Vlastimil Hort - Zonals and Interzonals

Zonals and Interzonals

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. He did reach the stage of the Candidates matches of 1977-78 but was eliminated in the first round, in a close match versus the former world champion Boris Spassky.

Hort's long-standing reputation as one of the great sportsmen of chess was enhanced by an event during this match. During the latter stages of the competition, Spassky fell ill and was unable to play. During Candidates matches, each player was allotted a fixed number of rest days to accommodate such situations, but Spassky exhausted his entire allocation of time-outs yet was still unable to compete. At this point Hort would have been entirely within his rights to claim the match won by forfeit, and indeed many of his peers would have done so. In the event, however, Hort made the sporting gesture of offering Spassky one of his own time-outs so that the ex-champion could complete his recovery. Spassky (a noted chess gentleman in his own right) did so and went on to win the match by the narrowest possible margin, eliminating Hort from that Candidates cycle but ensuring that he would be remembered by chess fans for his gallantry.

The penultimate game of the match was rather bizarre in its conclusion, as Hort had established a clearly winning position, but inexplicably forgot about the time factor, and sat thinking until his time elapsed, handing the win to Spassky. With a draw in the next and final game, Spassky won the match. 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 stupid loss against Spassky out of his system.