In my endless quest for ways to pass the time until the votes start coming in, I found on Netflix a miniseries called The Queen's Gambit. Based on a novel, this is the story of an orphan girl who is a chess prodigy. The series has seven parts, each one almost an hour in length, and the last part (I have only seen three parts thus far) is devoted to a game that she plays against a strong Russian Grand Master.
That fictional game is based on an actual game that was played in 1993. The Russian Grand Master was Ivanchuk, a very strong player. His opponent was… my son, Patrick Wolff. Not a bad way to pass the time!
Nice! I liked the first episode of QG, and now I'll certainly continue watching.
ReplyDeleteProf. Wollff, as a lover of chess, thank you for the movie reference. I will be sure to watch it.
ReplyDeleteAnother movie about chess is Pawn Sacrifice, which depicts the World Championship title competition between Bobby Fischer (Tobey MaGuire) and Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). The movie focuses mostly on the irascible, temperamental personality of Fischer vs. Spassky’s taciturn, self-composure. The movie unfortunately does not have any play by play narrative of the chess moves in some of the critical games, particularly in game 6, the turning point of the match, in which Fisher’s chess moves appear strategically inexplicable, until he checkmates Spassky. His performance in that game was so phenomenal that even Spassky, joined by the audience, stood up to give Fischer a standing ovation.
Fischer’s chess coach during that match was William Lombardy, a Catholic priest and a brilliant chess player in his own right, who still holds the record of the only person to win the World Junior Championship with a perfect score, in 1957. In the movie, Lombardy was portrayed by Peter Sarsgard. I have an older brother who is a resident in a nursing home in Manhattan. During a telephone conversation in 2016, my brother asked me if I was willing to speak to a fellow resident who had some legal issues that I might be able to help him with. I spoke to the gentleman, who did not identify himself. He indicated that he was being held in the nursing home, which was run by the Archdiocese of New York, against his will and he had filed a legal action seeking a writ of habeas corpus to obtain his freedom. He explained to me that in addition to being held against his will, the nursing home had confiscated his chess set. He told me that he was a former priest and was engaged in an ongoing feud with Cardinal Dolan. I asked him what his name was, and he responded, William Lombardy. I thought, my God. I am talking to the Grand Master who had served as Bobby Fischer’s second during the Fischer-Spassky match. Regarding his legal issues, I expressed doubt that an action to seek a writ of habeas corpus would apply to the nursing home, because the writ, as far as I knew, only applied to an unconstitutional incarceration by a state entity. He disagreed with me, and assured me that he had researched the issue and that it was applicable to his situation. I did not argue with him – he was very self-confident and obviously a person one did not argue with. I asked him what he thought of the current world champion, Magnus Carlsen, and he responded that if Fischer were alive he would easily defeat Carlsen. As far as he was concerned, Fischer was the greatest chess player who had ever lived. We finished our conversation and I wished him luck in his legal efforts. The next time I spoke to my brother, he told me that Lombardy was no longer living in the nursing home. William Lombardy passed away on October 13, 2017, with a major obituary in the New York Times celebrating his prodigious chess talents.
MS, Fascinating. I watched the reports of the Fisher Spassky match on public TV and my young son's interest in my fascination goaded him to ask me to teach him the game. The rest, as they say, is history.
ReplyDeleteProf. Wolff:
ReplyDeleteI'm a lover of chess myself (and a expert-ish sub-2200 player) and one of the first instructional chess DVD's I ever owned (back in the early 90s) was one of your son's, though the title escapes me now. When I discovered your blog several years ago I was shocked to learn that you were his father. I'd always wondered what 'happened' to him, haha. Tough to earn a living in chess, even as a GM. I wonder how they decided which game to use ... cool that they chose one of his though!
Ivanchuk is Ukrainian, not Russian.
ReplyDeleteoh wow! Started watching it a couple of days ago!
ReplyDeleteI once saw Ivanchuk play in St. Louis for Ukraine. Top player, super grand master.
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