First rate BBC documentary. Enjoy
M J M
Archive for the ‘Documentaries’ Category
Where Karpov is king
Posted in Documentaries on August 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Be it wholesome chess
Posted in Documentaries on August 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Esteemed chess fan and snooker world champion Steve Davis used to say that playing snooker was a sign of a mispent youth. Is constantly watching videos about chess a sign of a mispent adulthood? If so, guilty as charged but anyway there is a rapidly increasing number of themed compilation videos on chess appearing on youtube these days. On the whole they are quite watchable but some are obviously better than others. The two embedded below have well chosen content methinks for they show chess players in a light they are not normally portrayed in. Both definitely worth a watch -you will see that the best in the world are indeed very human.
M J M
How good were they at Sans Voir?
Posted in Documentaries on August 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Sans Voir is the French term for Blindfold Chess btw. Here old masters Euwe and Botvinnik play a televised game of blindfold chess. It’s for Dutch tv, so its in Dutch but as you most surely know, you can use subtitles and change them to English with youtube. I don’t know who that is moving the pieces on the demonstration board, the commentary provided is there for the benefit of the audience, most obviously.
M J M
Two short videos
Posted in Documentaries on August 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Video 1
Magnus loses in 19 moves if you can believe that. Judit comments on the game whilst Magnus is heckled by Giri.
Video 2
A hustler stays in the game against Hikaru, or just about, before being massacred in the endgame.
M J M
Duels Of The Mind
Posted in Documentaries on August 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The old tv series devised and presented by GM Keene can be found below. All 12 episodes are there with some historical context provided and reasonable analysis of the game in question. Quite watchable I would say. The channel to which they belong (Chess Romantic) is worth looking at also as it has a lot of quality content on it.
M J M
Vishy: positions, games, and career.
Posted in Documentaries on August 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Quality production here where Vishy is shown positions from some of the games in his career then has to name which game exactly the positions come from. Even though they go back as far as 1984, Vishy is able to discuss them at length as well as games and matches surrounding them, placing much content in context. In depth analysis from start to finish as well as Vishy at his humble best. Real insight offered throughout and a must see. Great journalism in play here.
Aha
Posted in Documentaries on August 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Aha, another day with little to do looms, and so I search for chess documentaries to watch rather than wander off to Oxford to frequent its drinking establishments before staggering home in the dark. I have linked a doc here that gives an account of Kasparov from both himself and those who played him, with some criticisms of him thrown in! His agent also gives an account of the challenges he faces by having such a busy international lifestyle, and it also contains a lot of original footage you won’t find elsewhere, including an interview with his mother detailing the very beginnings of Garry’s interest in chess and the challenges they faced as well as footage of Kasparov with his children when they were very young. Kasparov’s attempt to unite chess with the tech world of his day is also documented.
With so much footage made of Kasparov it can be difficult to know what to watch, however, this is worth it, even if you’re not a big fan of the guy as it gives an informative sense of what it can be like to be the world champion, which he was when the documentary was made. Historians may take note that when Kasparov visits an intellectual society to discuss Russian historians, Kasparov’s objections to history being rewritten in the west are rather over-reactionary as any postmodernist can tell you there has always been bias in history and that’s hardly anything new. Go to the 44.00 mark for that stuff.
Informative doc on the K v K duels
Posted in Documentaries on May 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Speelman wins with the Lenningrad Dutch
Posted in Documentaries on May 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Here Jon Speelman defeats Kasparov. Much quality analysis can be found between the two players also.
MJM
World Chess Championship London Karpov v Kasparov 1986
Posted in Documentaries on May 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
It could be argued that the coverage leaves a lot to be desired, however, it is worth a watch -but only just!
MJM
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A side note on how to read old Tom Sweby's columns
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Not perhaps, but quintessentially, Old Tom Sweby is best thought of as a passionate devotee to the newspapers he wrote for. He was well read and knowledgeable of the Bedfordshire chess scene and well beyond, given that he was the president of the S.C.C.U. once upon a time. He was generally well-respected and rubbed shoulders with many, if not all, of those eminent within British chess circles. It would, however, be a critical mistake to see his column is primary source material entirely. That it is not. You will also find secondary source material quoted too, and the reliability of that is not quite as Tom hoped. Given that he wrote for decades, this is to some degree inevitable, and after all we are all prone to error whether we realize it or not. Thankfully, with regards to old Tom Sweby, they are infrequent and for the most part old Tom continued to document events and developments in the Bedfordshire league from the get go as best he could but, of course, everything lies open to interpretation. Despite this, and generally speaking. this does indeed make him informative and thus worth reading. Dare I say his columns constitute a narrative describing the latest developments, match reports and changing nature of the Beds league...he knew his audience and wrote according. This manifested itself over decades but brevity was always in play courtesy of the restictions imposed by writing a column. Should you wish to read a in instrumental figure of the Beds' league post WW2, you are quite welcome to peruse what has been posted here... . :-) I should, however, point out that as the decades wore on he gradually moved on away from narratives concerning the Bedfordshire league towards affairs both historical and international. The reasons for this are multifarous, old age was a predominante factor presumably, however, the bottom line is with regards to how the Bedfordshire chess scene developed post WW2: old Tom Sweby is your go to guy. He wrote more about chess in Bedforshire than anyone else did but given he was a Lutonian and writing for a Luton newspaper there is both bias and greater coverage of his hometown than the rest of the county.
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