Hungarian Championship starts out with extraordinary format

The host of next year’s Chess Olympiad, Hungary, has decided to hold its national individual championship in a format never seen before. Instead of having a men’s and women’s tournament separately, the Hungarian Chess Federation has put together a Prize Fund of EUR 35,000, and set up a common field for men, women, and some invited youngsters who aspire for membership in the Hungarian U25 national team in the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest. All in all, 30 players battle it out in a 9-round Swiss, between 12 and 20 December, 2023. 

“For top seeds there is an appealing Prize Money, for the ladies a good field, and a separate Prize Fund, while for the youngsters this is a new opportunity, as they could not participate in the national championship in any of the classical formats used before” – says dr. Zoltan Polyanszky, President of the Hungarian Chess Federation.
The President adds that the special format was inspired partly by the FIDE Grand Prix 2017 when FIDE held Swiss tournaments with 18 players, and partly by the Battle of the Sexes tournament in Gibraltar in 2022, where also one of the present participants of the Hungarian Championship, IM Balazs Csonka took part, and had great fun. 

The extraordinary format has immediately led to upsets in Round 1, where out of the 15 boards the higher-rated players could win only on 7, although the ratings spread between 2588 and 2120, easily leading to expectations of a higher ratio of wins by the stronger player. “This is why we are doing this”, says Polyanszky. “Our male grandmasters, female players and under 2400 youngsters rarely play in the same field, they can cause surprises to each other, and everybody has more motivation to show her/his strengths, as this format touches also the identity of the players”.

The 10 ladies, with a rating average of 2213, taking the last ten places in the starting rank, collected 4 points in Round 1, against opponents with a rating average of 2397 ELO. The two wins by the Terbe sisters call for special attention, and Barbara Mihok-Juhasz also had a very promising position in a very complex, tactical game, fitting her style. Still, the top-seed grandmasters, Peter Prohaszka (who fights for retaining his title), Adam Kozak, and Gergely Antal all scored. The field also has Gleb Dudin, who got under Hungarian flag in August 2023. 
We follow up with the results and some interesting facts after the tournament.