Chess documentary (1979) with Timman, Euwe and more

For a long time there is a documentary on youtube that I found amazing: The Love for Wood. It features Jan Timman, Hans Ree, Piet Hein Donner, Max Euwe,Ulf Andersson and correspondence GM Mulder van Leens Dijkstra. The documentary gives a wonderfull insight in chess in the Netherlands in those days. 
For the past couple days I've spent every procreational procrastinational minute on translating the subtitles. Unfortunatly the subtitles came out in a slightly different size that they where in the subtitle maker, but that shouldn't be much of a problem. I tried to give a precise translation of what is being said. To turn the captions on play the video and click captions icon.

I've found most games that are mentioned:

Jan Timman vs Jan Hein Donner
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1142509

Ulf Andersson vs Karl Robatsch
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1019930

Estrin, Yakov vs Mulder van Leens Dijkstra
http://chesstempo.com/gamedb/game/2250632

Gert Ligterink vs Jan Timman
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1142497

Nicely done. The subtitles seem well done.

// Playing chess does seem better most days than selling ice cream.

Yeah, nice quote. Funny to see that back then it wasn't easy for pro's as well.. its still a theme today. I liked the part about metagameplay. People believed in it or not, whereas today it is commonly accepted that its a big part of chess. Like in the WC where the two teams discuss every little detail to prevent the others from having an advantage.

*bump* I know more people enjoy this, so once in a while I'll give it a bump :)

"I love all positions. Give me a difficult positional game, I'll play it. Give me a bad position, I'll defend it. Openings, endgames, complicated positions, and dull, drawn positions, I love them all and will give my best efforts. But totally winning positions I cannot stand." Jan Hein Donner

I didnt really knew Donner, but it seems like a colourfull guy. The one quote about "someone drinking 25l of water during a game because he thought that was good for the brain" is impossible ofcourse... But he has a strong opinion on matters which is always interesting.

Jan looked a lot like Erina Krush back then :) Thanks for posting.

*bumptetity bump for those interested*

:D the hair a bit.. he looks alot like the oldest son of friends of my parents. This guy became jewish (his mom is unpracticing jew) and left to Israel. Wonder what has become of him.

Jan looks like robert plant http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tomorrowstarted.com%2F2011%2F08%2Fgorgeous-one%2F.html%2Frobert-plant-young-portrait-led-zepplin&h=0&w=0&sz=1&tbnid=zUsxwj4YOqv5OM&tbnh=231&tbnw=218&zoom=1&docid=oaWc0qrX6jR8lM&ei=UvTuUvzsFrLOsATwh4DIDg&ved=0CAUQsCUoAQ

Thanks for this.

I agree, thank you for posting this:)

this is really really good. thank you soo much for bringing this to our attention, and for the translations. 

Glad you liked it!

>indeed Validor.. its him!

@Elkitch: I just want to bring something cute to your attention. 'for the past couple of days I've spent every procreational minute'    look up 'procreation' in the english-dutch dictionary...you'll have a nice smile...you meant every 'free' minute or every 'recreational' minute...its a cute little mistake...thanks again for your work and this great documentary.  

 Jan Hein Donner, read his book ''The King (De Koning)'' : http://www.newinchess.com/The_King-p-97.html

Oops, in fact what I meant there was: every procrastinational minute! (as I shouldve been studying). edit: looked it up.. whats on a mens mind hehe.

J.H.Donner (1927-1988) was a Dutch Grandmaster and one of the greatest writers about chess of all time. He was a chess reporter and a chess columnist, as well as an annotator of the game. Above all he was a witty and unpredictable commentator of everything and everybody, both inside and outside the chess world. 

THE KING spans a writing career of more than thirty years during which Donner slowly developed from chess player-writer into writer-chess player.

Donner's favourite themes are: Bobby Fischer, the blunder, chess as a game of luck, why women can't play chess, madness, and poor Lodewijk Prins, his rival for the Dutch National Championship for many years, who, according to Donner, "couldn't tell a bishop from a knight." 

'THE KING' is a book full of insults and ironies, but Donner wouldn't be Donner without a considerable amount of self-mockery. 

I wonder how many non-smoking chess players have sufferd illness or even died prematurely due to passive smoking.... Donner's habit looked particularly disgusting at the beginning of the video.

Thx for posting ...very interesting.

its a really nice documentary. I wonder if there's some way you could post it as an article or something, just so more people could see it. 

Perhaps as a blog, but even there its gone in a day.. 

It was one of the first documentaries on chess that I saw when I started playing ~2yrs ago. A couple things I like about it:
- its interesting both to beginners and stronger players
- since Im Dutch its nice to see and hear people talk in the days before I was born. They use old fashioned words and it was just another time with other habits.
- Hearing Max Euwe talk about the match is unique (and in the cafe I spend alot of time in makes it extra special!)
- The documentary has a nice build up. Different topics, but connected.
- I like the conversations. Its a loose interview where the interviewed people can steer the subject themselves too.
- Its amazing to hear stories about players that I only heard the name of: Petrosian, Nimzowitch (still have to read his book), Alehkine..