FMStanley Badacsonyi

Stanley Badacsonyi began playing chess at nine while attending Coldfall School in north London. He later attended Fortismere School and developed with support from grandmaster Jonathan Hawkins, his family and his older brother Frankie. During the pandemic lockdowns, he played more than 30,000 online games, finding both practice and companionship when he could not meet school friends. He won the UK Chess Challenge under-fourteen Terafinal undefeated in 2023. A strong performance at the 2024 Kingston Invitational brought him the FIDE master title shortly before his fifteenth birthday. In an interview afterward, he credited a confident start and the chance to face stronger opponents without the burden of high expectations. He retained the under-fourteen Terafinal title in 2024, then won the under-eighteen event in 2025. Those three successive victories came at Blenheim Palace, the culmination of the national junior competition.