Gedeon Barcza

◇Debrecen

Barcza was born in Kisújszállás on 21 August 1911. In 1916 his family moved to Debrecen, where his father, a teacher of Latin and Hungarian, became head of the Reformed gymnasium. Barcza went to school in Debrecen and studied mathematics and physics at the university there, receiving his diploma as a secondary-school teacher in 1934.

◇Teacher and national champion

In 1936 he played in the unofficial Olympiad at Munich, where Hungary won the team gold, and that autumn he moved to Budapest. He taught at a boys' school, becoming a regular teacher in 1940 and deputy head in 1943. In 1940 he finished third at the Maróczy jubilee tournament in Budapest behind Max Euwe and Milan Vidmar. He won the Hungarian Championship in 1942 and 1943, and in September 1942 he finished sixth at the first European Championship in Munich, which Alexander Alekhine won.

◇After the war

Barcza won the national title again in 1947. In 1948 he was second at Karlovy Vary behind Jan Foltys and shared second place at Venice behind Miguel Najdorf, and in 1950 he shared second place at Szczawno-Zdrój behind Paul Keres. He took the Hungarian title in 1950 and 1951 and became a grandmaster in 1954. He played in two Interzonals, finishing fifteenth at Saltsjöbaden in 1952 and sharing fourteenth place at Stockholm in 1962.

He won Hungarian titles in 1955 and 1957 and an eighth in 1966. Abroad he won at San Benedetto del Tronto in 1957, was third at Vienna in 1961 and shared third place at Moscow in 1962.

At Zürich in 1959 Barcza drew a 103-move game with the sixteen-year-old Fischer. In My Great Predecessors, Part IV (2004), Kasparov quotes Tal’s recollection that Fischer immediately wanted to analyse the game from the beginning. Barcza replied: “Look, I have a wife and children. Who will feed them in the event of my untimely death!”

◇Olympiads

Barcza played in seven official Olympiads, from Helsinki 1952 to Lugano 1968. At Amsterdam in 1954 he scored 12½ of 16 on board three, the best result on his board, and at Moscow in 1956 he scored 11½ of 16 on board two, taking the individual silver medal as Hungary won the team bronze. His win over Smyslov came in that Olympiad. At Lugano in 1968, playing as first reserve, he scored 10½ of 14 and won an individual bronze medal.

◇Journalist, coach and historian

In February 1951 Barcza left teaching to become a journalist. He worked at Magyar Sakkélet, where with László Szabó and Jenő Bán he shaped Hungary's leading chess magazine until he retired on 1 March 1972. He was a master coach from 1952 and became an international master of correspondence chess in 1966. In retirement he edited Magyar Sakktörténet, a history of Hungarian chess whose first two volumes appeared in 1975 and 1977.