In the world of chess, Laszlo Nagy goes by a popular moniker. They call him Mr First Saturday, a name he has got thanks to the chess tournament he organises in Budapest.Many elite grandmasters have played in his First Saturday tournament, a tradition on the chess calendar of every month for the past 35 years.It was here that Fabiano Caruana earned all three of his grandmaster norms. It was here that talents like Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Sofia Polgar and Peter Leko competed in their early days. Some of India’s recent stars like Divya Deshmukh, Leon Mendonca, Savitha Shri, Srihari LR, VS Rathanvel and Rakshitta Ravi have also competed in First Saturday over the last five years.These days, Nagy estimates that about 30 to 40 percent of players in his First Saturday tournaments are Indians, chasing norms or a ratings boost.“I have had so many Indian players in my tournaments that for me it is impossible to remember the names of them all. At my recent tournament in October, Srihari LR played and won the grandmaster section. I have lots of Indians in my tournament every month. Sometimes I have even had half the field from India,” says Nagy.He’s even taught himself some Hindi phrases“In the honour of my Indian chess players, I have learnt a little Hindi as well. I tell Indian players ‘mujhey Hindustani shatranj khiladi pasand hai. (I like Indian chess players) and ‘sab theek hai?’ (everything is good?),” Nagy says goodnaturedly.He adds that the sheer number of players from India in his tournaments are starting to make Europeans wary of his events.Story continues below this ad“Sometimes European chess players are afraid of playing in my tournaments. They say, there are too many Indians. They are afraid of Indian players. I tell them that ‘you cannot be a strong player in this sport without beating the Indian players’. Sometimes the Europeans want to play against those who have high ratings but are actually weak players. I always tell them that if you are good, you will beat the Indians too.”Also Read | Total Chess: Arjun bounces back after hard loss; Vaishali, Pragg suffer twin lossesNagy says his tournaments are a good option for chess players who haven’t crossed the Elo rating threshold of about 2500 or those chasing GM and IM norms.Before he became an organiser of chess tournaments, Nagy was a teacher of military chemistry at the Bolyai Military College in Budapest, holding the rank of captain in the Hungarian army. When the Communist system collapsed in 1991, he decided to quit the army and branch out into hosting chess tournaments in Budapest.He says when he had asked his superiors if there was something else he could do in the army, they said it would not be possible. He was not keen on doing the same thing till he retired, so he decided to leave and do something fun instead.Story continues below this ad“I was a chess player already. I was a player rated 2220 and was a Candidate master. There were many organisers of chess tournaments in Hungary who hosted good events. But I had the idea that I will do it better,” says Nagy.“Magnus was around 2400 rating when he played as a 14-year-old International Master in my tournament in the Grandmaster event,” he recounts. “That boy was very serious and always fighting to win his games, even in totally drawish positions.”Hindi is not the only Indian language he has been teaching himself. Realising that many of the players from South Indian states don’t know Hindi, he’s also taught himself a phrase in Tamil language that is actually his motto in life: Enakku sandosham, unakku sandosham (You’re happy, I’m happy).