Snowdrops and Oldhands – Czech Coal Chess Match 2012

Chess master Jiří Podgorný – 100 years

[09.12.2012 00:00:00] - The participants of chess match Snowdrops and Oldhands have reminded today 100 years of the birth of chess master Jiří Podgorný, by an exhibition to his honour and by memories of his son Igor and friend Josef Maršálek.

Igor Podgorný amused the audiance with telling some humorous stories about removing of the tap in a room (with the point of getting water in all the house) and about trying to get the driving licence. Josef Maršálek discribed Podgorný´s chess carreer and demonstrated his chess art on two quick chess games.

Jiří Podgorný was born on the 9th of December 1912 in Tallin, Estonia. In 1923, he moved with his parents to Czechoslovakia. His father Jakub was naval officer who commanded the submarine Crocodile during the First World War. Jiří passed his youth on Moravia, where he has studied the secondary school and the faculty of arts in Brno (section Russian linguistics). After it, he and his parents moved to Prague, where their life was ominously influenced by the liberation of Prague by the Soviet Army. That is to say, Jiří´s father Jakub Podgorný was arrested by Soviet secret services on the 17th of May 1945 and deported to USSR, where from he has never returned back.

In 1945 to 1952, Jiří Podgorný worked as teacher of Russian language, then he was employed as documentator in Energoprojekt. In 1955 he became chief editor of the paper Československý šach (Czechoslovak Chess), where he stayed till the retirement in 1974.

Jiří Podgorný learnt to play chess at school and in 1931 he participated the correspondant tournament of an prestigious Austrian chess paper Wiener Schachzeitung. From 1935 to 1940, he used to play in the tournaments of Brno´s championship, and because he won it in 1940 and then won also the region championship, he was invited to master´s tournament during the congress of Czech Chess Union (ÚJČŠ) in Rakovník in 1940. During the Second World War he played on the most important Prague tournaments, where he faced also the World Champion Alexandr Aljechin or Paul Keres.

He got the title of chess Master on the main tournaments of ÚJČŠ in Brno in 1944. Two years later, he won the Championship of Prague. In 1948, he participated the international tournament in Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně. Two years later he won the Prague Championship. In the 50ties he left the practical tournament´s game and he returned to the correspondant chess, which he was starting with and where he becomes an International Master.

Jiří Podgorný is the author of several chess books (Zápas Praha – Moskva 1946, Turnaj Západočeských lázní 1948, Životní dílo Oldřicha Durase, Životní dílo Jana Foltydse and Králové šachového světa).
He died on the 15th of January 1987 in Prague.

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