Chess + Movies = Bad News

Readers of this blog might wonder why we have written articles on all aspects of chess except chess in the cinema. There are a couple of reasons why this subject has been on the back burner for so long.

The first reason is that there are a number of blogs out there that have already covered this subject to death. The other, more relevant reason can be summarized in an old axiom: “Never go to see a movie about a subject that you are very knowledgeable about – because you are bound to be disappointed!

The most obvious example of this kind of silliness is the courtroom drama. Good films about lawyers and hopeless cases are very dramatic and almost always end with a climactic battle ending with a positive verdict.

Go try and see your favorite trial movie with a friend who is a lawyer and you will get a completely different perspective.

• “You can’t show up with new evidence like that! It has to be presented in the pre-trial phase and marked.”
• “Where did this surprise witness come from? That could never happen in real life!”

As any chess player knows, the same thing happens in movies that feature chess. Most of the time, the pieces aren’t set up correctly. If they are lucky enough to get them in the right positions, the usually set them up backwards with the right-hand rook on a dark square.

If that hurdle is cleared correctly, you’ll almost always find this corny dialogue:

• Dopey Villain: “check” followed by
• Amazing Hero: “checkmate”

The sequence demonstrates the arrogance of the Dopey Villain and the intelligence and resourcefulness of the Amazing Hero. Unfortunately, the Silly Writer has no knowledge of how chess is played, otherwise they would know that this type of sequence is almost impossible and never occurs in real chess games.

This all comes to mind because I recently watched a movie called “Five Fingers” with Laurence Fishburne. One of the main characters is a chess player and engages in a series of matches with one of the other characters in the film.

Everything seems ok until there is a sequence when the manual clock is supposedly low on time. Unfortunately, when the close-ups of the clock show the dials at about 5 minutes to 6, meaning that there aren’t only a few seconds left. The tension mounts, time ticks away, and every close up shows that the flag is not ready to fall, then a magical bell dings to indicate the flag has fallen! Yikes! It’s too bad the writer and director didn’t know that wind-up clocks don’t come with a bell.

All that being said, there are a few good movies with chess themes that get the tension right and don’t have embarrassing cliches. Here are a few movies that get it right:

• Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) – On the down side, it’s the only movie anybody who knows nothing about chess will ask you about if you tell them you play in tournaments. It also has its schmaltzy and inaccurate moments. But, for the most part, it captures the spirit of what its like to study and excel at the game.

• The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) – I’ll admit, I’ve only seen this movie once, and I’m not completely sure how accurate the chess game is. But the scene where Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway play a game in one of the steamiest and most suggestive sequences I’ve seen.

• From Russia with Love (1963) – One of the evil villains in this Bond flick is also a chess champion. The movie opens with a dramatic scene at a championship match. The writers should be applauded for using the famous sequence from the 1960 Boris Spassky – David Bronstein match for the USSR championship. The board setup is almost identical (except for a couple of pawns) and the villain is named “Kronsteen”.

I’ve also heard good things about a movie called Queen to Play (2009) with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Beals. It’s on my Netflix list, however since it is an obscure foreign film it is not currently available. Once I have a chance to see it, I’ll know if it fits into the silly or realistic category of chess dramatization.