Portisch Lajos (04.04.1937)

Hungarian Grandmaster (1961), one of the world’s best non-Soviet players in the 1970s and 1980s. Portisch has won 9 times the national championship and was awarded 8 times the ‘Nemzet Sportoloja’, Hungary’s highest national sports achievement award. He was a member of twenty Hungarian Olympiad teams where in total he won 11 medals including one team’s gold in 1978.

Best results: Portisch has played in about 75 strong tournaments from 1958 to 1990, winning or sharing 20 first prizes, among them:
Balatonfured 1958, San Benedetto del Tronto 1960, Sarajevo 1962 and 1963, Kecskemet 1962, Amsterdam 1963, Beverwijk 1965, equal with Efim Geller; Skopje-Ohrid 1968, ahead of Efim Geller and Lev Polugaevsky; Monte Carlo 1969, equal with Smyslov; Amsterdam 1969; Hastings 1969-1970 and 1970-1971, Adelaide 1971, Wijk aan Zee and Las Palmas 1972; San Antonio 1972, equal with Anatoly Karpov and Tigran Petrosian, Ljubljana 1973 Wijk aan Zee 1975; Wijk aan Zee 1978, ahead of Korchnoi; Tilburg 1978, ahead of Robert Hubner; Toluca izt 1982, Reggio Emilia 1984-85; Portoroz 1985, equal with Tony Miles and Zoltan Ribli; and Sarajevo 1986, equal with Kir. Georgiev and Lev Psakhis, Cannes 1992.

Peak rating: 2655 in 1980.