Wow! Never heard of it! Thank you
The Great Chess Movie
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I think it kinda neat to see these great chess players on film .
I just finished watching it. What a strange documentary! It's focus was political. It was an anti-Soviet documentary. It was mainly about three chess players: Karpov, Korchnoi, and Fischer. Also, it focused upon the Russian Jews against the Soviet Russian, with Karpov representing the Soviets, while Fischer and Korchnoi represented the Jews. Bizarre, fragmented, and lacking direction, the film really has no discernible point to it. It's worth a view to see some of the famous chess players of the 70s, but the producers of this film are very inconsistent with what narrative they tried to piece together, and they have a political bias that appears naive, manipulative, and scattered. IMO.
I liked seeing the players from the past, but the political and other such things that sometimes go along with that kind of stuff weirded me out. Never heard about Korchnoi's wife and son being kept in Russia (in jail?) cuz he defected. I have seen an interview of Spassky who claimed that Russia forced him out of the country cuz he lost to Bobby and he wasn't a believer in the Russian political ideals. Did they really do stuff like that because of chess and politics?!
The Cold War was a very tense time. We sometimes forget what it was like before 1989.
Anyone know where to watch The Great Chess Movie nowadays? I checked the link above from 3 yrs ago and it is no longer available on Youtube. Would really be interested to watch it.
It was on You Tube for a while then taken off, but I found it again with Spanish subtitles. When you get on You Tube type in "Genios del tablero" and you'll get a few clips from the movie.
Would be grateful if someone knows where I can purchase a copy. Thanks.
"The Great Chess Movie" is still available on YouTube in its entirety. Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f18pSaZS8k
On YouTube it's entitled
La Gran Pelicula de Ajedrez .subtitulos español
but despite the title, it is neither dubbed in Spanish nor subtitled in Spanish.
Enjoy.
I stumbled across this 1980-ish movie. Anyone ever heard of it? Thought it might be of interest. It's in 3 parts, scroll towards the bottom of the page.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7939