this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
148 points (98.7% liked)

HistoryPorn

7338 readers
1 users here now

COMM MOVED TO !historyphotos@piefed.social

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Karpov is the one on the right.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] De_Narm@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Realistically speaking, how many of them could even follow the game? Seeing every piece, I mean.

[–] Carnelian@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Based on my knowledge of chess tournaments from this time (binge watching The Queen’s Gambit), they have a guy whose job it is to update a large representation of the board on the wall as the game is taking place, so the audience can see

[–] HakunaHafada@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That guy is also shown in the first scene after the opening credits to From Russia With Love.

[–] ripple_effect@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 month ago

From my experience with the queens gambit, they would have giant boards that people update in between turns.

[–] riskable@programming.dev 6 points 1 month ago

The moves were announced and I believe they were following along with chess-specific score/move sheets in their hands. I wouldn't be surprised if the move announcements were all that would be necessary, though for a bunch of chess fanatics.

I saw a documentary that featured a dramatic reenactment of a scene like this and that's how it went 🤷

At the time of this match, I do believe they had overhead projectors (the kind that magnify whatever is placed on their surface). So they might have had a projector-specific (with the necessary transparency) chessboard projected behind/above the camera also showing the moves.

Another way I've seen it done is with magnetic pieces on a giant blackboard-like surface that had the squares drawn/painted on. There would be a person on each side with a pole that could move the pieces. One person would be assigned to white, the other to black.

If everyone is sitting up high like that a simple extra large chessboard on the floor nearby would suffice as well. They could even place it down at an angle for the audience to view. I don't know if they did that but I was thinking about it, "how would I do it without modern technology?" That's probably how I'd do it 🤷