József Szén

József Szén (9 July 1805, Pest, Hungary – 13 January 1857) was a chess master from the Austrian Empire.

From 1836 to 1839, Szen travelled extensively throughout much of Europe, including France, Germany and England, playing chess wherever he went.

In 1836 Szén played a match in Paris with Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais, then considered the strongest player in the world, in which de La Bourdonnais gave him odds of pawn and two moves.

Also in 1836, Szen drew a match with Parisian Hyacinthe Henri Boncourt, one of France's strongest players.

In Szen's era, international tournament competition was very rare, with long-distance travel being both cumbersome and expensive.

The website Chessmetrics.com assigns retrospective historical ratings, using modern mathematical algorithms, based on available results.