Footage of 1960s Hastings tournaments

[O.G. Urcan]

The Chess Notes website has just posted some links which I have provided for footage of a number of chess events, including tournaments played in Hastings in the 1960s.

Edward Winter's site also has a feature article Chess Masters on Film offering many other such links. There is even a film sequence in which Capablanca's voice can be heard.

[MJMcCready]

Some interesting footage there, thanks for sharing.

[Matt Mackenzie]

"Russians" Keres and Gaprindashvili, I see

[Kevin Thurlow]

That Hastings (66-7) was the first time I saw Balashov in action. Last week in Vienna was the second time...

Thanks for footage!

[Matt Mackenzie]

Also noticed Abram Khasin was in one of the clips - amongst the strongest disabled players ever?

(he lost both of his legs during WW2)

Surprised he has never (I think) got an honorary GM title, he was easily strong enough for it by today's standards.

[Tim Harding]

Also noticed Abram Khasin was in one of the clips - amongst the strongest disabled players ever?

(he lost both of his legs during WW2)

Surprised he has never (I think) got an honorary GM title, he was easily strong enough for it by today's standards.

Belatedly I have just noticed Matt's post about Abram Iosifovich Khasin, and agree he deserves great respect. He is still alive so far as I know, 92 years old (born 15 Feb. 1923 in Ukraine) and has the FIDE IM title.

Khasin earned the ICCF (correspondence chess) grandmaster title with several fine performances from about 1968-1998 and was awarded the title in 1992.

In 1999 when I was editing Chess Mail magazine, I managed (thanks to GM Alex Baburin who did the translation) to arrange for Vladimir Barsky to interview Khasin and the resulting article in Chess Mail 6/1999 is probably the best account of his career in English. He didn't tell Barsky exactly what happened when he was severely wounded, but I believe it was at the battle of Stalingrad or around that time.

He speaks of taking up chess again in 1944 after his rehabilitation in Moscow, where he lived subsequently and worked as a chess coach. Among his students he named Gulko, Fatalibekova and Bareev. He himself had been a student of Konstantinopolsky.