Béla Berger (12 August 1931, Szombathely, Hungary – December 2005, Sydney, Australia) was a Hungarian-Australian

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

master. He took 5th in the Hungarian Championship at Budapest 1953 (

Béla Sándor Béla Sándor (14 December 1919 – 21 March 1978), was a Hungarian chess International Master (1964), Hungarian Chess Championship winner (1953). Biography Béla Sándor was born to a family of Transylvanian origin. He started playing chess co ...

won). In 1954, he played for Hungary "B" at fourth board in 1st Triennial Cup in Budapest. After the failure of the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

, Berger emigrated from Hungary to Australia. In Australia, he twice won the

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

state title (1957 and 1961), and came second in the 1959

Australian Chess Championship The Australian Chess Championship is a tournament organised by the Australian Chess Federation and held every two years. The tournament is largely restricted to Australian chess players, although it is common to allow a small number of strong overs ...

behind

Lajos Steiner Lajos Steiner (14 June 1903, in Nagyvárad ( Oradea) – 22 April 1975, in Sydney) was a Hungarian–born Australian chess master. Steiner was one of four children of Bernat Steiner, a mathematics teacher, and his wife Cecilia (née Schwarz) ...

. Berger was one of Australia's representatives at the 1963 Pacific Zone 10 Championship in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

. National champion John Purdy was chosen first, and a quadrangular tournament was held for the second spot. Berger and

Karlis Ozols Karlis Aleksandrs Ozols (; 9 August 1912, in Riga – 23 March 2001, in Australia) was a Latvian lieutenant in the Nazi-controlled Latvian Auxiliary Police and a member of Heinrich Himmler's SS during WW2. After later migrating to Australia, h ...

tied for first; then the selectors voted in favour of Berger 3-0. The Jakarta result was Berger's best of his career. He tied for first on 5.5/8, and then won the playoff against Indonesia's Arovah Bachtiar. (He won the playoff 2-1 after 3 games; a fourth game was won by Bachtiar, but it had no bearing on the outcome, as the tiebreak system used favoured Berger). The win gave him the title of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

, and qualified him for the

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the Ca ...

of the 1964-66 World Championship cycle. Berger was one of only three Australians to ever qualify for an Interzonal, the others being Steiner and Ian Rogers. At the Interzonal he came 23rd out of 24. Berger tied for 7-8th at Manila 1968 (Meralco Open,

Svetozar Gligorić Svetozar Gligorić ( sr-Cyrl, Светозар Глигорић; 2 February 1923 – 14 August 2012) was a Serbian and Yugoslav chess grandmaster and musician. He won the championship of Yugoslavia a record 11 times, and is considered the best ...

won). While Berger retired from chess competition relatively early, He came out of retirement in 1991 to play an exhibition game against Charles Pizzato - a chess prodigy.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Bela 1931 births 2005 deaths Hungarian chess players 20th-century Australian chess players Chess International Masters Hungarian defectors 20th-century Hungarian chess players Hungarian emigrants Immigrants to Australia

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