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Chessville
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Bill Wall's Wonderful World of Chess by Bill Wall Chess in the Movies There seems to be more chess sets or chess references in movies nowadays. Not all of it is good. And chess is always good for the movie mistakes and bloopers, with impossible positions, the chessboard set up wrong, a chess clock not used correctly or the button banged, or just bad historical references to chess. Perhaps the first time chess appeared in the movies was in 1903 in a movie called A Chess Dispute. It was made by R. W. Paul and his Paul's Animatograph Works of England. Two men are playing a chess game in a restaurant when one man makes a move while the other man is distracted. The distracted player looks back at the board and disputes the chess move. The two get into an argument, throw drinks at each other, get into a fight, then both fall below the camera's view. You next see their hats, shoes, and some clothing being tossed in the air into camera view. Finally, the manager of the restaurant enters and lifts these two disheveled players into view. Since then, probably over a thousand movies, television shows and commercials have featured some sort of chess theme or reference. Rather than a chess scene or some sort of chess reference, there are some movies that had a chess plot. One of the first movies with a chess plot was Chess Fever, released in 1926 and directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin. It is the most important chess film of the silent era. It was made in Moscow in 1925, during the great Moscow International. The main character is played by Vladimir Fogel. He is supposed to get married, but he is too addicted to chess to get married. His fiancé (the director's wife, actress Anna Zemtzova) believes that chess is not good for a domestic life and wants him to give up chess. He meets up with her and tries to beg for forgiveness. But while bending down, asking for forgiveness, he sees a checkerboard cloth and begins to play chess again. She runs out and runs into the real life world chess champion, Jose Capabalanca. He just happens to be playing in the Moscow International. She tells him how chess has made her hate the world. Capablanca says, "I understand how you feel. I cannot stand the thought of chess when I am with a lovely lady." He takes her to the chess tournament and they both enter the building of the tournament. The movie shows scenes from the tournament and players like Torre, Reti, Marshall, Yates, Tartakower, Stahlberg, Spielman and Gruenfeld. The lady discovers that chess isn't so bad after all. Another early movie with a chess plot was The Bishop Murder Case, released in 1930 and based on the novel by S.S. Van Dine. The character, Philco Vance (Basil Rathbone) is a chess-playing detective and he takes on a murder case in which the murderer (only known as The Bishop) uses chess as clues. Chess bishops are left at the crime scenes. In one scene, Vance examines a chess position and says the bishop was one move away from checkmate. One of the characters, John Pardee (Charles Quatermaine) is a wealthy chess player, inventor of the Pardee Gambit, and member of the Manhattan Chess Club (his character is from Isaac Rice and the Rice Gambit). Another early movie with chess clues includes Above Suspicion, released in 1943. This stars Fred MacMurry and Joan Crawford as Richard and Francis Myles who get clues in finding someone with chess pieces. More modern detective movies with a chess plot include Night Moves (1975) and Knight Moves (1992). One of the best movies with a chess allegory is The Seventh Seal, released in 1957. The movie was directed by Ingmar Bergman. Max Von Sydow plays Antonius Block, a disillusioned knight returning home from the Crusades in the 14th century. He runs into Death (Bengt Ekerot) and the knight challenges Death in a game of chess to bargain for his life. As long as the chess game continues, the knight can live. It also gives some time to other folks to escape as far as possible from Death. One small detail: the board is set up wrong, with the dark square to the right instead of the light square to the right. Now if you want to see a movie with God playing the Devil in chess, then go see Bedazzled, released in 2000. There is a scene where the Devil (Elizabeth Hurley) plays chess against God (Eric Dearborn).
Perhaps the most famous chess movie is Searching for Bobby Fischer, released
on August 11, 1993. This was really more about junior chess and Josh
Waitzkin, than Bobby Fischer, who has now been found and
living in Iceland.
