What to watch on TV tonight
THE TIME TRAVELLER’S WIFE ME, DSTV CHANNEL 115, 10PM
Theo James (Divergent) and Rose Leslie (Game Of Thrones) star in this TV adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's novel The Time Traveler's Wife. A couple's relationship is put to the test when time travel is involved.
THE CROWDED ROOM APPLE TV+
A psychological thriller set in Manhattan in the summer of 1979, when a young man is arrested for a shocking crime—and an unlikely investigator must solve the mystery behind it.
INUMBER NUMBER: JOZI GOLD NETFLIX
When a jaded undercover cop is tasked with unravelling a historic gold heist in Johannesburg, he’s pushed to choose between his conscience and the law.
MARK RUBERY CHESS
David Ionovich Bronstein (1924-2006) was one of the most brilliant and innovative minds ever to play the royal game. Bronstein reached his peak in 1951 when he drew a match for the World Championship against Botvinnik. There he continually outplayed the World Champion in the middlegame, and it was only his inexperience in the endgame that allowed his opponent to retain the title. In the 1950s he injected a fresh dynamism into chess particularly with his handling of certain opening systems such as the King’s Indian Defence, which up to then was thought to be an inferior opening.
The Hungarian GM Barcza said of Bronstein-‘He was a key figure; without him neither Tal, nor even Fischer, could have played such important roles in the history of chess’. Bronstein’s book ‘Zurich Candidates tournament, 1953’ (also released as ‘The Chess Struggle in Practice’) along with the aptly named ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ are ranked among the finest pearls of chess literature.
One of his most memorable games was against Ljubojevic during the 1973 Interzonal in Brazil.
Bronstein,D (2585) - Ljubojevic,L (2570) [B03] Petropolis Interzonal (11), 1973 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.f4 dxe5 6.fxe5 c5!? (The Ljubojevic Variation of the Four Pawns Attack, a favourite of former SA Champ Frank Korostenski, where Black intends to meet fire with fire. He in fact produced a booklet on this razor-sharp line sometime during the late 70’s) 7.d5 e6 8.Nc3 exd5 9.cxd5 c4 10.Nf3 Bg4 11.Qd4 Bxf3 12.gxf3 Bb4 13.Bxc4 0–0 14.Rg1 (14 Bh6! May even be stronger)… g6 15.Bg5 Qc7 16.Bb3!! (Allowing his rook to be skewered with no obvious compensation in sight)… Bc5 17.Qf4 Bxg1 18.d6 Qc8 19.Ke2 (19 0-0-0!)…Bc5? (After much analysis it was found that Black could have survived with19…Qc5!. Now White is able to launch an irresistible attack) 20.Ne4 N8d7 21.Rc1 Qc6 22.Rxc5! Nxc5 23.Nf6+ Kh8 24.Qh4 Qb5+ 25.Ke3! (After this move the game is effectively over, yet both opponents had used up so much time trying to work out the complications that they were now in extreme time-pressure)… h5 (25…Qd3+ 26 Kf2) 26.Nxh5 Qxb3+ 27.axb3 Nd5+ 28.Kd4 Ne6+ 29.Kxd5 Nxg5 30.Nf6+ Kg7 31.Qxg5 Rfd8 32.e6 fxe6+ 33.Kxe6 Rf8 34.d7 a5 35.Ng4 Ra6+ 36.Ke5 Rf5+ 37.Qxf5 gxf5 38.d8Q fxg4 39.Qd7+ Kh6 40.Qxb7 Rg6 41.f4 1–0
He is along with Tal the great player that the ‘ordinary joe’ chess player might have run into somewhere on his long and peripatetic journey round the world in his later years. He was a true great and should be remembered as such –Mark Crowther