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Interesting item on Chessbase site today:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/grandmaster-clash-stephen-fry-berichtet-ueber-die-schacholympiade-1988

Today, Tuesday 10 September, at 18:00, the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest will begin with the Opening Ceremony. To get in the mood for this Olympiad, it might be worth looking back at another Olympiad - the one held in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1988. The English comedian, writer, actor and chess enthusiast Stephen Fry made a documentary about it - witty, entertaining, full of irony and humour. As Fry said: "An event I wouldn't have missed for the world."

The referenced Chessbase story has a youtube link to the (entire?) 48 minute documentary.

Thank you Geeker,

I like Stephen Fry and this looks great, really interested to hear his thoughts and musings on it all:-)

I watched it. Worthwhile, but a bit slow. Heavily focused on the English team, which is OK, but perhaps Bill Hartston had too much screen time. I was annoyed because, although the Youtube lead said Ivanchuk was "featured", all I noticed was a brief image of the youthful mustachioed Chuky standing on the podium with the rest of Team USSR.

Brendan, if you haven't seen it agadmator posted a really good game today.
Shashin-Korchnoi, Leningrad (ch) 1973. I think I saw this game long ago but had forgotten it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRCsBSws10

Thanks Geeker, that was a good match.

When White played cxd4 I thought it was a blunder, only for Agadmator to show that if Black did take the pawn, he'd be mated a few moves later!

That pin by the bishop on Black's king was absolutely brutal.

I've just got around to watching the 'dark comedy' Slow Horses. There's a scene where an MI5 officer plays a chess game against an FSB (or KGB?) agent and wins after sacrificing some major pieces, citing "The Immortal Game" of 1851 between Anderssen and Kieseritzky - naturally I had to immediately go on YouTube to re-watch Agadmator's critique of it. I know you'll have seen it Geeker, but for anyone who hasn't, here it is:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaKWUiiEHgA&ab_channel=agadmator%27sChessChannel

Thanks, brendan.

See if you can find the game Abdusattorov-Maghsoodlo, European Chess Club Cup 2024 round 4, played 23 Oct.

Two extremely strong GMs. Maghsoodlo had a totally winning position (computer eval -14) against the formidable Abdu. He tried to finish in style with a flashy but unsound Queen sacrifice 34...Qxg3?? and lost tragically. I watched the drama unfolding live.

Here's the (unannotated) game.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2797437
Maghsoodloo overlooked the Zwischenschach 35. Qd8+!, after which Abdu could capture Black's Q with 36. hxg3 and then play 37. Qh4 to block Black's check with the Rook. Ouch. Combination of 2 tricky things: Zwischenzug and long backward move.

Thanks Geeker, without the commentary of an Epic Chess or Agadmator I'm not really at a level to appreciate all the blunders and brilliancies but I did at least see that the Black King had no moves (although a couples of moves earlier I couldn't understand why Black didn't promote it's c pawn).

I put the two names into YouTube and, although this game wasn't listed, there was a very enjoyable match between them at the Tata Steel 2024 on Agadmator's channel which I also enjoyed.

Clue in today's Guardian (Qaos):
Country's first chess champion, unknown (5)