Károly Honfi was a Hungarian chess Grandmaster. He was born in Budapest, Hungary on June 25, 1930, and died on August 24, 1975.
Despite starting to play chess at a relatively late age, his talents quickly evident as he won multiple Hungarian robust junior championships between 1948 and 1950. He also won four championships at the Budapest Chess Club during 1949–55. In 1956, Honfi became an International Master (IM) through the Hungarian Championship. He placed third three times in 1956, 1961, and 1963 and became the national champion in 1968.
Honfi represented Hungary in five Chess Olympiads consecutively from 1958 to 1966. He won three Olympic gold medals: 1958 (reserve), 1962 (board three), and 1964 (board five). Furthermore, he won a silver medal with the team in 1966 and received a bronze medal in 1964.
Apart from team competitions, Honfi also achieved significant results in other individual tournaments. Notable ones include winning at Beverwijk 1965 (shared with Mikhail Tal), the Capablanca Memorial 1967 in Cienfuegos, the Mar del Plata, Asunción Open, and Wijk aan Zee 1968.
In 1970, Honfi achieved Grandmaster (GM) status. This came after having the International Master (IM) title since 1957 and enjoying prolific tournaments (26 times) and Olympiad successes. Despite attracting international attention with excellent results in the late 1960s, Honfi could not reach the highest echelons of world chess. His results were often insufficient to secure him invitations to strong international tournaments.
Honfi was an attacking player who bravely took on all comers. Despite playing many games against top-rated chess players, he was undefeated by strike rate against Soviet world champions like Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian.
Honfi died prematurely at the age of 45 in 1975, thereby precluding further ascension within the world of chess.