Details of Josh and the movie . Some movies with big names have the movie stars playing or studying a game of chess. In Casablanca, released in 1943, Humphrey Bogart (a real chess expert) is studying a chess position. He is playing chess in Knock On Any door, released in 1949. In 3 Godfathers, released in 1948, John Wayne (a weak chess player in real life), is shown playing chess against the sheriff. John Wayne is also playing chess in McLintock!, released in 1963. One movie, about a movie star, has a chess scene. The movie Ray, released in 2004, has a scene where Ray Charles (Jamie Foxx) is playing chess in the hospital with the doctor while recovering from his drug addiction. It is based on Ray Charles's true story who learned chess in 1965 in a hospital to help him with his heroin addiction. In some movies, it's not good to win the chess game. The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, released in 1960, showed a chess scene where Gulliver beat the giant king in a game of chess. Not a good idea. Some movies feature the actors playing computer chess. This would include 21 grams, released in 2003, in which Sean Penn plays Chessmaster while in a hospital bed and Assassins, released in 1995, in which Sylvester Stallone plays computer chess while waiting for email. Perhaps the most famous is 2001: A Space Odyssey, released in 1968. The movie features the HAL 9000 computer playing chess with one of the astronauts and announcing a mate in two. It was actually a mate in three and the computer's descriptive notation was wrong. The computer should have said Queen to Bishop Six instead of Queen to Bishop Three. The final position was based on a real game, Roesch vs. Willi Schlage in Hamburg, 1910. Another movie featuring a computer that plays chess was Around the World Under the Sea, released in 1965, produced by Ivan Tors. There is a chess scene with Hank Stahl (Keenan Wynn) playing a computer as Dr. Doug Standish (Lloyd Bridges) looks on. Another movie with computer chess is The Bone Collector, released in 1999. Denzel Washington plays computer chess. There is also the movie The Thing, released in 1982, where R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) plays a chess computer called Chess Wizard. In the Lonely Guy, released in 1984, a chess player is playing with one of the Chess Challengers computers that moves it own pieces. In Pet Shop, released in 1994, a boy plays a chess computer. In Copycat, released in 1995, there is a chess computer that beats Dr. Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver). A chess playing robot and advanced chess board analysis by a computer can be found in Bicentennial Man, released in 1999. One of the more interesting variants of chess was found in Abandon, released in 2002. There is a chess scene where they play blitz chess with the chess clock. Between moves, the other player must take a shot of vodka. Some chess movies have mistakes that include scenes where the chess pieces are there, then they disappear in another camera shot, then they appear again. An example of this is found in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, released in 1995. Near the end of the movie, Chancellor Vincent Cadby (Simon Callow) is studying a chess position. Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey) moves a piece and you hear pieces hitting the floor. The camera angles show pieces, then disappearing pieces, then pieces again, and none on the floor. One of the weirdest opponents had to be found in The Addams Family, released in 1991. Gomez Addams (Raul Julia) played chess against Thing (the disembodied hand). One of the first movie cartoons with chess was Chess Nuts, released in 1932. It features Betty Boop and moving chess pieces in a cartoon by Max and David Fleisher. Several animation movies include chess. Aladdin, released in 1992 has a chess scene in which the Genie (voice of Robin Williams) loses a game to the magic carpet. The Genie tells the carpet to move. The carpet only has a king, a bishop, and two pawns. The carpet picks up the king and moves it all the way across the board, which is illegal. The Genie then says, "That was a good move. I can't believe this. I'm losing to a rug!" Another animation with a chess scene is Anastasia, released in 1997. There is a chess scene where Dimitri (voice of John Cusak) and Vladimir (voice of Kelsey Grammer) play chess. In 1996, George of the Jungle was released. It has the gorilla (the voice of John Cleese) playing chess. In 1997, the animation by Pixar, Geri's Game, was released. This short animation has the aging codger named Geri playing a daylong game of chess in the park against himself. Somehow, he begins losing to his livelier opponent. He fakes a heart attack to cheat and win the game of chess, then finds new uses for his dentures. There have been several documentaries on chess. Perhaps the most well known is Chess Kids, released in 1996 by film producer and writer Lynn Hamrick. It was a documentary on the World Youth Chess Championship for players under 14, held in Wisconsin in 1990. International Master Jack Peters called the film the most realistic portrayal of tournament chess he had seen. Players that participated included Judit Polgar and Josh Waitzkin. There was no interview with Judit because her father wanted to be paid for an interview, but you do see her in the film. Players from 7 to 14 from 44 countries played in this event. The documentary appeared on over 125 public television stations and won several awards. Another chess documentary, American Gambit, was released in 1989. It was about a chess simul with Garry Kasparov against U.S. youngsters. One of the sexiest and funniest chess scenes occurred in Austin Powers II: The Spy Who Shagged Me, released in 1999. It has a sexy chess scene between Austin Powers (Mike Myers) playing chess against Russian model Ivana Humpalot (Kristen Johnston). The board was set up wrong, but who noticed? Another famous sexy chess scene was in The Thomas Crown Affair, released in 1968. It's a great scene between Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. The game does lead to mate. We have Professor Humbert Humbert (James