Archive for the ‘Documentaries’ Category

Grandmaster Clash

Posted in Documentaries on May 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

For the longest time, I have believed the greatest documentary ever made on chess was the BBC production Grandmaster Clash. Impartiality aside, that it shoots the British Olympiad conquest of 1988, coupled with it being one of the very first documentaries I ever saw, may have something to do with it.

Written by Steven Fry, it is very well-produced and is great viewing. After searching for well over a decade, and even writing to the BBC to see if they had it in their archives, finally I can link it for you. It’s a well-written, well-directed must watch – no doubt about it.

MJM

Read Full Post »

Closing Gambit

Posted in Documentaries on October 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Closing Gambit is a contemporary, well-produced, and coveted documentary. It’s entertaining, informative and fascinating throughout. There are many ways in which events can be retold, and this documentary does a fine job of doing just that. It’s usually not free on Youtube but I have found a free version and linked it here.

There are comments that are, in my opinion, contentious but I don’t wish to go into that here. However, I do want to offer up a fuller account of Soviet chess then the one offered in the documentary. You can find that below. Generally speaking, it is better to go to academic historians than chess players with regards to the history of Soviet chess, as Dr. Eales clearly states here with his broader account of the subject matter which is in itself based on discourse. A good introduction.

The Soviet Phenomenon by Dr. Richard Eales

Read Full Post »

Kasparov talks

Posted in Documentaries on October 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

An entertaining and informative Kasparov can be found here. And if you’ve ever read his book ‘How life imitates chess’, you will hear some well-rehearsed, familiar content. It’s worth a watch, he can be a great orator at times.

MJM

Read Full Post »

Chess Fever

Posted in Chess, Documentaries on September 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The 1925 Soviet cinematic attempt to further popularise chess can be found below (feat. Capablanca)

Read Full Post »

Lost and Found

Posted in Documentaries on January 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

A favourite from yesteryear would appear to have gone awry, thankfully found once more. Hard to top indeed.

Read Full Post »

2 Kings 1 Crown

Posted in Documentaries on December 16, 2020| Leave a Comment »

In the construction of this documentary a strong commitment towards research appears, and makes it commendable. It’s been well-shot too, making it watchable for we documentary lovers.

Worth watching too, featuring Smyslov (obviously) and Tal too!

Read Full Post »

Clean cut narrative

Posted in Documentaries on November 22, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Although watching films or documentaries about chess or chess players is generally inadvisable if you yourself are a chess player who both reads or watches material critically: to our disdain every so often someone churns out something. Some productions are more laudible than others but as you might expect, a lack of imagination prevails and the subject matter is narrow indeed. Yet again Fischer is the one cashed in on, as shown in the link below. Why on earth someone would want to watch something about that poor irascible soul beyond the chessboard I don’t know, perhaps it has something to do with the belief that television can make the unglamorous glamorous, and that’s good enough for them because anything that’s been filmed must be entertaining and educational for all documentary makers ever do is ‘try to get the story straight’. At least the documentary does point out early on the importance of Slater doubling the prize money for without such generosity the match in 1972 would most likely not have taken place. And furthermore, it has been emplotted with content not normally shown, illustrating more clearly than most -if not all- previous productions of what went on. It is unflinching in its expose of how Fischer was abducted, arrested, imprisoned and tortured by US officials, although nothing is said of whether the US government has continued to torture national chess champions since Fischer -presumably not! The claim that a life of chess begets torture in various forms anyway, is however, touched upon at various points without poignancy.

Something more gentlemanly, something more aplomb, and rightly so, can be found below.

Read Full Post »

All the right moves -the trailer.

Posted in Documentaries on September 16, 2015| 2 Comments »

Here is the trailer for the latest documentary on chess. Certainly one to look out for.

Read Full Post »

Ten great videos on Vimeo

Posted in Documentaries, tagged on February 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »

1. Surveillance Chess -arty and quite interesting.

2. Checkmate -great animation about an unusual game of chess.

3. Nar mobile ad -chess in Azerbaijan.

4. Burger King Chess -a talented chicken plays chess.

5. Street Stories, Saravuth Inn – A well-shot story about a chess hustler in Union Square, NY.

6. How chess pieces are made.

7. Village Chess Shop -an old chess store in NY.

8. The Chess Pavilion -chess in Lincoln Park Chicago.

9.Players -nice time lapse.

10. Playing with senses -chess in its rawest form.

Read Full Post »

Chess Kids Documentary

Posted in Documentaries, tagged on October 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The documentary ‘Chess Kids’ can be found in the following link

http://documentarystorm.com/chess-kids-special-edition/

It’s well-handled and worth a watch.

Answers to two wins & a draw

1) Ra8+ Kxa8 2.Qa1+ Kb8 3. Qa7+ Kxa7 4. Nc6+ (the move I couldn’t see) Ka6/a8, 5. Ra1++

2) I thought this was quite pretty. As you have probably noticed, black is already close to stalemate, so…1. Re1+ Kh2 2.Qg1 Kg3 3.Rd3+! Qxd3 (Kg4 will ose to Qd1) 4.Qe3+! QxQ Stalemate. Easy but pretty.

3) 1. Qa8!! (at first sight, counter-intuitive but winning). The rook cannot be saved, black can safely resign here.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »