Netflix

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Roger de Coverly
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Netflix

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Jan 01, 2018 11:19 pm

Carl noted elsewhere that there's a documentary about AlphaGo on Netflix.

There's also one about Magnus.

A Guardian reviewer didn't think very much of it, but there's Lawrence Trent on the big screen featured as "Commentator".
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/n ... rong-moves

Nick Burrows
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Re: Netflix

Post by Nick Burrows » Tue Jan 02, 2018 11:10 am

I enjoyed the Magnus documentary, largely due to the footage of him as a child through to adulthood. It's nice to see the environment that shaped him and watch his development. Surprised to see him isolated and lonely at school. It made me like him more than I did.

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: Netflix

Post by Carl Hibbard » Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:54 pm

I will go off topic and also recommend then a gem hidden further in their interface:

Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo
Cheers
Carl Hibbard

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MJMcCready
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Re: Netflix

Post by MJMcCready » Tue Jan 02, 2018 9:15 pm

Nick Burrows wrote:
Tue Jan 02, 2018 11:10 am
I enjoyed the Magnus documentary, largely due to the footage of him as a child through to adulthood. It's nice to see the environment that shaped him and watch his development. Surprised to see him isolated and lonely at school. It made me like him more than I did.
Thanks for that, I will watch it later in the week. Hopefully it has more substance than Bobby Fischer against the world, which didn't tell us very much.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Netflix

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Jan 02, 2018 9:34 pm

Nick Burrows wrote:
Tue Jan 02, 2018 11:10 am
I enjoyed the Magnus documentary, largely due to the footage of him as a child through to adulthood.
It was surprisingly high quality, as if it had been shot specifically as part of a documentary rather than as home video. Perhaps it was, as he had been identified as a prodigy at quite a young age. By the time he was playing Kasparov, that would have attracted mainstream media.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Netflix

Post by MJMcCready » Tue Jan 02, 2018 11:19 pm

Carl Hibbard wrote:
Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:54 pm
I will go off topic and also recommend then a gem hidden further in their interface:

Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo
And to go off topic slightly also, in the award winning documentary from 2006 'Deep Water', from which two films will be released this year, that which documents the disastrous round the world yacht race of 1968. The character at the centre of it gives a rather curious account of what he called 'cosmic chess' towards the end.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460766/

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Netflix

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:36 am

"I enjoyed the Magnus documentary, largely due to the footage of him as a child through to adulthood. It's nice to see the environment that shaped him and watch his development. Surprised to see him isolated and lonely at school. It made me like him more than I did."

I played in Gausdal a couple of times when he was initially not yet a GM. I was impressed that after he got the title, he continued to support the tournament and people who helped him. Also he was happy to socialise with the other juniors (and even joined in the analysis of one of my games!). After one painful loss, he was playing table tennis with his mates half an hour later, so I got the impression he was a nice guy.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Netflix

Post by MJMcCready » Thu Jan 04, 2018 9:09 am

I'm glad you did. I have got 27 minutes in so far and am already wondering what the purpose behind the documentary is. It does show Magnus growing up and, at times, self-absorbed at school but all children have such moments when they grow up. He does seem quite happy but that's hardly surprising given what a great father he has. A documentary should have some degree of depth to it at least, rather than just show him playing chess and winning all the time it would help if it showed how his style evolved more with examples of technique with a more balanced sense of approach to what he got wrong and right. It seems rather superficial and one dimensional so far. I think we all know he is the world champion and can all infer that he won some games as a child, I was hoping to see quite a bit more than that. The clips of him talking to you about chess tell you very little and the narration from his father lacks any real insight in my opinion.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Netflix

Post by MJMcCready » Thu Jan 04, 2018 10:11 pm

I managed to get 42 minutes in before it became apparent that the documentary is superficial and a waste of time.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Netflix

Post by MJMcCready » Wed Jan 10, 2018 5:13 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Mon Jan 01, 2018 11:19 pm
Carl noted elsewhere that there's a documentary about AlphaGo on Netflix.

There's also one about Magnus.

A Guardian reviewer didn't think very much of it, but there's Lawrence Trent on the big screen featured as "Commentator".
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/n ... rong-moves
I just watched Alphago, for more stimulating intellectually than Magnus was.

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