The 2nd Hungaroil-Honvéd chess tournament was held from 6 (Round 1) to 20 (Round 13) September 1986 in Szirák, Nógrád County, Hungary, in Hotel Kastély (Castle Hotel), an old castle which had been taken over and renovated by the main tournament sponsor, the Hungarian Hydrocarbon Research and Development Institute. In addition to this, the sponsors were Budapest Honvéd, the Mátraaljai Állami Gazdaság state farm, various oil companies, Mineralimpex, and the CIB Bank. Ten foreign players and four Hungarians participated, but not Lajos Portisch, Zoltan Ribli and Gyula Sax. Sax did not appear at the opening ceremony. He was expected to be there, but had announced a week earlier that he would not play. He did not turn up for Round 1 either, claiming he was sick, and was replaced by Hazai. From a budget of 400,000 Hungarian forints, some unknown amount was for appearance fees. The prize for first place was 75,000 forints (about 4000-4500 USD in 2019 value), second place 60,000, third place 50,000, seventh place 10,000. All players got prizes. In addition there were five special prizes.
The opening ceremony on 5 September was on same day as Round 13 of the Kasparov - Karpov World Championship Rematch (1986). After a renaissance trombone concert, the Deputy Minister of Defense Sándor Kiss praised the importance of the competition and the work of the organizers. He emphasized that the event was closely followed nationwide, and that the sports fans in Hungary were now focusing on Szirák. Sándor Szerényi, the president of the Hungarian Chess Association, expressed his hope that the event would strengthen the friendship between chess players. It was announced that Smejkal, one of the players, had crashed on the way and was not expected until tomorrow. He was not injured. Still no word from Sax, despite everything had been done to make him sit at the table. On Saturday, some hours before start, Sax announced he was ill and could not play. The organizers did not believe he was ill, and took the case to the disciplinary committee of the Hungarian Chess Association. Their sentence on 15 September was that he could not play in any foreign individual chess competition until 31 March 1987. The reason was not so much the unjustified absence, but that when they tried to contact him to change his decision, he did not answer.
The games were played "deep in the hotel's wine bar". The spectators could follow the action on seven monitors (one for each game), and also on a "live" screen. Andras Ozsvath, a well-known professional, commented on the events. He told secrets, explained the moves and analyzed the games, and created a good mood. Gábor Gyürky and his team programmed the Commodore 64 computers, and the Soviet deputy arbiter Livsic saw the wonders of technology. Psakhis was excellent on the last day of play, and scored a full point against Suba. With this, he secured his victory, though half a point would have been enough for first place. Pinter only drew with Csom: the last year's co-winner took second place. Rogers beat Romanishin, and catched up with Nogueiras for shared third place. Adorjan suffered a defeat from Ftacnik and slipped off the podium. The prizes for best foreigner and most wins went to Psakhis. Pinter won the prize for best Hungarian, and Flear and Csom got the prizes for most beautiful game and best endgame, respectively.
Hotel Kastély, Szirak, Hungary, 6-20 September 1986
Age Elo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
1 Psakhis 27 2555 * 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 9
2 Pinter 32 2555 0 * ½ 1 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 8
=3 Nogueiras 27 2570 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 7½
=3 Rogers 26 2515 0 0 ½ * ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 7½
=5 Adorjan 36 2560 ½ 1 ½ ½ * 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 7
=5 Romanishin 34 2560 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 * 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 7
=7 Garcia 32 2515 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 * 1 ½ 1 ½ 0 0 1 6½
=7 Ftacnik 28 2555 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 * ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 6½
=7 Spraggett 31 2525 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 6½
=10 Csom 46 2505 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ * 1 1 ½ ½ 5½
=10 Hazai 33 2480 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 * ½ ½ ½ 5½
=10 Suba 39 2580 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ * 1 1 5½
=13 Flear 27 2505 ½ 0 0 0 1 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 * 0 4½
=13 Smejkal 40 2540 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 * 4½
Tournament category: XII (2537). Chief arbiter: Géza Fekete.Tournament book: András Ozsváth & Janos Murin (eds), II. Hungaroil-Honvéd nemzetközi sakk nagymesterverseny. (Hungarian Hydrogen Industry Research Institute), Budapest 1986. 28 pp. (https://marvin.bline.hu/product_ima...)
Sources
FIDE rating list July 1986 (http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198...)
Nógrád, 4 September 1986, p. 7 (https://library.hungaricana.hu/en/v... )
Nógrád, 6 September 1986, p. 1 (https://library.hungaricana.hu/en/v... )
Nógrád, 8 September 1986, p. 7 (https://library.hungaricana.hu/en/v... )
Nógrád, 20 September 1986, p. 6 (https://library.hungaricana.hu/en/v... )
Nógrád, 22 September 1986, p. 7 (https://library.hungaricana.hu/en/v... )
Heti Híradó, 4 October 1986, p. 8 (http://epa.oszk.hu/02800/02851/0144...)
Dunántúli Napló, 16 September 1986, p. 8 (https://library.hungaricana.hu/en/v... )
Previous edition: Szirak (1985). Next: the Szirak Interzonal (1987) was also the 3rd Hungaroil-Honvéd tournament.
Original collection: Game Collection: Szirak 1986 by User: Tabanus. Round dates are from the newspaper Nógrád.
Kibitzing
