English Chess Forum

the chess series dvd 'prelude to armageddon' i bought recently and have just got around to watching it, its graphics are nearly non-existent and consist of a demonstration board with a position from the 2 games of the day. It is about a semi-final WCh matches between ribli vs smyslov and korchnoi vs kasparov from 1984 in london and the matches are sponsored by Acorn Computers who famously produced the bbc computer. The content though despite the lack of graphics and the basic clothes and hairstyles, the content is superb.

a gem of game which i had seen somewhere before in the second episode on the dvd was ribli vs smyslov game 5 of the semi final see it and be amazed...

[Event "Candidates sf Smyslov-Ribli +3-1=7"] [Site "London"] [Date "1983.12.01"] [Round "5"] [White "Smyslov, Vassily V"] [Black "Ribli, Zoltan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D42"] [WhiteElo "2595"] [BlackElo "2595"] [PlyCount "81"] [EventDate "1983.11.21"] [EventType "match"] [EventRounds "12"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [SourceTitle "Candidates"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1999.07.01"] [SourceVersion "2"] [SourceVersionDate "1999.07.01"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 d5 4. Nc3 c5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e3 Nc6 7. Bd3 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. a3 cxd4 10. exd4 Bf6 11. Qc2 h6 12. Rd1 Qb6 13. Bc4 Rd8 14. Ne2 Bd7 15. Qe4 Nce7 16. Bd3 Ba4 17. Qh7+ Kf8 18. Re1 Bb5 19. Bxb5 Qxb5 20. Ng3 Ng6 21. Ne5 Nde7 22. Bxh6 Nxe5 23. Nh5 Nf3+ 24. gxf3 Nf5 25. Nxf6 Nxh6 26. d5 Qxb2 27. Qh8+ Ke7 28. Rxe6+ fxe6 29. Qxg7+ Nf7 30. d6+ Rxd6 31. Nd5+ Rxd5 32. Qxb2 b6 33. Qb4+ Kf6 34. Re1 Rh8 35. h4 Rhd8 36. Re4 Nd6 37. Qc3+ e5 38. Rxe5 Rxe5 39. f4 Nf7 40. fxe5+ Ke6 41. Qc4+ 1-0 This is the game mentioned in all its glory

Yeah, I've got this somewhere - quite enjoyable from what I remember, particularly the first disk featuring the Kasparov / Korchnoi match - it is interesting to see how times have moved on, with Bob Wade and Ramondo using a wall-mounted demo board (don't worry though... Mondo had a lecturer's pointer ).

The DVD's came from Mondo's publication company Impala, which released a couple of books and DVD's then seemed to fold.

Jon Mahony impala released the very excellent dvd duels of the mind which has better graphics and also some superb games, which i have and also the british victories one which cost too much, for my wallet at about 50 squid.