How could anyone who has ever seen "Stalag 17" forget how the King was used to spy on the POW's?  That and of course "Wizard's Chess" in Harry Potter.

In Stalag 17 the King in a Stalag sleeping quarters was hollowed out and used to pass notes from a POW plant to the guards.  The switch was made when a light cord was knotted.  I do not ever remember a game being played.  What a nasty way to treat the game.

Harry Potter was actually the inspiration for me to take up the game when my daughter wanted to play "the chess game like in Harry Potter."  We play chess with a Scooby Doo chess set.  Scooby is the king of course!

Alas, these are the only chess examples I remember from the main stream TV and movies.  Surely there are others.  Add them here...

Searching for Bobby Fischer.  Even if somebody has never played chess, they should love this outstanding film.

Star Wars!  Remember the animated chess sets that beat each other up?

Then there's the "free-for-all" no-rules games that Hawkeye played in the M*A*S*H TV series, but I don't know if that counts (there are, however, various serious games played in different episodes).

M*A*S*H is killing me - I only remember the poker.

I just remembered 3-D chess from Star Trek with Spock.  I remember a kid he beat used mental powers to melt a piece

Traitor (2008) stars Don Cheadle as a deep cover CIA agent. Chess figures at the heart of the development of his character--his relationship with his father--in the beginning of the film, and then his development of the relationship central to the story's plot. Here's a contemporary film concerned with current issues, and while chess is not the subject, as in Searching for Bobby Fischer or The Luzhin Defense, it is central to the story.

My favorite is 'Chess Fever' from 1920's

But there is a book called "Chess in the Movies" by Bob Basalla that rates movies by how chess is shown in it.

But lately the Sarah Chronicles has had a bit of Chess in it. In fact there was a show called "The Turk" in season one.

I thought of several, but go to Bill Wall at geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/movies.htm for a long list. I did not find the 1941 version of Bachelor Daddy on that list. The infant (called Baby Sandy) is shown studying a board. The Killing, a 1956 movie of a robbery produced by Stanley Kramer, is on the list. It was Kramer's first acclaimed film. Kramer played chess. A chess playing wrestler in the film was a chess playing wrestler in life. The cast listed Kola Kwariani, who was a former Greco-Roman style world champion. He was originally from Georgia and was known as Nick the Wrestler to us in New York. He was still a wrestler and promoter in the '50s. The movie is still shown on tv and stands up well. Casablanca (1942) showed Humphrey Bogart studying a French Defense position played by Alekhine.

My favorite chess scene is in 2001 Space Odyssey. And I remember there was also a chess scene in Rocky IV.

theres some movie where a guy plays death... never seen it though, I think its really old

Chess plays a minor plot/psychological role in "Righteous Kill", with DeNIro and Pacino.  Just out on DVD.

"The Seventh Seal", a swedish movie directed by Ingmar Bergman.

There is also the movie "Knight Moves" with Christopher Lambert where chess plays a prominent part of the movie.

"From Russia with Love".  King's Gambit game with Bronstein - not an exact replication.

CGI short from pixar b4, I believe, toy story?

I recall an episode of Doctor Who (can't recall which one, only that Tom Baker was starring) in which he is playing chess with K9. He realises that he's losing so he causes the TARDIS to lurch suddenly so that all the pieces fall off the board! (Of course, since K9 is a computer he could probably remember the final position and reset the board...).

K9 ah yes - K9xK8 or something like that - good one

Star Trek too. They have that 3-D chess set that I thought was so cool when I was younger. You can buy them, apparently, but I think owning one might seriously jeopardize my sex life.

Yeah, this is one of the most iconic images that people relate to chess.

BTW, if you have never seen Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (the sequel to their excellent adventure), Bill and Ted have to beat Death at battleship and connect four and stuff. It's a pretty hilarious juxtaposition.

 That is actually at the beginning of A Bug's Life.  I don't recall the name of the short film, but it is fantastic.

Also an episode where Spock proves the ship's computers were tampered with because he was able to beat the computer at chess - a program he wrote himself! 

(the guy who melted the pieces was Charles - a kid they picked up on another planet who had mental powers and was just learning how to handle stress.)