Budapest RR Prices(1 Game/Day) Non-Norm Tournaments

Budapest offers a wide variety of RR tournaments to choose from for non-norm seekers. The prices are quite close together for non-monthly tournaments. These are good value and are the ones I seek out to play in.

First Saturday has a long runnning a monthly series priced at a premium rate.

Budapest at night

Budapest(Non-Monthly) [See-Hungarian Chess Federation Tournament Listing-chess.hu]
Finding these tournaments is not obvious for foreign players, but now I have the hang of it. The trick is to find the general tournament listing of the Hungarian Chess Federation and follow the breadcrumbs to the indvidual advertisement(usually in Hungarian) and then decipher them. The cheap prices make it worth the effort.

I played in all the following this past year. The Amator Cup was held in the downtown Hungarian Federation builiding. I liked this one best of all. It was a strange feeling to be the only foreign player, but I had the consolation of being the top-rated player.

	Rounds	Prizes	Entry Fee(FIDE 2000+)
			HUF	EUR	USD	CAN	2012
Round Robin
Amator Cup	9	Yes	5,000	17.8	23.1	22.9	November
Torokves A RR	9	Yes	5,500	19.4	25	25	April
Frech Karolyi	9	Yes	4,000	14	17.67	18	June
Torokves A RR	9	Yes	5,500	19.4	25	25	Sept

First Saturday(Monthly)
First Saturday(FS) programme 2012-13 First Saturday 2012-13
FS contact and other info see First Saturday

These are the most well-known and offer no prizes. Non-norm tournaments run beside IM and GM norm tournaments. The non-norm tournaments are classified as FM tournaments with various subcategories. Prices are summarized from their 2012-13 programme as follows.

[Exchange rates were from xe.com]

Exchange Rate		EUR Rate		USD Rate	CAN Rate
3/12/2012		282.7		1.30547	1.29875

FM-A(FIDE 2000+)
I played in this type of group in 2009 several times.

Rating		HUF	EUR	USD	CAN
Low	High
	Unrated	56,540	200	261.09	259.75
1800	1900	50,886	180	234.98	233.78
1901	2000	45,232	160	208.88	207.80
2001	2100	39,578	140	182.77	181.83
2101	2200	33,924	120	156.66	155.85
2200	2250	28,270	100	130.55	129.88

FM-B(FIDE 1600-1800)

Rating			EUR	USD	CAN
Low	High
	Unrated	56,540	200	261.09	259.75
1500	1700	50,886	180	234.98	233.78
1701	1800	45,232	160	208.88	207.80
1801	1850	39,578	140	182.77	181.83
1851	1900	33,924	120	156.66	155.85
1901	2000	28,270	100	130.55	129.88

FM-C(FIDE under 1600)

Rating			EUR	USD	CAN
Low	High
	Unrated	56,540	200	261.09	259.75
1200	1400	50,886	180	234.98	233.78
1401	1500	45,232	160	208.88	207.80
1501	1600	39,578	140	182.77	181.83
1601	1700	33,924	120	156.66	155.85
1700	Any	28,270	100	130.55	129.88

Local Player Rates
Hungarian players pay a standard unadvertised entry fee of 12,000HUF which is still very expensive by local standards(a monthly transit pass is 9,800HUF).

HUF	EUR	USD	CAN
12,000	42.45	55.41	55.13

Foreign players living in the city who know this rate also get this rate. Incoming foreign player tourists are usually unaware of this pricing practive. It took me a year to find out this key piece of information in late 2009.  Also note that FS prices are negotiable at all levels, you just have to know this in advance.

Conclusions
Usually for RR tournaments I expect to be paying in the 20EUR(25CAD/25USD) range and always for prizes(which are quite modest). FS falls far outside of this range and offer no prizes so I don't play in their events.

There are many bargain level tournaments in all formats(RRs, opens and weekenders)  in Budapest. The key is to know where to look.