Debrecen4U
November 24, 2025
Rotary has now also organized a chess festival in Debrecen
The Rotary Chess Festival was organized for the first time by the Rotary Club Debrecen and the Debrecen Chess Friends Club with about 200 participants on November 22, 2025. The venue of the event was the G4 Fitness sports hall.
At the opening of the Chess Festival, Klára Réka Bognár, this year’s president of the Rotary Club Debrecen, said that this event is not merely a competition but one intended to become a tradition. Sport and community building are important pillars of the city’s life. Chess is of special importance to the Rotary movement. The core values of the game—thinking, strategy, patience, and fair play—are all in line with the Rotary principle, which is based on service. This festival not only offers an opportunity to compete but also provides a space for meeting, development, and supporting the development of young talents. It was created to give Debrecen chess a new impetus and to form a community where beginners and advanced players, children and adults alike, can find a home. They hope that the first Rotary Chess Festival will provide an experience for all participants that they will remember with joy and that will create a tradition for the coming years. Bognár Klára Réka emphasized that thanks are due to all those who worked to make this Chess Festival possible—organizers and volunteers, partners and supporters.
In her welcoming speech, Diána Széles, Deputy Mayor of Debrecen, highlighted that in addition to its previously well-known running competitions, Rotary in Debrecen is now making its mark in another sport, and this is very important. It is gratifying that there are so many young chess players in Debrecen, and this shows that young people are not only interested in the digital world. Chess requires a lot of patience, logic, and incredible ability to think ahead—all things that are good for someone to become successful as an adult. Chess provides an excellent basis for this. According to Diána Széles, the combination of Rotary and chess is excellent for showing what Debrecen is like. A city that believes in cooperation and in raising children to become successful adults. The deputy mayor also highlighted that Rotary’s activities are about volunteerism, and today’s event is also a symbol of volunteerism, so she especially thanked Csaba Tóth and his wife, Marianna Tóthné Pánya, for helping to organize this Chess Festival.
During the opening ceremony, it was also announced that a similar chess tournament will be held in Nyíregyháza, in the County Hall, on January 24, 2026.
The Debrecen tournament was won by the following in each group. Group A: 1. Egor Buykov, 2. Imre Héra Jr., 3. Kristóf Kovács. Group B: 1. Glib Grabovskyi, 2. András Holácsik, 3. Péter F. Szabó. Group C: 1. Gábor Papp, 2. Dénes Zalán Paul, 3. Máté Alexa. Group D: 1. Levente Kozák, 2. Bence Petrus, 3. Csaba Bökönyi.
The special guest of the chess festival was international grandmaster Benjámin Gledura, who played a 26-board simultaneous match with selected participants after the announcement of the tournament results. Of these matches, the grandmaster won 25, while one ended in a draw.
Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu
