The Week in Chess

The Czech GM Vlastimil Hort has passed away at the age of 81. Born in Kladno on January 12th 1944 he died in Germany May 12th 2025.

Hort grew up in the Czech Republic becoming a Grandmaster in 1965. He played the 1967 Sousse Interzonal finishing tied 6th, not enough to advance to the Candidates. He then played Board 4 in the USSR vs the Rest of the World match in 1970. Hort did eventually reach the Candidates in 1977 where he met Boris Spassky. This was also the peak of his career when Hort was world number 6 and rated 2620. Spassky was ill during the match and Hort gave up one of his rest days to aid his recovery after Spassky ran out of his. Hort lost the match narrowly in the end. Hort defected from the Czech Republic in 1985 moving to West Germany where he won the national championships 3 times (to add to his 5 earlier Czech titles). I first saw him on the BBC TV program the Master Game in the early 1980s, he was a memorable character and went on to be a chess commentator for many years in Germany. Hort played regularly up until 2020 and his final published game was in the Czech League in 2022.

Hort's Wikipedia entry