Chivalrous Czech: Vlastimil Hort
Illustration of Hort
I knew Vlastimil Hort well and played against him many times, without much success. I regarded him as a player of huge potential, who somehow never quite realised the fullest extent of his considerable talent. He was also one of the great sportsmen of 20th-century chess.
In 1978 there was talk that Hort might join our team of seconds for the Russian defector Viktor Korchnoi’s world title challenge against Anatoly Karpov, the Golden Boy of the Soviet Chess Imperium. Accordingly, I invited Hort to London; he came to dinner and promptly drank himself into utter paralysis. Next day I had arranged a trip to the House of Commons and lunch with a chess-loving MP. On rousing Hort next morning from his slumbers, I was greeted with his habitual sing-song accent Czech exhortation: I am still too drunk, you go, you go…Alas, Vlastimil did not make the final cut for our Korchnoi team.
Vlastimil Hort (12 January 1944 – 12 May 2025) was a former Czech and latterly German chess grandmaster. During the 1960s and 1970s he was regarded as one of the world’s strongest players and in fact qualified for the 1977–78 Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship. However, he never qualified to challenge for the supreme title.
Hort in 1979 Credit: Wikipedia
Hort was born on 12 January 1944 in Kladno in the Nazi-governed Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now the Czech Republic). He was a citizen of Czechoslovakia for the first part of his chess career, achieving the grandmaster title in 1965 and winning a number of major international tournaments (for example, Hastings 1967–68, Skopje 1969) and national Czech championships in 1970, 1971, 1972, 1975, and 1977.
His exploits gained him recognition as one of the strongest non-Soviet players in the world, which resulted in his selection for the “World” team in the legendary “USSR vs. Rest of the World” match of 1970. In that contest he took fourth board, with an undefeated plus one score against the celebrated Soviet Grandmaster Lev Polugaevsky. Many regard this feat as his most impressive result. Hort left it rather late in the unfolding political landscape to defect to the West in 1985, relocating to West Germany where he won the national championship of his new refuge in 1987, 1989, and 1991.
Hort passed away on 12 May 2025 at home in Eitorf, Germany. He died of complications of diabetes, from which he had suffered for 30 years. His funeral was held on 24 May 2025.
According to an authoritative biographical summary on Wikipedia, Hort participated in a number of Zonal and Interzonal qualifying tournaments to select a challenger for the world title, generally with good results but without reaching the final stages of the Candidates process. The 1967 Interzonal tournament at Sousse was a landmark in Hort’s career. The field included among its participants both Hort and the great but volatile Bobby Fischer.
While leading the tournament, Fischer was involved in a dispute with the tournament organizers over the playing schedule; this resulted in his forfeiting a game with the Soviet player Aivars Gipslis. Fischer was persuaded to resume play, but then did not appear for his game with Hort, who was awarded a victory by forfeit. Negotiations with the organizers went downhill from this point, and Fischer withdrew from the tournament to begin his penultimate estrangement from grandmaster chess.
Hort went on to finish the Interzonal in a tie for sixth place with the American veteran Samuel Reshevsky and the Russian Leonid Stein, but did not advance to the Candidates matches. Reshevsky got through following a three-way tie-breaking match. This tie break was notable for Reshevsky qualifying by drawing all of his games, a curious anomaly of the qualifying regulations.
Hort finally reached the Candidates matches of 1977–78 but was eliminated in the first round, in a closely fought match against the former world champion Boris Spassky, then still one of the best players in the world. Hort’s long-standing reputation as a fine sportsman was enhanced by an event during this match. After 12 games the two players were tied. Before they could begin the two-game playoff, Spassky fell ill with appendicitis and was unable to play. During Candidates matches, each player was allotted a fixed number of rest days. Spassky soon exhausted his entire allocation of time-outs yet after an operation to remove his appendix was still unable to compete.
At this point Hort could have claimed the match by forfeit; however, he offered Spassky one of his own time-outs. When they finally sat down to play, Hort obtained a winning position, but forgot about the clock and lost on time. With a draw in the final game, Spassky won the match.
On the following day Hort gave what was then a world-record simultaneous exhibition in which he took on over 600 opponents. He explained that he gave the exhibition in order to get the loss against Spassky out of his head. In 1985, he played a new mammoth simultaneous exhibition against 636 opponents in Cologne, which earned him an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.
