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Sunday, June 30, 2013
Chess Kids 20 Years Later - Documentary Trailer
12th Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Latest Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013
Hi everyone,
Weekend chess movie trailer: A follow-up to the acclaimed Chess Kids (1996), this Special Edition release delivers the original award-winning documentary remastered for DVD, and includes all new engaging interviews with the original players, nearly 20 years later!
This clip features internationally renowned chess masters Judit Polgar, Josh Waitzkin, Morgan Pehme, Victoria Fossum, Joseph Conlon, and more! Enjoy the chess clip.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
This is a chess documentary about the charismatic Lewis Chess pieces which were found under mysterious circumstances in the Outer Hebrides. The documentary focuses on archaeological and cultural significance of these Medieval chess pieces.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
Here is a super chess video on children and chess. It covers the Chess for Change programme in South Africa, children playing chess in the Bronx area in the US and more. Playing chess an-hour a-day is great for children. Sit back and enjoy the video.
Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk Backs Algorithms - Documentary on Blind Chess Players
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
We just have 12th Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk backing a very special chess documentary: Algorithms by Ian McDonald.
Donald has been running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for ALGORITHMS - our documentary on blind chess players from India. GM Kosteniuk has been supporting the documentary all along.
The Kickstarter campaign is nearing nearing the final date and they have only 6 days left with still need £6K to raise! Don't hesitate, pitch in whatever you can to support chess and support chess for the blind.
The film will be screened at two international film festivals soon including the RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Brooklyn Castle Chess Movie: Must-Watch Twice; Free Tickets for Teachers!
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Have you watched chess documentary Brooklyn Castle yet? You have missed something special if you haven't! There's still time to catch this fantastic chess movie in a theater near you. Brooklyn Castle opened in NYC theaters on October 19 and is currently playing in select cities across the United States. The press and reviews for the film have been amazing.
Brooklyn Castle is now certified 'fresh' by Rotten Tomatoes.
Brooklyn Castle has got great reviews in the NY Times, LA Times and other places. Click on the photo to watch an interview on the Daily Show!
Teachers also get to see the documentary for FREE: Pick up the free tickets at this link.
MOVIE INFO Brooklyn Castle is the remarkable and improbable true story of I.S. 318 in Brooklyn. The school, where 65% of students live below the federal poverty level, has the highest ranked junior high chess team in the nation. The heart of the film is the engaging young students who populate the team: Rochelle, who has the goal of becoming the first female African-American chess master; Pobo, the team's charismatic leader; Justus, an entering student who must manage the high expectations that come with achieving master status at an early age; Alexis, who feels the pressure of his immigrant parents' desire for him to realize the American dream; Patrick, who uses chess to help overcome his ADHD; and James, the young rapping maestro and budding chess talent; among several others. Directed By: Katie Dellamaggiore In Theaters: Oct 19, 2012 Limited Read all previous Chess Blog posts on Brooklyn Castle here.
We would say, Brooklyn Castle is a chess movie to be watched twice over - once for the love of chess and once again for the love of children who play chess!
Ian McDonald is a sports sociologist and documentary filmmaker. Having always used the camera to support his research on sport and physical culture in UK and India, Ian’s move to documentary filmmaking, benefits from a seemingly effortless ‘way of seeing’ that has resulted in documentaries with a difference on art and sport, especially of the ‘sporting outsider’- the one who is seen as ‘different’ by a ‘normal’ society. His documentaries have been screened at film festivals, conferences and campaign meetings around the world. Ian is based at the University of Brighton, UK.
ALGORITHMSIndia | 2012 | HDV | B&W | 109 mins English, Hindi, Tamil, Odiya with English subtitles
In India, a group of boys dream of becoming Chess Masters, driven by a man with a vision. But this is no ordinary chess and these are no ordinary players. Algorithms is a documentary on the thriving but little known world of Blind Chess in India.
Filmed over three years, Algorithms travels with three talented boys and a totally blind player turned pioneer to competitive national and world championships and visits them in their home milieu where they reveal their struggles, anxieties and hopes.
Going beyond sight and story, this observational sport docu with a difference moves through the algorithms of the blind chess world challenging the sighted of what it means to see. It allows for the tactile and thoughtful journey that explores foresight, sight and vision to continue long after the moving image ends.
Brooklyn Castle – The Film is a documentary that follows five chess team members from I.S. 318 for one year, and documents their challenges and triumphs both on and off the chessboard. I.S. 318 has been consistently winning National Championships, positioning itself as one of the strongest chess teams in the country.
The film opened on June 1st in Brooklyn, New York to a sold-out crowd. Tickets were sold out for weeks, which proves that New York continues to be the chess capital of the United States.
