ARTE: Kasparov – Chess Rebel

by Frederic Friedel
10/31/2024 – ARTE Culture, the French-German film production and TV channel, recently made a full six-part dramatic re-enactment of the epic 1997 match between Garry Kasparov and the super-computer Deep Blue. At the same time they broadcast a 50-minute portrait that traces the extraordinary life and career of the global icon. The film contains many historically interviews by personalities from the time. It is well worth watching.

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You can watch the Kasparov portrait on the ARTE channel until the 16th of November – o0r you can catch it on YouTube, where it will probably be available forever. Here for starters is the ARTE link:

Watch this Arte documentary of Garry Kasparov here 

The audio is in French and German – but you can get subtitle translations:  

Here is the YouTube version, with full English subtitles

And here are some visual impressions from this must-watch video portrait:

Leonid Brezhnev greeting and encouraging Anatoly Karpov

Parents Kim Weinstein and Klara Kasparian, and infant Garry

The young upstart from Baku – with mother Klara

Young Garry taking first steps in local chess clubs

The budding chess genius to become...

Garry, in the early years of his chess career

The portrait includes some unique and insightful interviews with Garry's former trainer

Bachar Kouatly and Jan Timman describe early years with Garry Kasparov. There are many interesting interviews and narrative with other personalities. 

This 53-minute video has been meticulously researched and composed. I'll admit that I am somewhat biased, having known and accompanied Garry since he was 17. I have also met and interacted with most of the personalities who appear in the production. So it was especially moving to watch the ARTE documentary. I sincerely hope it will affect our readers in similar fashion – or at least comprehensively inform them on the career of this remarkable rebel who transformed the world of chess.  

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Editor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.
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Video

60m English Anti-Bayonet

King’s Indian fans who choose the Mar del Plata attack (7...Nc6) against White’s classical system (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0) usually aim for a complex position with mutual attacks on open wings, requiring long-term strategic planning and tactical sharpness in critical moments. Computers often do not know how to handle the arising complex strategic positions, which suits players who like to think on their own instead of memorizing long variations. However, the fashionable Bayonet Attack (9.b4) interferes with Black’s ideas. After Black’s main move 9...Nh5 the positions opens, the lines get forced and computer analysis is important again. But this DVD offers an antidote against White’s Bayonet Attack, namely 9...a5! This move leads to sound positions with very few concrete lines, in which the focus is on strategy not on tactics. Objectively chances are equal but if Black knows what to do things might quickly become dangerous for White.

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davide2015 davide2015 11/5/2024 10:32
Very strange, not available for US. Maybe it's behind a pay wall?
Frederic Frederic 11/1/2024 01:44
@chessbibliophile, @kerryliles: Not even the YouTube version I linked to above? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4TwKBRjRx8. It's difficult for me to check whether such videos are free for all countries. Please let me know if the YouTube is available where you live.
chessbibliophile chessbibliophile 11/1/2024 02:38
Not available in India!
kerryliles kerryliles 10/31/2024 07:48
This video not available in your country... (Canada)
Frederic Frederic 10/31/2024 03:30
I'm gonna hafta stop switching on the feedback.
WillScarlett WillScarlett 10/31/2024 02:59
Ah yes ! The "rebel" who joined the Komsomol (the Communist Union of Youth) and later the Communist Party itself, and who enjoyed and benefited from the support of high-ranking Soviet and Azerbaijani Communist Party official Heydar Aliyev, who was First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan (essentially the leader of Azerbaijan during the Soviet period) and later ascended to the Politburo, was a virtual Spartacus !

Jettisoning his father's surname to hide behind a variant of his mother's was tantamount to adopting Zorro's mask ! ( a tactic that never occurred to Bronstein, Rabinovich, or Levenfish ) , young Garry was truly a latter-day Robin Hood .
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