Hort appeared many times as chess commentator in tandem with the German grandmaster Helmut Pfleger on German TV. Despite advancing age he remained an active tournament competitor, representing unified Germany and, playing as a guest celebrity on “Veterans” selections in Scheveningen system matches against teams of Women Grandmasters. In 2006, he won the Senior World Championship in Chess 960, a heretical abomination, now known as Freestyle chess.
Hort represented Czechoslovakia in the Chess Olympiads of 1960, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1980, 1982, 1984. After his defection he switched to Germany in 1988, 1990, 1992. In a poll to decide the best Czechoslovak player of the 20th century, Hort was voted into second place (after Richard Réti).
Vlastimil Hort vs. Boris Spassky
Candidates Quarter-final, 1977, Reykjavik, game 10
- e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6
The Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez: a Bobby Fischer favourite, which he unleashed for the first time in the Olympiad of Havana 1966. I had the pleasure of watching Fischer first hand, as he demolished Jimenez, Portisch and Gligoric with his new weapon.
- O-O Qd6 6. Na3 b5 7. c4 Nf6 8. Qe2 Bg4 9. Rd1 Be7 10. d3 Qe6 11. b3 Nh5 12. Nc2 Qf6 13. h3 Bxf3 14. Qxf3 Qxf3 15. gxf3 O-O-O 16. Be3 f5 17. cxb5 cxb5 18. a4 b4 19. d4 exd4 20. Nxd4 Bf6 21. exf5
21… Rd5?!
A clumsy defence. Now was the time to trade bishop for knight since 21… Bxd4! is at least equal for Black, as are …Rhf8 and …Rd7.
- Nc6 Rxf5 23. Rac1 Nf4 24. Rc4 Nd5 25. Bd4 Re8 26. Bxf6 gxf6 27. Kf1 a5??
This seems more like a misdemeanour than a mistake. But incremental improvements in White’s favour are now inexorable and indomitable. Moreover, safer options were available with either, 27… Nc3 28. Rdd4 a5 29. h4 Rxf3 30. Rf4 Rh3 31. Nxa5 Rh1+ 32. Kg2 Ree1 33. Rg4 h5 34. Rg8+ Kd7 35. Kf3; or, 27… Rh5 28. a5 Nc3 29. Rdd4 Rxh3 30. Kg2 Rh5 31. Nxb4 Ne2 32. Re4 Rg5+ 33. Kf1 Rxe4 34. fxe4 Nf4 35. e5, when full equality exists in both lines.
- Re4 Kd7 29. Nxa5 Rg8 30. Rxb4 h5 31. h4 c6 32. Rc4 Rc8 33. b4 Ra8 34. Rc5 Black resigns 1-0
Vlastimil Hort vs. Murray Chandler
Hoogovens, Wijk aan Zee, 1982, rd. 7
- e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5
A line for Black popularised by Botvinnik in his 1958 and 1960 world title clashes respectively against Smyslov and Tal. In 1966 Botvinnik revived it to win a filigree ending against Spassky.
- Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 Nd7 8. h5 Bh7 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 e6 11. Bd2 Ngf6 12. O-O-O Be7
Against Spassky, Botvinnik preferred a plan based on …Qc7 followed by …O-O-O. The further course of this game shows why Black’s king is safer on the Queen’s flank. A conclusion which Murray Chandler himself reached in another game from the same tournament as this débâcle, a finesse which in fact enabled him to win as Black against none other than the Magician of Riga, Mikhail Tal.
- Ne4 a5 14. Kb1 Nxe4 15. Qxe4 Nf6 16. Qd3 Qd5 17. Rde1 b5 18. Ne5 O-O 19. g4 c5?
An aberration which White ruthlessly exploits. Necessary is 19… Nd7.
- g5 c4 21. Qg3 hxg5 22. Bxg5 Ne4 23. Rxe4 Bxg5 24. Qxg5 f6??
Nolens, volens, Black had to capture on e4.
- h6!! A thunderbolt. Black resigns 1-0
Because, 25…fxg5 26. h7+ Kh8 27. Ng6#; or, 25… Rf7 26. h7+ Kf8 27. Ng6+ Ke8 28. Qxd5 Re7 29. Rxe6 Rxe6 30. Qxe6+ Kd8 31. Qe7+ Kc8 32. h8=Q#.
Ray’s 206th book, “ Chess in the Year of the King ”, written in collaboration with Adam Black, and his 207th, “ Napoleon and Goethe: The Touchstone of Genius ” (which discusses their relationship with chess) can be ordered from both Amazon and Blackwells. His 208th, the world record for chess books, written jointly with chess playing artist Barry Martin, Chess through the Looking Glass , is now also available from Amazon.
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