Media comments on chess

[John Upham]

Which programme broadcast by Thames Television on November 4th 1970 makes reference to the game

Hartston - Gligoric, Hastings 1966 ?

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1308540

I am guessing the Bill Hartston was the chess consultant because of this.

[LawrenceCooper]

"It's a bit like chess, Arsenal are having to wait for Olympiakos to come out"

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Users of Amazon Prime might find a search for "chess" interesting. I've just watched the 2016 documentary "Magnus". There's other interesting items."

One of which is, "Closing Gambit: 1978 Korchnoi versus Karpov and the Kremlin"

This has a load of "talking head"-like comments from Anand, Karpov, Kasparov, Michael Adams, Michael Stean, Ray Keene, and many more, added to archive footage, and voice over by Tara MacGowran! For those readers who weren't around then, the match was fairly acrimonious, the players refused to shake hands and there were various dirty tricks. I was in the tournament hall of the Phillips and Drew event later where the two actually shook hands for the first time in years. Of course, they were not rivals then. Kasparov made a wonderful comment about Korchnoi's name being omitted from Russian chess magazines and said something like, "They thought he was Voldemort!" Apparently, Karpov tried to visit Kasparov in prison, much to the latter's amazement, but they were not rivals then either.
The film is more about the background than the chess, but interesting. To save Justin watching it, they don't seem to address Korchnoi's annoyance with Ray Keene.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Checkmate - Series 1" is another entertainment on Amazon Prime.
All-play-all tournament on Gozo (near Malta), 5 men, 5 women. The first 5 episodes give brief introductions to the moves of the pieces, interviews with the players, and rounds 1-5 of the tournament (one per episode), concentrating on one game, presented "Master Game" style, and Simon Williams making additional comments with presenter Anna Richardson representing the person knowing nothing about chess. That actually works ok. But the series was only 6 episodes for a 9-round event. This puzzled me... All was revealed at the start of Episode 6, when they said this 30-minute episode would cover the remaining 4 rounds. So it was a bit rushed. Surely the games at the end would be more interesting? Did they start off wanting to make 9 episodes and change their minds? Anyway it was quite interesting. The island and the hotel (both of which look great) featured heavily, but I imagine they sponsored the event!

[JustinHorton]

. To save Justin watching it, they don't seem to address Korchnoi's annoyance with Ray Keene.

!

[Kevin Thurlow]

Ah, I'd forgotten that. I don't think the idea of Korchnoi being a target if he'd won is totally ridiculous. Those Kremlin boys don't mess about if they're unhappy.

[JustinHorton]

Ah, I'd forgotten that. I don't think the idea of Korchnoi being a target if he'd won is totally ridiculous. Those Kremlin boys don't mess about if they're unhappy.

Well as far as I'm aware there's an absolute absence of any evidence for any such thing involving Korchnoi, and that kind of dominates my thinking on the matter.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Well as far as I'm aware there's an absolute absence of any evidence for any such thing involving Korchnoi, and that kind of dominates my thinking on the matter."

Fair enough - but if I knew where the Skripals were, I'd ask their opinion.

[JustinHorton]

If the argument is that a government in Moscow attempted an assasination in 2018, therefore that's evidence that a government in Moscow might have organised another one forty years earlier, then you need a better argument.

[Matt Mackenzie]

How many "dispatches" of that type actually occurred in the Cold War era? Georgi Markov yes, but after that I'm struggling a bit.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"How many "dispatches" of that type actually occurred in the Cold War era? Georgi Markov yes, but after that I'm struggling a bit."

No idea - I'm suggesting that the threat was credible, as people who are nuisances to various countries have been known to suffer misfortune. I'm not saying he was in danger, merely that it's possible... As I mentioned earlier, it was rumoured Stein was murdered, and I now recall the same was said about Keres. This is mere speculation of course. Anyway, Kasparov got away with beating Karpov, so it probably is nonsense.

I know it's only Wikipedia, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S ... ssinations

I regard the shooting down of passenger aircraft as a terrible mistake rather than a messy hit on an individual.

I didn't mean to offend anyone by giving the impression I was attacking Moscow.

[JustinHorton]

As I mentioned earlier, it was rumoured Stein was murdered, and I now recall the same was said about Keres. This is mere speculation of course. Anyway, Kasparov got away with beating Karpov, so it probably is nonsense.

Well yes. Evidence of the USSR assassinating sportsmen and women who had defeated their own is pretty thin on the ground.

[JustinHorton]

There's more than one chess reference in The Sopranos but I hadn't previously spotted this one.

[Matt Mackenzie]

"How many "dispatches" of that type actually occurred in the Cold War era? Georgi Markov yes, but after that I'm struggling a bit."

No idea - I'm suggesting that the threat was credible, as people who are nuisances to various countries have been known to suffer misfortune. I'm not saying he was in danger, merely that it's possible... As I mentioned earlier, it was rumoured Stein was murdered, and I now recall the same was said about Keres. This is mere speculation of course. Anyway, Kasparov got away with beating Karpov, so it probably is nonsense.

Gazza was hardly Viktor The Terrible tbf.

Even at his least favoured by the "establishment", he still had one of the most powerful men in the USSR on his side.

[Ian Rogers]

Ah, I'd forgotten that. I don't think the idea of Korchnoi being a target if he'd won is totally ridiculous. Those Kremlin boys don't mess about if they're unhappy.

Well as far as I'm aware there's an absolute absence of any evidence for any such thing involving Korchnoi, and that kind of dominates my thinking on the matter.

I am not sure if this would count as firm evidence, but Korchnoi said to me that he had discovered in his KGB file (which he said bought for $400 soon after the USSR collapsed) that he was supposed to be assassinated before he left the Philippines had he beaten Karpov in 1978. Korchnoi also said he had asked Tal (a member of Karpov's team) if this was really plausible and Tal said he had never heard about it but could well imagine that it was true. Given that Tal died in mid 1992, the timeline here is rather tight, but possible.