Career
Lengyel gained the title of International Master in 1962 and became a Grandmaster in 1964. His final published rating from the international chess federation FIDE was 2293, although he had not been active for a number of years. At his peak, he was regarded as a strong grandmaster, competing for his nation at the top level and winning medals.
He died in Budapest in 2014.
Lengyel played for Hungary in six Olympiads between 1960 and 1970. His most notable results were:
His overall Olympiad record was 41 points from 70 games.
Lengyel also played in the European Team Chess Championship three times between 1961 and 1970. His results were as follows:
Hungary also finished 3rd for team bronze.
4th European Team Championship 1970 Kapfenberg - Lengyel scored 3½/7.
Hungary finished 2nd receiving silver medals. 1962 Hungarian Championship (Budapest) 1st= (lost to Lajos Portisch in a playoff)
1963 Enschede Zonal 2nd= (with Klaus Darga, behind Svetozar Gligoric)
1964 Hungarian Championship (Budapest) 3rd= (behind Portisch)
1966 Polanica Zdroj Rubinstein Memorial 2nd= 9/14 (with Heinz Liebert, behind Vasily Smyslov 11)
1968 Solingen 1st (ahead of Bruno Parma, Ludek Pachman, Laszlo Szabo and January Hein Donner)
1972 Bari 1st
1972-1973 Reggio Emilia 1st= 7/11 (with Luben Popov)
1977 Budapest 1st
1977 Virovitica 1st
1977-1978 Gausdal 1st
1980 Val Thorens 1st
1982 Val Thorens 1st= (with Miodrag Todorcevic)
Lengyel had wins against former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik, but perhaps his two most memorable results were two games which finished in somewhat unorthodox fashion:
In the left-hand board position (after 52 f4) Lengyel played 52. Qg4+! 53. Kh6 (53 Kxg4 is stalemate and 53 Kf6 is met by 53 Qe6+ with stalemate if the queen is taken, otherwise the game will end in perpetual check) Qg5+!! after which any of the three captures of the queen leads to stalemate.
Darga - Lengyel, Amsterdam 1964, where Darga resigned in a clearly winning position.
In the right-hand board position (after 41 R6xe2+) Darga played 42. Resigns??, instead of 42.
Rxe2 Bxh4+ 43. lieutenant appears that both players missed that 43.
Ke3 would be possible.
