Czech-German grandmaster Vlastimil Hort died Monday at 81.
Hort was one of the best players in the world during the ’60s and ’70s, reaching the candidates matches in 1977, where he was knocked out by former world champion Spassky. Hort is well remembered for declining to win that match by forfeit, and instead giving an ailing Spassky one of his own timeouts.
Hort set a record for conducting a simultaneous exhibition of 636 games in 1985. In 2006, he won the senior world championship at chess960 (honest, a senior 960 tournament is something for which I’d rekindle enthusiasm and ambition).