Janos Rigo (1948-2020)
He was born on October 28, 1948 in Budapest. He got to know chess relatively late, when he was 14-15 years old. In 1964, he already obtained a first-class qualification, in 1965 he was a master's candidate. He even won a youth championship this year. In 1970, at the MTK mixed masters competition, he became a master. In 1965 and 1967, and then between 1976 and 1980, he participated in every single Hungarian championship final. His greatest success was the Hungarian championship in 1978, where he finished second only by 1 point behind Józsi Pintér! From 1974, he was transferred to the Bp.Spartacus team. From 1979, he became the technical leader of Bp.Spartacus, and his team - uniquely in Hungarian chess history - won a gold medal in the BEK (European Cup of Champion Teams). In 1979, he started the now legendary open series in Balatonberény. Essentially, the entire Hungarian elite played here over the years and decades. More recently, the tournament series is called the Balaton Chess Festival, and was organized for the 32nd time in 2014. He obtained the title of international master in 1984. In 1989, the Presidency even entrusted him with the duties of national team captain. He was co-director of the 1992 Debrecen European Championship. He was one of the main organizers of the Lékó-Khalifman and then the Lékó-Kramnik doubles matches. In Budapest, he was Bobby Fischer's assistant and confidant for 8 years. He first joined the Honvéd team from 1970-1974, then returned after a longer break in 1994, from where he did not change clubs until his death and won 8 team championships with the Honvéd team...
