Synopsis
The story of the 1978 World Chess Championship between the Soviet Communist Party's protege, Anatoly Karpov and the traitor and Soviet defector, Viktor Korchnoi. One of those instances in life where truth is stranger than fiction.
Closing Gambit: 1978 Korchnoi versus Karpov and the Kremlin
2018 Directed by Alan Byron
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Theatrical
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UK
Releases by Country
UK
26 Oct 2018
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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The 1972 world chess championship between Spassky and Fischer gets a lot of media play because it is a fairly straightforward story. It is the US v USSR on the biggest stage - a simple proxy for the Cold War. Of course, it does not hurt that Fischer was such a colorful character who eventually lost his grip on reality.
On the other hand, the 1978 match is not as discussed. While it still has both an element of geopolitics and memorable characters, it is far more nuanced. By '78 the Soviets were facing unyielding economic stagnation, and Brezhnev had mostly reversed the liberalizing reforms of Khrushchev. In short, the country was ripe for internal struggle and instability. This reality…
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A fairly interesting nuts and bolts educational documentary for chess nerds exclusively. If you have an inkling of interest in chess history during the era of Soviet domination, give this a shot.
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A very straightforward doco about an amaaaaazing story and time and situation. So many crazy mindgames, so much bitchy high school nonsense, glorious. It's a documentary about chess but it had me hootin' and hollerin. What a time.
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I really miss the times when geopolitical battles were also fought out across the chessboard and the whole world was genuinely watching with bated breath how those games would turn out.
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Hmm. Not as interesting as I thought it would be! But I do cherish the image of a KGB doctor seated in the front row of a chess match who may or may not be emitting psychic energy
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An interesting documentary looking back to when chess was a battleground in the Cold War with a classic clash of personalities between the first hot headed Victor Korchnoi and the ice cool Anatomy Karpov. While we're from the Soviet Union, Karpov was very much a product of the system and therefore promoted and protected by it. The older Korchnoi was not and when decided the system would always favour Karpov over him, he defected to the West, leaving his wife and child behind just to advance his chess career. So when both men came face to face for the world title in 1978 it was never going to be just a chess match. For Korchnoi it was a chance to…
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There's been some sporadic interest for chess from the film industry
- mostly related to Fischer, because it's such a classic "genius gone mad" story, but also for this particular match - but I really hope that at some point people realize just how much comedic potential there is in chess personalities and competition. This 1978 Karpov - Korchnoi match has enough material that could work for some Coen-esque dark comedy, from the eccentric personalities (particularly of Korchnoi), political notes, bizarre controversies, pettiness, parapsychologists and convicted murderers being employed by the players teams respectively in order to get a psychological edge. Oh and pretty interesting over the board happenings.The documentary is an interesting enough and well organized overview of…
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Many chess experts consider Viktor Korchnoi the greatest chess player who never became World Champion, and this 1978 match with Karpov was the closest he ever got. But so much was stacked against him systematically with the Russian chess federation, the Russian government, and KGB all joining hands to prevent defector Korchnoi from taking the title away from the Soviet Union.
This match serves as THE climax of world chess during the Cold War years of the 1970s and 1980, and this documentary does an excellent job describing all the intrigue, psychological warfare, and dirty tricks involved.
As a former high school chess coach during the 1980s and expert level tournament player, I am very familiar with this championship. I've… -
