“I just followed my intuition to come here now, despite the war,” said Tícia Gara, a Budapest native and international chess champion who made aliyah in May, one of 23 Hungarians who made the move between October 2024 and September 2025, according to Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration. “I felt I had to be here.”

Six weeks after she arrived, the conflict with Iran erupted.

“Suddenly, there is a war within another war. I never expected or experienced such a thing,” said Gara, who lives in Tel Aviv. “I had to adapt fast.”

Fortunately, strategic thinking under pressure is a well-honed skill for this three-time Hungarian women’s chess champion.

Gara earned the international Woman Grandmaster title in 2002, when she was only 18. She triumphed in Hungary’s national championship in 2006, 2007 and 2019, and helped Hungary win gold at the 2015 Women’s Mitropa Cup. The previous year, in 2014, she spent two months in Israel volunteering through the Jewish Agency for Israel, working with adults who have disabilities. She even played a number of matches with a vision-impaired Israeli who loved chess.

During the Covid pandemic, Gara transitioned to online coaching and then spent a year in Manhattan teaching chess. While there, she visited several synagogues and Jewish communities. “It was a nice experience connecting with American Jews,” she said.

In January 2024, she was named a Coach of the Month by Chess.com.

Though she’s now moving away from competition, she agreed to represent the Queens Maccabi Ramat Gan club in the Israel Women Elite Chess League tournament in Netanya in May. She’s also coaching young players at Chess4All in Savyon, in central Israel.

Gara noted that Israelis and Hungarians share the cultural qualities of directness, openness and warmth.

“Maybe in Hungary people are a little bit more polite,” she joked, “but Israelis will always help if someone is in trouble. When they get to know that I’m a new immigrant, they always say, ‘Wow, amazing!’ Just making this step is an achievement in the eyes of Israeli society. It’s nice to be appreciated.”

Now, she is looking forward to celebrating her favorite holiday, Hanukkah, in her new homeland.

“I love the song ‘Maoz Tzur’ that I used to sing with my father and mother back in Hungary since I was a child lighting the candles,” she said. “It’s as if this song is somehow a connection to Judaism and to Israel. And I’m so happy that this is going to be my first Hanukkah in Israel.”

Abigail Klein Leichman lives in Israel and writes regularly for The Jerusalem Post’s Friday Magazine, the Jewish Standard, Hadassah Magazine and other publications.