Today, legendary Grandmaster Vlastimil Hort celebrates his 80th birthday. A long stay of several weeks in the hospital when he was five years old and a caring doctor who played correspondence chess and explained the chess rules to him gave way to his great passion. Eduard Frey celebrates the legend’s anniversary!
In 1971 Bobby Fischer was on his way to the World Championship, but agreed to take part in a blitz tournament in New York, organised by the Manhattan Chess Club. Fischer won the tournament 25.5 - 0.5. But in round 1, Fischer came close to losing against the well-known and popular author GM Andrew Soltis, but managed to turn the tables. On Twitter/X Davide Nastasio shared a picture of this encounter - and here is the story behind the picture.
At the world-class tournament in Buenos Aires in 1960, the then 17-year-old Bobby Fischer one of the tournament favourites delivered one of his worst tournament results. Facing Wolfgang Unzicker, an unfortunate touch of the h-pawn led to a quick loss. It was not until many years later that the reason for Fischer’s poor form was revealed.
Most of all grandmasters were born under the sign of Aquarius. Among them romped the legends Taimanov, Eliskases and Sveshnikov. There is also a world champion - Boris Spassky. With Abhimanyu Mishra, we have not only the youngest grandmaster, but we also had Yuri Averbakh, the oldest, who died at the age of one hundred.| Photo: Pixabay
The 37th edition of the Reykjavik Open will be held from March 29th until April 4th, 2023 in Harpa, the 28.000 sq. m. concert and conference hall in downtown Reykjavik. The tournament has been the flagship of Icelandic chess for many years and one of the most prestigious and well-liked open tournaments on the calendar every year. | Press release, Icelandic Chess Federation.