is true that two early, unexpected defeats — against Nunn and Mednis — recalled the events of last year, but this time he overcame the disappointment, moved past the trough and fought his way back into the leading group. In the end, he and Csom both strengthened their places in the Olympic team.

International master Edmar Mednis repeated his 1976 result. His great strategy aroused much thought, but in this event he played unsteadily according to the order of the draw. He too — with understandable restraint — had avoided those excessive predictions about his tournament victory. He finished with the same score as the winner, second on the performance list, but his four losses dragged him back.

Dr. Burghard Malich of the GDR and Vlastimil Jansa of Czechoslovakia also finished among the prize-winners. The former played unbeaten almost all the way, while the latter did not rank among the favourites for long. Illness troubled him in the middle of the tournament; time trouble weighed on him even more. He often pondered strikingly long — an excellent connoisseur of the Dutch Defence — and finally spent more and more time amid complications.

Grandmaster László Bárczay also fought in team spirit for the Olympic squad. Yet he no longer had the strength for this battle, as he had had to enter it immediately after the championship event. One flash was followed by one omission after another, and so he could not move away from the 50% level.

Attila Grószpéter’s equal score from an unchanged performance was the peak of his career so far. His participation was preceded by general doubt. Even the Youth Committee and the Selection Committee, which recommended him, did not believe that our best junior player, aged 18, would already reach international master strength in his very first serious trial. He may still have a lot to learn in his play, but let us not be unfair: his development is fast, and what is more, he has made a leap forward in the Petrosianus sense. Through diligence, practice and the study of various types of positions, he has acquired chess knowledge which already shone through here and there. Later, with his originality, his feeling for hidden combinations, his resourcefulness in time trouble, his endurance and other virtues, he may forget that he still relied on the grace of fortune.

The Dutchman Hans Ree, the Hungarian Péter Lukács and Ferenc Portisch went into the fight for the grandmaster norm. Understandably, when they saw that their efforts were unsuccessful, they could no longer fight with complete conviction, although they wanted to.

Kenneth Regan, an eighteen-year-old American master, showed himself as a resilient fighter, though not as a particularly gifted player. Neither he nor the Cuban Juan Fernández was capable of more than the occasional good game, which is no wonder, since the strength of the field exceeded theirs.

Master Péter Hardicsay reached the Tungsram tournament as the best of his age-group in the Vasas chess section and in the OB II team. It was the most difficult test of strength in his career so far. An analysis of his games, his nine losses and his struggle makes a useful contribution to a correct self-evaluation and to the correction of mistakes, to further development. He might accept two pieces of advice from us: do not blame only time trouble; secondly — and perhaps even more importantly — avoid closed positions and the kind of manoeuvring battle that is too difficult.

The smooth, friendly-spirited tournament was conducted by János Gáspár and László Nyárasdy.

The United Incandescent Lamp Works once again excelled. With its support of sport, and within that chess, it has further increased the international reputation it has earned beyond doubt. It can claim honour not only through Havana’s city lighting, but also before the chess-loving world, by financing an internationally noted tournament and allowing the world to admire the games of the best players. We would like to see even greater support than before for the objective and instructive analysis of games.

Since its foundation in 1896, many excellent scientists, engineers and inventors have worked in the factory at Újpest, and the Tungsram brand owes much of its worldwide reputation to them. Among the company’s 37,000 employees today, not a few are friends of chess. Among them is chief engineer Béla Dienes, who appeared at several rounds and followed the most interesting games with deep attention. He had acquired this expertise earlier, as an active player.

It should be known that organizing such a high-ranking international tournament requires not only a great deal of money, but also a great deal of energy. Before presenting the distinguished guests with the gifts of the Hungarian Chess Federation, Sándor Szvetély, president of the federation, spoke among other things about this. At the ceremonial dinner, Károly Demeter, deputy general director of Izzó, gave a speech and then distributed the prizes. The assembled guests were assured that in future they too would support chess and the cause of international Tungsram tournaments. Finally, from the material transformation, our federation also drew off a part. For this, first of all, we thank general secretary Tibor Flórián and József Miskey.

Ervin Haág