1982 European Championship remembered

A Hungarian chess publication discusses this event in which Wales competed.

The original article can be found here.

The translation is below.

This match was played as part of the European Team Championship that year. A three way semi-final comprised of Wales, France and Hungary.

Hungary—Wales 13:3

As a consequence of the group draw of the European Championship semi-finals we have to compete against the national teams of France and Wales in order to qualify for the final. Contrary to tradition, the matches will not be decided at one location, but the eight-member teams of the participating countries will play two-round matches in pairs at different times.
The first meeting of our group took place between May 1 and 5 in Cardiff, the seat of Wales. Of course, the Hungarian national team travelled with its strongest available team. Attila Csupan Grospeter would have had a place in the team but he was competing in the Soviet Union at the same time. Instead, I (Tompa Janos) stepped into the role of technical leader and reserve. Lajos Portisch joined the team in England right after the Grandmaster tournament in London. The delegation was led by Zoltan Gabor, vice president of the Hungarian Chess Federation.

After a pleasant trip, we arrived in Cardiff, where the opposing team consisted of players we were mostly unfamiliar with. To this point we had only played a match against Wales once: at the Olympics in Nice in 1974 and we won with a score of 3.5:0.5. From that Welsh team, Williams and Hutchings also took part in this match. The other Welsh players were selected mostly from representatives of the younger generation. The venue was the National Sports Center of Wales, where our accommodation was also.

The first round took place on May 2. Our team started the match with confidence, but not overconfidence. However, the tension of the first round had an effect on some of the games today. This resulted in two relatively quick draws: first Pinter and then Ribli drew with their opponents. In the other games, except for Lukacs, we were clearly more advantageous. Lukacs played an extremely complicated line, which for a long time was unclear. However, the very talented Welsh player (Cunningham) proved his clear superiority with simple but effective moves and consequently he won.

This match was played as part of the European Team Championship that year. A three way semi-final comprised of Wales, France and Hungary.

Except for Lukacs, we were clearly more advantageous. Lukacs played an extremely complicated line, which for a long time was unclear. However, the very talented Welsh player (Cunningham) proved his clear superiority with simple but effective moves and consequently he won.