Closing Gambit: Korchnoi vs Karpov & The Kremlin

As a chess player, Korchnoi never really attracted me. But after watching this doco I may go back and examine his games. But this doco is not only for chess players (apart from about 3 specific moves) it is all about the man Viktor. A Russian chess prodigy he defects from the USSR and then takes on the mighty Soviet chess/political system and damn nearly destroys it.

Lovely commentary from a host of chess contemporaries, you see Viktor in his prime, in his depths of disaster and in his return. Likewise Karpov has come up in my eyes because of his compassion after the fall of Communism.

If you know something about chess, this story is for you. If you do not, this story is for you. This is just a great story. Enjoy.

I used to play quite a lot of chess when I was younger and now picking it up again. Watching different World championship matches is an integral and fascinating part of the journey. When I saw the trailer for this film I really excited. Tense, close battle full of drama with a bit of Cold War politics sprinkled all over. I am afraid to say that this film was 80% politics and KGB/USSR bashing (mainly by bitter Eastern Europeans and holier than thou haughty residents of the Perfidious Albion). Not one game was shown in any detail. KGB this, KGB that. Poor Viktor etc etc. Well, poor Viktor loved himself so much that he left his family behind and was no way near Karpov's level. I grew up in the USSR and so have my parents and many of my friends. Everyone had a good time. Golden childhood. This film was a missed opportunity. I almost bought it but luckily it is available for free on Amazon Prime. Since I will never watch it again, I guess I saved myself some money. Shame, as I would happily pay as long as the film is worth it. Not bad, not great. 5/10.

Great movie. It tells a story about when chess was political. It makes me want to learn more about chess history. Fantastic movie, highly recommended.

It's a lot of good info about geopolitical history and chess history in one place. So what is there not to like? It's interviews with interesting chess experts many of who are still the top people in the scene. And you have geopolitics from Europe, Soviet, USA and Philippines. The doc never gets stale and you always feel like it's going towards a new match or new experience. Chess is made fun and the Soviet dominance is explained very well here. Even today the Russian chess scene is the biggest in the world so this is still relevant history.

Even though Karpov gives interviews here he is made to look like the evil KGB guy sent to destroy the world. It's a curious role for him, but I wonder how fair it is? He did do his best and KGB helped him because he was on their side. He's obviously super nationalistic and supports his dictatorship at all times. Even now he supports Putin and fascist Russia. So he is someone who doesn't mind breaking, destroying or ruining people as such if it's done to make the dictator more powerful. Now and then Russia killed and tortured enemies of the state. Karpov has always been part of the system, but I don't think he's directly evil. He is just extremely greedy and wants to win no matter what. That's not quite evilness. But the doc also gets to that at the end. Karpov just grew up with evil people around him and always just accepted it blindly. I don't think he enjoyed KGB ruining chess for his opponents. Rather he enjoys winning and being famous in his country.

The music does overshadow the dialogue at times. There were many lines I couldn't quite make out. And much of the history was rushed. So instead of telling us when or where a match was played they just show a result on screen or just mention the match. It can be hard to fully understand the timeline here. The production overall is not top-tier and you can clearly feel it. Everything feels a bit like a Youtube video with too fast pace and flashy music. But it's not bad. It kinda feels like a good doc without being overly expensive. Like some young inexperienced people made it with great passion.

The chess is also lacking. Clearly the makers didn't understand chess so they didn't care to show chess games. Rather we hear about some great move via dialogue as the chess board is shown from the side so it's impossible to make out the position. That's a bit weak as a chess board would have given me more to focus on and could have made them slow down the doc a bit to a proper pace. But that's not what the producers wanted. This is a lightspeed doc for everyone with nothing you won't get intellectually. But yet you still won't hear some of the dialogue or understand everything because the production value is a bit below top class.