Garry Kasparov on VPRO

The program begins with Dutch commentary, but switches to English after two and a half minutes.

Whom would you like to play of the great players of the past? "If I say Fischer, the question then is why not Lasker?" Kasparov discusses his great predecessors.

Chess as science and art.

Kasparov and Joris Luyendijk discuss and watch scenes from films like "From Russia with Love", "2001", "Luzhin Defence", "Amadeus", "Roman Holiday".

They discuss the 1982 Football match between Brazil and Italy. Kasparov compares it to his games against Petrosian, where the great Armenian played the role of the defensive Italian team against the "Brazilian" Kasparov – and won. Kasparov extends the analogy to his matches against Karpov, where he was able to draw his opponent into his territory, and against Kramnik, where he was drawn into the uncomfortable style of his erstwhile pupil.

Kasparov analyses the Battle of Agincourt, fought in 1415 between the armies of the English King Henry V and Charles VI of France. They watch scenes from Kenneth Branagh's film Henry V based on the play by William Shakespeare.

This report does, to a fair degree, capture the personality of Garry Kasparov in general, relaxed discourse. It is something we know from countless dinners, where conversation will often proceed along the lines of Joris Luyendijk's excellent film. Don't miss it.

How to watch the report

• A good way is to visit the Wintergasten home page where there are links to the film clips on the right. Everything is in Dutch.

• The full video is available here. The connection is somewhat slow so that the film tends to freeze (with the audio continuing perfectly). We will probably trash their bandwidth by sending ten thousand visitors to watch the report. It is probably best to try late at night.

• If you want to watch the report in your own media player try this link.

• The report was broadcast last Friday on Dutch TV. We are told that there will be a repeat on next Saturday at 13:40 h on the second national Dutch channel.