Media comments on chess

[Gerard Killoran]

I forgot to remind you all a couple of days ago that 'Pawn Sacrifice' 2014 about the Fischer-Spassky match of 1972 was due to be shown Monday 19.9. on BBC 2 from 11.15 pm. But was it forgetfulness or prescience? It didn't happen because the Queen's Funeral upset all the scheduling.

If it had been called 'Queen Sacrifice' ...

[Matt Mackenzie]

I think there was a short chess related film (shown on the BBC in the 1980s) with exactly that title?

[JustinHorton]

This?

[Stewart Reuben]

Queen Sacrifice is included on disc 57 of my collection 'Chess in the Movies.
You can find the whole list on the ECF website. As far as I know, it is the biggest collection, in the English language, or occasionally with subtitles, in the world.

[Matt Mackenzie]

This?

Yes, that's the one. Nice little film.

[John Upham]

You can find the whole list on the ECF website. As far as I know, it is the biggest collection, in the English language, or occasionally with subtitles, in the world.

Will it ever see the light of day or is it For Your Eyes Only?

[JustinHorton]

This?

Yes, that's the one. Nice little film.

Bits of it here, starting with not the most subtle establishing shot I've ever seen

[Stewart Reuben]

John Upham >Will it ever see the light of day or is it For Your Eyes Only?<

I don't know what 'it' means.
The list is available on the ECF website.
Much of the recorded material is available, on vhs, at Hastings Chess Club. Marc Bryant still has the equipment to show VHS.
I have the complete collection, much of it on DVD in my home.
I also prepared, on DVD, copies of much of the material in a box for the Hastings University where they used to display the English book collection. They never made the collection available to the public for fear of breaching copyright. They may have been correct. I saw no problem with the material being available on disc for researchers, just as is done for books and magazines. I don't know whether that box was sent to De Montfort University in Leicester, where the ECF collection is now stored. Note, I did not write displayed. I believe work still has to be done enabling all those books to be on display.
I do NOT have the entire series of the Master Game. Somebody, trustingly, sent his collection to the US and it was never returned. A friend of mine has most of them in his garage. But, when we last spoken, he did not know where in his garage.

[Reg Clucas]

https://www.ukclimbing.com/photos/dbpage.php?id=394890

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Reg,

Chess and mountaineering has been ignored on this thread. A good spot.
So there is Knight Manoeuvre in climbing. Never knew that...Surfed about.

'How is mountain climbing part endurance, part puzzle, and part chess strategy?'

"How well did you read the route? Did you plan out your sequence of moves?
And when plan A doesn’t work, what is plan B?"

https://www.quora.com/How-is-mountain-c ... s-strategy

That reminds me, I must read 'The Ascent of Rum Doodle' again.

[JustinHorton]

Turned on the telly and they were about half an hour into The Talented Mr Ripley (1999). Some time later, in the scene where Matt Damon kills Jude Law, one of them referred to "that evening when we played chess". I realised that must have been in the bit I'd missed, but it can be found here.

[Gerard Killoran]

BBC program on stolen art features a criminal responsible for the theft of Munchs 'The Scream'.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p ... s-1-3-oslo

The creep responsible, David Toska, was made out to be some sort of 'mastermind' because he was a reasonably promising junior chess player.

Unbelievably, despite being resposible for a robbery where a policeman was murdered, after release he was invited on Norwegian TV to commentate on Tata Chess 2022.

https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments ... &context=3

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Gerard,

I saw that episode. He is a member of chess.com https://www.chess.com/member/davidtoska1975

Today Radio 4 Extra I was listening to 'Flying the Flag' it is repeated today at 19:30.
A spoilt brat chess prodigy plays v an ageing Russian master.
Loads of chess references including cheating etc.

[Tim Spanton]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-63062092

[John Sellen]

Obituary in todays Telegraph for Bank robber John McVicar

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/ ... of-prison/

Near the end of a long obituary "by all accounts he was an able pupil at school and at 13 won the Essex junior chess championship."
Does anyone remember him