Mason) playing Charlotte (Shelley Winters) in Lolita, released in 1962. They play chess while Lolita (Sue Lyon) gives a good night (or was that good knight) kiss to Hubert. For science fiction fans, chess was featured in Blade Runner, released in 1982. The chess game between Tyrell (Joe Turkel) and J.F. Sebastian (William Sanderson) was based on the Anderssen-Kieseritzky, London 1851. The chessboards on Sebastian and Tyrell's boards are not set up the same as each other. This same position from the same Anderssen-Kieseritsky game also appeared in The Avengers, released in 1998. The board was set up wrong (black square to the right instead of white square). Independence Day, released in 1996 has a chess theme with a chess game being played in a park in New York at the beginning of the movie. Another movie that takes a chess position from a real game is From Russia With Love, released in 1963. This James Bond film uses a position from Spassky-Bronstein, 28th USSR Championship, Leningrad 1960. The movie players are the Russian player Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) and the Canadian player McAdams (Peter Madden). The mistake in the movie is that they forgot to add two critical center pawns (d4 and c5) to the position, and the game could have drawn. The movie is based on the novel by Ian Fleming. Another James Bond novel, Moonraker, contains references to Paul Morphy, but that was not in the movie. For a chess scene of man against an animal, check out Back to the Future II, released in 1990. There is a scene with Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) making a chess move against Copernicus the dog. Or there is Merry Andrew, released in 1958. It has Andrew Larabee (Danny Kaye) playing chess against a chimpanzee. In Sinbad and the Eye of a Tiger, released in 1997, Princess Farah (Jane Seymore) is playing chess against a baboon. In Lucky Luke, released in 1991, Lucky Luke (Terrence Hill) plays chess against his horse. Bad Company, released in 2002, has a chess hustler. Chris Rock plays Jake Hayes, a black chess hustler in a New York City park. He plays blitz chess for money while talking on the cell phone, doing business. In one scene, he says checkmate. But it is not checkmate. The player left his king under attack, and Jake took the king with another piece, and just said checkmate. The chess clocks are always set wrong. If he is playing 10-minute chess for $20, then the clocks should be set at 5:50 or ten minutes before the flag falls. In the movie, one scene shows the chess clock set 10 minutes after the hour, and another scene with a new opponent, the clocks are set 20 minutes after the hour. During the chess scenes, the chess pieces move around dramatically in different camera shots. Most chess sets found in the movies are the standard board and perhaps Staunton designed pieces or gothic pieces. One movie with a pocket chess set and peg chess set is The Big Sleep, released in 1978. There are chess scenes where Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum) pulls out a pocket chess set to analyze a position. The movie is based on the novel by Raymond Chandler, a chess player. For horror movies, one of the best is The Black Cat, released in 1934. It features Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff) playing chess with Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi). Karloff checkmates Lugosi in an impossible position. The outcome of the game determined if one of the guests, Joan Alison (Julie Bishop), would be sacrificed as part of the Black Mass ritual. Comedies with chess scenes include Blazing Saddles, Animal Crackers and Monkey Business with the Marx Brothers. For wizardry and chess, there is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, released in 2001. The children must win a chess game to continue their quest against the giant stone pieces. The chess position was composed by Jeremy Silman for the movie. Checkmate was announced, but there was no checkmate. The biggest mistake in the movies, is the board being set up wrong (light square to the right, dark square to the left of the player) There is a 50-50 chance they get it right. Some movies that have the board set up wrong include: The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), Austin Powers II (1999, The Avengers (1998), Black and White (1999), Checkmate (2003), Dirty Pretty Things (2002), Golden Boy (1939), Justice (1999), Life As a House (2001), Pennies From Heaven (1936), Shaft (2000), and The Seventh Seal (1957), The Ghost Ship (1943), Magnificent Doll (1946), Patrie (1946), The Lady From Shanghai (1948), Merry Andrew (1958), What's New, Pussycat (1965), Time After Time (1979), The History of the World Part I (1981), Chaindance (1990), Dead Beat (1994), The Takeover (1995), Justice (1999), and Shaft (2000), The Actors (2003), Time After Time (1979), Charlie Chan in the Chinese Cat (1944), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and Checkmating (2004). And if I were going to make a chess movie, what would I call it? My choices are: A Knight in Capablanca; About Lothar Schmid; Altered Mates; Analyze This Position; Antwone Bobby Fischer; Arooknophobia; Austin Powers: The Spy Who Mated Me; Bad Day At Black Rook; Bedtime for Pawnzo; The Best Little Chesshouse in Texas; Black Rook Down; The Chess Collector; Chess Gangs of New York; Conan the Chessplayer; Crouching Tartakover, Hidden Dragon Variation; Dial M for Mating; Escape from Tokyo (The Bobby Fischer Story); Finding Elo; Knight of the Living Pawn; Free Bobby; Future Schach; Get Nigel Shorty; Gone in 60 Seconds - Bullet Chess; Hard Day's Knight; The Hitchhiker's Guide to Chess Tournaments; Invasion of the Pawn Snatchers; The Joy of Sacs; Kasparov the Friendly Ghost; The League of Extraordinary GMs; Lord of the Kings: The Two Castles; Mad Max Euwe; Maid in the Manhattan Chess Club; Mate Me If You Can; Maters of the Lost Art; Much J'Adoube About Nothing; On Golden Pawn; Romancing the Stonewall; Sleepless Knights in Seattle; Walking Tal; and You've Got Mate.
My movie list of all movies I have found with chess is at Bill Walls Wonderful World of Chess
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