The documentary was invited to screen at more than a dozen U.S. and international film festivals. The world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in March won the Audience Award in the documentary category there. Since then, it's also earned the Audience Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival in California, and audiences voted it one of their Top 10 favorites (out of nearly 200 films) at Toronto's Hot Docs Film Festival.
Chess players are born or made? What Alexander Alekhine thought!
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
Here is a beautiful video pointed out via @kosteniuk and @chessqueen twitter accounts by fan @swalkiki. The video has been uploaded by alecksandrkoblents on YouTube. Enjoy.
Efim Petrovich Geller (March 8, 1925 – November 17, 1998) was a Soviet chess player and world-class grandmaster at his peak. Geller was also a coach to World Champions Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov. Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov (24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian grandmaster, and was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958.
Don't forget to share your chess videos with us. Have lots of chess fun! From Alexandra Kosteniuk's www.chessblog.com Also see her personal blog at www.chessqueen.com
Brooklyn Castle - the lovely chess film about junior high with highest rated chess team in the US!
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
We have an update about a nice chess documentary - Brooklyn Castle. It’s a great film about a low-income junior high school in Brooklyn that has the highest rated chess team in the whole country. Wow.
Here's the trailer from www.BrooklynCastle.com. They are also rolling out our outreach campaign (which will focus on getting more chess programs in schools throughout the country).
Brooklyn, New York’s I.S. 318 is a junior high school where over 65% of students are from homes living below the federal poverty level. It also has the best junior high school chess team, bar none, in the entire country. They win nearly every tournament they play in – and regularly beat out schools, and other students, with a lot more resources. Despite being underfunded and underserved, I.S. 318 is home to some of the highest ranked students in the country. In fact, if Albert Einstein, who was rated 1800, were to join the team, he’d be fifth best. We followed the lives of five of these amazing kids – Alexis, Justus, Patrick, Pobo and Rochelle – for a year and saw their triumphs and struggles, both on and off the chessboard, and marveled at how they handled both.
Brooklyn Castle is a documentary that is as much about the ability for public schools to do great things when they have the resources as it is about these five young lives. In 2003, I.S. 318 was listed as a “school in need of improvement.” Today, it’s one of New York City’s best, and its students matriculate to some of the most prestigious high schools in the country. The chess program has led the school to create a vibrant and varied afterschool program which John Galvin, assistant principal, credits with creating the “culture of success” at the school. But what we learned in making this documentary is that even with a staff that cares and students that work hard, a lack of resources can undermine even the most hard-won achievements. Budget cuts now seriously threaten the very existence of I.S. 318’s afterschool programs. The demise of these incredibly necessary programs is certain to have serious consequences for both I.S. 318 and its students.
WHERE WE ARE WITH THE FILM, AND HOW WE’RE USING IT:
Brooklyn Castle is near completion. We're raising these funds, partly, for the finishing touches that make a film look, feel and sound like a movie, and they include final music scoring, final animation, sound mixing, sound design and color correction. Once accepted into a film festival, we are launching a robust audience engagement and outreach campaign that has three goals: 1) to get people talking about how incredibly important afterschool programming 2) to inspire the creation of more afterschool programs in schools across the country and 3) to influence the resources that are allotted for these programs – a really timely goal, because in recessionary periods like the one we’re in now, these programs are the first to go. We’ve partnered with education organizations like the Afterschool Alliance, as well as chess organizations like the United States Chess Federation to mention just a couple. But we still have a lot of work to do. With the help of our partners, who know a lot more about this stuff than we do, we’re going to do a 10-city screening campaign which will target principals and administrators of underserved schools to inform them how to create and maintain chess and other quality afterschool programs at their schools. We’ll also give them tangible tool kits – including success stories, testimonials, and step-by-step guides – and discussion guides and DVDs for screenings at their schools and/or local community spaces. We’re designing a mobile app that will let people donate directly to schools in need of funds for their afterschool programs. And we’re working with local programs in cities throughout the country to get administrators and funders in rooms together, so they can talk about how incredibly important these programs are.
We are seriously and earnestly committed to the idea of having Brooklyn Castledo more than just tell a story – we really want it to have a genuine, positive impact, and we feel confident that if we work with people and organizations that share our goals, it will.
THE ASK:
You knew it was coming…
The thing is, all of this takes money. Not only the finishing touches to the film, but to pay for campaign materials – the paper, the printing, the DVDs – and travel to host these community screenings. We’ve done a lot so far with our own resources in order to start building this campaign and we’ve gotten help from people like the Fledgling Fund. We plan to use Kickstarter funds to keep the momentum of our campaign going strong – up until and extending beyond the premiere of the film. We would appreciate any help, at all, you would be willing to provide us. And thanks so much for your time!
