Congratulations! Vlastimil Hort celebrates his 77th birthday!

by Vlastimil Hort
1/12/2021 – Today, January 12, Vlastimil Hort celebrates his 77th birthday. Congratulations! To mark the anniversary, the former World Championship candidate and great chess connoisseur gives the chess community another - albeit somewhat macabre - story.

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Corona also affects Vlastimil Hort. The German grandmaster with Czech roots loves chess, and he loves to visit tournaments or to show his skills at simultaneous performances. He also  regularly met with old friends to play blitz. He even played team matches. But corona brought all that to a halt.

Before the Corona crisis hit Europe and the world and paralysed it, Vlastimil Hort was still regularly invited to various tournaments, recently even more than usual – a reaction to the publication of his book "My Chess Stories".

Vlastimil Hort als also a regular guest in the ChessBase studio in Hamburg to record DVDs. But this, too, has been put on hold.

"I now follow tournaments on the internet but I do not play online. It is just not the same." 

Vlastimil Hort and his wife Brigitte live near Bonn, in Germany. Normally, he can travel well from here, preferably by train. Actually, Hort wanted to visit the tournament in Wijk aan Zee, where he has often been a guest. But the rising infection rates urge caution and he now prefers to stay at home.

"Sh... Corona. But this gives me time to work on a second volume of my chess stories. "

Today Vlastimil Hort celebrates his 77th birthday. The jubilarian is giving his fans a small birthday present with another story from his large treasure trove of anecdotes.

A corpse on the road

Chess Olympiad 1964 in Tel Aviv. I shared a room in the Hilton Hotel with Ludek Pachmann. In the afternoon before the day off, I had lain down to take a nap. But suddenly, there was a disturbance from above, from the ceiling. It was dripping! I was immediately wide awake and took a look at the damage. The water stain on the ceiling was getting bigger and bigger. Obviously, something was wrong in the room above. I ran up the stairs. The door to the room was half open and I entered quickly.

I saw Gideon Ståhlberg lying on the bed. "Hello, Mister Ståhlberg!" No answer. An empty whisky bottle lay next to him. Water all around him. Obviously totally drunk, he was calmly trying to take off his socks. The water was coming from the bathroom. I hurriedly stomped through the masses of water and turned off the running tap of the bathtub.

One year later, in Marienbad 1965, I played my first game against him.

Gideon Ståhlberg

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Nf3 e5 7.0-0 Nbd7 8.Re1 exd4 9.Nxd4 Nc5 10.Bf1 c6 11.Nb3 Ne6 12.Be3 a5 13.Na4 c5 14.e5 dxe5 15.Naxc5 Qc7 16.Na4 Rd8 17.Qc1 Nd4 18.Nc3 Ne6 19.a4 Bd7 20.Nd5 Nxd5 21.cxd5 Qxc1 22.Rexc1 Nd4 23.Nxd4 exd4 24.Bg5 Rdc8 25.b3 h6 26.Bd2 d3 27.Rxc8+ Rxc8 28.Rd1 Rc5 29.Be3 Rxd5 30.Rxd3 Be6 31.Rxd5 Bxd5 32.Bc4 Bxc4 33.bxc4 Kf8 34.Bd2 Ke7 35.Bxa5 Bd4 36.Bb4+ Ke6 37.Kf1 h5 38.Ke2 f5 39.h3 Ke5 40.Bf8 Ke6 41.Bh6 Kd6 42.f3 Ke6 43.Bf4 Bf6 44.Kd3 Bg7 45.Be3 Bf6 46.Bd4 Bd8 47.Kc3 Ba5+ 48.Kb3 Kd6 49.Bc3 Bd8 50.Kb4 Kc6 51.Bd4 Be7+ 52.Kc3 Bd6 53.Kd3 Be7 54.g4 Kd6 55.gxh5 gxh5 56.Bf2 Bf6 57.Ba7 Kc6 58.Bd4 Bh4 59.Ke3 Bg5+ 60.Kf2 Bh4+ 61.Kg2 Be1 62.Bf2 Bxf2 63.Kxf2 Kc5 64.Kg3 Kxc4 65.Kh4 Kb4 66.Kxh5 Kxa4 67.Kg5 b5 68.h4 b4 69.h5 b3 70.h6 b2 71.h7 b1Q 72.h8Q Qg1+ 73.Kxf5 Qb1+ 74.Kf4 Qc1+ 75.Ke4 Qb1+ ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Stahlberg,G-Hort,V-½–½1965E95Marianske Lazne9

Stahlberg was born in Sweden in 1908, but after the Chess Olympiad 1939 in Buenos Aires he stayed in Argentina. In chess, he was a damned good tactician and for a long time his heavy drinking did not affect his playing strength.

In Leningrad (today and again St. Petersburg) 1967 I was to play another tournament with him. The venue of the tournament was a theatre. The drawing of lots attracted a large audience and all seats were occupied. All players were introduced personally and the first round was scheduled for the next day.

But shortly before the first round, sad news reached us. Ståhlberg had died the night before. The official cause of death was a heart attack. Two empty vodka bottles in the room.

But chess goddess Caissa allowed him to play on.

Zarupin, a Soviet official, was supposed to accompany the coffin with the body on the train to Moscow. Perhaps Zarupin loved alcohol as much as Gideon. The fact is, when Zarupin arrived in Moscow, the coffin with the corpse had disappeared. The KGB was alerted, a search was launched. Finally, after two days, the coffin was found and Gideon was flown to his old home in Sweden.

Because of Stahlberg's unintentional early exit from the tournament, I got Black three times in a row. That had never happened to me in my entire career.

My Chess Stories

Vlastimil Hort
My Chess Stories
176 pages, hardback with jacket, Nava, 1st edition 2020,ca. €24.00.

My Chess Stories at Schachversand Niggemann...

Translation from German: Johannes Fischer


Vlastimil Hort was born January 12, 1944, in Kladno, Czechoslovakia. In the 1970s he was one of the world's best players and a World Championship candidate. In 1979 he moved to West Germany where he still lives. Hort is an excellent blindfold player, a prolific author and a popular chess commentator.

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