Hort Vlastimil (12.01.1944)

German Grandmaster (1965) born in the Czech Republic, Hort was the leading Czech player of his day, he gained the title of International Master in 1962 and Grandmaster in 1965. Hort’s record in national competitions is impressive: Czechoslovak Junior Champion 1960 and 1962. He won 6 Czech Championships.
In 1985, Hort left his homeland and settled in Germany where he won the championship in 1987, 1989 and 1991.

Hort played in the Interzonal tournaments in 1967 (equal 6th), 1970 (13th) and 1973 (7th) but never quite made it into the world top ten. He came near to it in the excellently strong Interzonal at Sousse 1967 but was edged out in the subsequent play-off , for one place, with Stein and Reshevsky. He was a Candidate in 1977 but lost his match to Spassky +1=13-2.  His international record is even better than his record in national competitions; his list of tournament successes includes first places at

Best results: winner or shared first at  Keczkemet 1965, Marianske Lazne 1965, Prague ‘Socialist Armies Championship’ 1966, Sombor 1968, Venice 1969, Skopje 1969, Havana 1971, Luhacovice 1971, Goeteborg 1971, Gloggnitz 1971, Reykjavik 1972, Leipzig 1973, Slanchev Bryag 1974, Banja Luka and Vinkovci 1976, Slip, Polanica Zdroj and  London 1977. Helsinki, Lone Pine, Decin, Amsterdam and Bonn 1979, Sarajevo, Hambourg 1980, Bienne 1981 and 1984, Dortmund, Wolfsburg 1985, Wurzburg 1986, Amsterdam B and San Bernardino 1990, Hastings (1967-8, 1974-5 and 1975-6), US Open 1974

One of his best achievements was equal 2nd at Reggio Emilia 1987 (XIV) equal with Alexander Chernin, Vasily Smyslov, and Boris Spassky after Zoltan Ribli.

In matches, he has scored +1=4-2 vs Vasily Smyslov, +0=7-1 vs Paul Keres, +0=15-1 vs Mikhail Tal and +0=3-1 vs Fischer. He did less well against other top players: +1-13-9 vs Anatoly Karpov, +1=27-4 vs Boris Spassky, +2=9-6 vs Viktor Korchnoi and +0=11-4 vs Tigran Petrosian.

In April of 1977, Hort put on one of the most amazing exhibitions of simultaneous chess ever performed. He played 550 opponents — 201 simultaneously — and lost only 10 games, all in just over thirty hours.

With Vlastimil Jansa he wrote The Best Move (1980), containing 230 instructive positions, but differences in political outlook ended their friendship. The author of Match of the Century (1970), Candidates (1971), Fischer-Spassky (1972), O Sachovy Trun (1973).