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Stranded in Budapest, teenage Indian chess Grand Master Leon Mendonca seeks solace in the violin Stranded in Budapest, teenage Indian chess Grand Master Leon Mendonca seeks solace in the violin A year after the young champion arrived in the Hungarian capital for a tournament, he’s still there. Indian teenage chess Grand Master Leon Mendonca performs in a church in Budapest. You are a very talented young chess player from India taking part in a tournament in Budapest. After it is over, you learn that your scheduled flight home to Goa is no longer available – the first one to be ca...

€29.90 So how do you manage when you, a fourteen-year-old super-talent, are stranded in Budapest for over a year? Well, play more tournaments: Leon played in a string of events, gained 150 Elo points and, at the age of 14, became India's 67th GM.   A typical tournament photo: guess who is the opponent everyone fears! Just when it seemed possible to at last fly back to India there was a terrible surge in Covid  infections back home, and it seemed wiser to remain in the fairly safe Budapest. Leon and his father Lyndon settled down in an Air-BNB, making friends with the o...