Thursday
Jul012021
"Closing Gambit"
Thursday, July 1, 2021 at 6:44PM
Perhaps in the context of my recent post about grandmasters on TV, reader Pedro E. wrote in to mention a 2018 documentary about the circus that was the 1978 World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi. Somehow I had missed this, but it seems to widely and inexpensively available at various sites. More about the film, here.
tagged Anatoly Karpov, Viktor Korchnoi
Reader Comments (1)
"dissidents in the guises of Korchnoi and Kasparov"
A gross simplification. Kasparov enjoyed protection and support of Heydar Aliyev, who would become dictator of Azerbaidzjan later (now his son is). Korchnoi didn't defect for political reasons.
The 1978 match is worth a movie indeed, but apparently this one is going to be a classical good guy vs. bad guy one. If that's correct I won't be interested.
If we want a movie about a political chess hero it should be about
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Gulko
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Akhsharumova
Dutch GM should have a small role in that one; during one of the chess olympica in the 1980's he wore a T-shirt with "Free Gulko" when playing against the Soviet team.
Korchnoi left his wife and son behind, after which their lives became considerably worse. I'll change my intention to not watch it when their fate will be mentioned in the movie.