"I am that chess... I could have been 7 - 8 years old. we used to go to Morava, to the such a village that is called Drietoma. And those good friends of ours, just taht one Mr. Chovan, who employed my mother, they had a Sokol cabin there. They were old Czechoslovakians, old falcons. The old Chovan family and Zaťovič family used to go to Sokol to practice. They made such cabins on a slope in the forest. Beautiful forests are there! It is from Morava and the Starý Hrozenkov is about 5 km, maybe less. Sometimes we stayed at their cabin, sometimes they borrowed us the cabin for a week. It was a holiday, so go there to our cabin. It was modest, no glory, but it was good. Once we were there on such a stay and it was raining. The weather was ugly and it was not possible to go for mushrooms or to go on trips. Because there were nice trips, terrains. There was nothing to do... and I also think that one of my uncles from Bratislava was there. They were looking for what we could do, some board games and found chess. And I know that my father taught me then, that's how it came to me. So during such a stay that he took out the chess and taught me. Father. And I enjoyed it, but I can't say that it was too much. I learned how to play chess. I wasn't super excited about the game, but oh well. Well, I understood the basics quite easily, I learned it. Basics and rules."
1:01:30 - 1:03:50 – Ján's first encounter with chess
"After that, of course, I progressed in the hierarchy. In 1973 I was an international champion. Then I aimed for those grandmaster norms and that was difficult. I had to fulfill the norms. I missed it several times by a point, by half a point in the tournament, which I still could not fulfill. Then I fulfilled one, but it was difficult. At that time, I made such a personal commitment to myself that if I didn't fulfill it by the age of 35 - I was already old enough for it anyway, today the grandmasters are 16 years old, but back in the time then he should have been under 30 even then. So I told myself that if I don't do it by the age of 35, I'll hang the chess on a nail, at least the national team. I was terribly tired of work, family, we already had 3 children and chess. It was difficult for me being in the national team. So I thought I had to leave something out. So I won't stop playing chess completely, but I will devote myself to my club. In the meantime, that club flourished, VSŽ, we played in the federal league, I coached the youth. I raised a whole generation of young chess players there, who are still playing."
1:43:35 - 1:46:15 – Ján Plachetka strove for grandmaster norms
"Nine drew and eleven lost. But we were strong players even then. For me it was like in a fairy tale that a high school student played with the world champion. I had a very interesting game with him, I was the only one who could have won it if I could concentrate better at that moment. That finish, that was fantastic, it was in Lucerna, if you know that. This is the largest hall in Prague. I don't know what capacity it has, so 2 000 - 3 000 people can fit there, maybe not. But we played it there. Sold out Lucerna full of people. They will never experience that again in their lives, what people came to chess. Well, it was nice. Yes, and I became quite visible then, because I had the most interesting game, the most dramatic. I finished last, I had last move. I was still fighting for a draw. It was fascinating. It was very overwhelming in me, it was a terrible encouragement. That's when I decided that I should play chess, that I guess I'm up to play it. If I can draw with the world champion. So it was only a Simultaneous match, but still. I guess I'm up to it.''edy som sa rozhodol, že mal by som hrať šach, že asi na to mám. Keď s majstrom sveta viem remizovať, teda bola to len simultánka, ale aj tak. Tak asi na to mám.“
1:54:55 - 1:56:38 - Ján Plachetka drew with world champion Michail Taľ as a 16 year old student
Ján Plachetka was born on February 18, 1945 in Trenčín to Bohuslav Plachetka and Gabriela, nee Mojtova. The father worked as a surveyor, the mother as the head of the accounting office at the Nehera clothing factory, later at the Chovanová bookstore. He had a younger brother Jozef and a sister Oľga. The Plachetka family was not involved in politics, but the change of the political regime and the rise of communism affected their family. Because of his religious beliefs and involvement in the church the regime sentenced Ján’s aunt to eight years and also persecuted his grandfather František Mojto, who served as the mayor of Nitra during the Second World War. Ján was fascinated by chess already in elementary school, later at the gymnasium, at the age of 16, he played Simultaneous exhibition with the world champion Michail Taľ, with whom he drew. He also played chess during his university studies in Prague, where he was also caught up in the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968. After graduating at the university, where he studied physics of solid substances, he got a job in Košice and got married. As a chess player, he traveled all over the world and in 1978 became the first Slovak chess grandmaster. Later he moved with his family to Trnava and worked in a nuclear power plant. As a player and later as a coach he participated in many world championships and chess Olympiads. November 1989 caught him at the World Team Championship in Israel. After the breakup of Czechoslovakia he received an offer to train chess players in Tunisia, where he and his wife lived for four years. In 2021 he wrote the biographical book „Eight meetings with Michail Taľ“.
