Chess in Stranger Things Season 4

I wasted my time so you don't have to.

Chess players are naturally obsessive so I figured I would scrutinize the little chess shown in the latest season of Stranger Things.  Because it serves little more than a detail in the show, the chess is fun to overanalyze.  Of course, the show makes some basic television and movie mistakes.

The Chess Club 

In Episode 1, Mike visits several school clubs.  Briefly, the chess club appears.  But the fact that a chessboard is onscreen for just a couple seconds did not stop me from scanning every detail.

A couple of immediate mistakes:

• The board was set up incorrectly.  The h1 square is a dark square (remember that a dark square should always be on the lower-left corner for each player).
• The captured pieces are on the wrong side of the board.  It seems clear that the direction for this moment was to have the board look like a serious chess game was being played.  As part of this, some of the pieces should be missing.  However, the pieces were simply taken off the board and put to the side rather than placed on the opposite side to mimic an actual capture.
• Two hands to make a move.  The player with the Black pieces makes a move before the cut.  He moves his knight to f6 with his left hand but then hits the clock with his right hand.  Clearly, he doesn't know proper etiquette!

Closer inspection shows that the position is just... wonky.

The Lab Intro

The rest of the chess scenes all take place within Hawkins Lab.  The most annoying thing is that the chess pieces used are hard to differentiate; they are large and decorative bird-themed pieces.  If you are interested in tracking down this chess set or similar chess sets, you can check out this thread.  Also, at least one replica version of these pieces is being sold on Amazon.

Season 4 opens with a panning shot of the rainbow room.  Among other activities, two children are playing chess.

First, the board was set up incorrectly - the kings and queens were swapped.  As confirmed in this article, the eagle is the king, and the peacock is the queen.  Of course with a chess set like that, a person could think the opposite:  he could think that the very tall peacock piece was the king.  However, the children move the peacock in the same manner of the queen which demonstrates understanding.  Therefore, this was simply another instance of a chessboard being set up incorrectly.

If the chess club position was "wonky", then this next position is purely chaotic.  I hope you get as bad a headache looking at the position as it was for me to put it together:

The Lab Intro Revisited

In Episode 7, a different shot of the lab intro scene is used.  There is an intrinsic continuity error because the chess position on the board this time differs from the previous one.

The Orderly vs El

Also in Episode 7, El plays a game vs an orderly in the rainbow room.  Prepare to wince at their opening moves.  But in the show's defense, these characters are not chess players, this television show is not a chess show, and having a solid chess opening would not have been noticed by the average viewer anyway.  At least they made legal moves!

This scene's editing induces an error.  White gives Black an extra turn because the same move is shown twice.  The scene goes: 1.e3 e5 2.g3 f5 3.h3 h5 4.h3 (again). The game proceeds with the following:

(Note again that the board was set up incorrectly; the kings and queens were swapped!)