His Life Depended on a Game of Chess

After World War II, the Communist Soviets occupied Hungary, causing thousands of Catholics to flee their tyranny. Today’s story is about a Hungarian man who assumes another person’s identity to escape to Austria, a free country. Little did he know that his knowledge of chess would play such an important role in attaining freedom.

“Your Move Hungarian”

by Ferenc Laszlo

"I was trying hard to suppress my anxiety that September morning in 1946, as I stood in the dismal Keleti railway station in Budapest, Hungary.

Panic, I knew, could wreck my hopes.

I was waiting prayerfully for the name of Oscar Zinner to be called – even though I knew that it might mean my doom..."

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Attribution for photo used:

"Bundesarchiv Bild 183-76052-0335, Schacholympiade, Tal (UdSSR) gegen Fischer (USA).jpg"

by German Federal Archive

CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en