Remembering Gyula Sax
"Today in Chess History" has seen the births of five Grandmasters:
- Gyula Sax of Hungary was born on 6/18/1951, became a GM in 1974 and passed away on 1/25/2014.
- Arsen Yegiazarian of Armenia was born in 1970, and became a GM in 2000.
- Laurent Guidarelli of France, born 1981, GM 2014.
- Andrei Volokitin of Ukraine, born 1986, GM 2001.
- Alireza Firouzja was born in 2003 and became a GM in 2018.
Gyula Sax was a wonderfully brilliant tactical player, a member of the Hungarian team that in 1978, for the first time since the Second World War, broke the Soviet monopoly on the Gold medal at chess Olympiads. There the Hungarian "Golden Team" stopped the total dominance of the USSR at the Olympiads: the Soviet team won 18 Gold medals in the years 1952-1990, with a single break, when Hungary took it in 1978. Sax scored +5 =7 –0 and won individual bronze on board three. Gyula represented his country at the games a total of ten times, and always performed above his rating.
Gyula Sax was awarded the IM title in 1972 and the GM title in 1974. He was the Hungarian Chess Champion in 1976 and 1977 (jointly). In 1971-72, Sax was the European Junior Champion, and he placed first at Rovinj-Zagreb 1975, Vinkovci 1976, Las Palmas 1978, Canadian Open 1978 and Amsterdam 1979.