Catch chess genius Bobby Fischer movie on HBO soon
Chess blog for latest news and trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Liz Garbus's "Bobby Fischer Against The World." Image courtesy of Music Box Films.
Hi everyone,
Remember the latest Bobby Fischer movie that was on show at Sundance Film Festival recently? Liz Garbus' 'Bobby Fischer Against The World'.
Music Box Films has acquired the documentary. The HBO Documentary Films & LM Media Production will premiere on HBO, followed by a theatrical release by Music Box. Music Box acquired all US Theatrical, DVD, and Digital Rights, and will give the film an Oscar qualifying run in late Spring, 2011.
The announcement was made at the Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday. HBO Documentary Films plans an Academy Qualification followed by a TV broadcast on HBO. A coordinated Theatrical, DVD and Digital Release by Music Box Films will follow. Bobby Fischer Against the World is a co-production of HBO Documentary Film and LM Media GmbH and was Produced & Directed by Liz Garbus. Produced by Stanley Buchthal, Rory Kennedy, Matthew Justus. Executive Produced for HBO by Sheila Nevins. Executive Produced by Dan Cogan, Nick Fraser, Maja Hoffmann, Martin Pieper. Senior Producer for HBO Nancy Abraham. Co-Produced by Christoph Jorg & David Koh. Cinematography by Bob Chappell. Edited by Karen Schmeer and Michael Levine. Music Composed by Philip Sheppard.
Considered by many to be the greatest chess player who ever lived, 'Bobby Fischer Against the World' is the first and definitive biopic of the prodigy and chess champion. Rare archival footage and insightful interviews with those closest to him expand this captivating story of a mastermind’s tumultuous rise.
Mongrel Media will release in Canada, Madman Entertainment will release in Australia & New Zealand, Dogwoof will release in the UK, and Ealing Studios International is handling and representing the rest of the World on behalf of the Producers at this year’s EFM Market in Berlin.
Liz Garbus said, “I’m so grateful for my extraordinary partnership with HBO Documentary Films and Stanley Buchthal, which brought the film to this point. I now look forward to HBO introducing the film to the world, and am thrilled that Music Box Films will be expanding the film into theaters and on DVD. Music Box has an outstanding lineup of films, and I am very proud Bobby Fischer Against the World will be amongst them.”
Ed Arentz and Bill Schopf stated, “We are excited to bring this great film to US audiences. This is the definitive movie on Bobby Fischer and we are proud that it is our first documentary film that we are releasing.”
New documentary on chess great Bobby Fischer premieres at Sundance Film Fest
Chess blog for latest news and trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi Everyone,
Director Liz Garbus has come up with an interesting documentary on chess great Bobby Fischer and the movie premieres at the Sundance Film Festival this Friday.
"Russians had dominated the sport for decades," said documentary film director Liz Garbus during a phone interview from Los Angeles, Calif., with The Park Record.
Then along came an American named Bobby Fischer. In, 1972, during the world championship match in Reykjavik, Iceland, he soundly defeated Boris Spassky, ending the Russian reign.
In the years to follow, Fischer fell victim to mental illness and died a recluse while living in Iceland in 2008. "Bobby's decline into obscurity was almost as fast as his rise," Garbus said. "It was a fascinating story and I wanted to make a movie about it."
Garbus has won an Academy Award nomination for her 1998 film 'The Farm: Angola,' and this documentary is titled 'Bobby Fischer Against the World'.
You can check showtimes and read the full interview with Garbus here.
Meanwhile, here is a nice related video. While at the Liberty Bell Open, WIM Iryna Zenyuk talks about her upcoming trip to the Sundance Film Festival. Iryna, along with GMs Joel Benjamin, Alexander Shabalov and CLO editor WGM Jennifer Shahade will work with the World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum (opening on September 8, 2011 in Saint Louis) in promoting the documentary, 'Bobby Fischer Against the World'.
Chess video: Top documentary on chess great Garry Kasparov
Chess blog for the latest news and trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi Everybody,
We had watched this absolutely super documentary years back on the world youngest-ever chess champion, the genius Garry Kasparov. (Where do we find adjectives to add before that name?) It begins in Wijk aan Zee so it was apt that we share it at this time when the Tata Steel aka Corus Chess Tournament 2011 has just begun in the town. Book the entire next hour for the video with a nice cup of coffee. You would forget everything else.
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12th Women's World Chess Champion
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