Ernő Gereben

Who was Ernő Gereben?

Ernő Gereben was a Hungarian–Swiss chess master whose half-century career extended from the mid-1920s to the late 1970s.

Born in Sopron, a Hungarian town at the Austrian border, Ernő Gereben used, until 1935, the German-language form of his name, Ernest Grünfeld. In 1926, he tied for 1st–2nd in Körmend. In 1928, he won in Šumperk. In 1930, he took 5th in Budapest and tied for 7–8th in Györ. In 1932, he took 7th in Budapest. In 1934, he tied for 5–7th in Sopron. In 1934, he tied for 13–14th in Budapest, which was won by Erich Eliskases. In 1935 he tied for 2nd–3rd with Albert Becker, behind László Szabó, in Tata-Tóváros. In 1936, he took 4th, behind Mieczysław Najdorf, Lajos Steiner and Endre Steiner in Budapest.

Following World War II, Gereben played in several Hungarian Chess Championships. In 1947, he won team gold medal and individual silver medal at sixth board in the 2nd Balkan Games in Sofia. In 1947, he took 7th in Vienna. In 1948, he took 5th in Bad Gastein. In 1951, he won in Sopot. In 1952, he took 15th in Budapest.

Due to the Hungarian uprising in 1956, Gereben emigrated to Switzerland and began playing extensively in the west.