The Chess Easter Egg in HITMAN
In anticipation for the upcoming release of the game HITMAN 3 in January 2021, I decided to revisit a memorable chess moment contained in the 2016 HITMAN release.
In an early mission, our protagonist, Agent 47, is tasked with eliminating Jesper Knight, a chess grandmaster recently tagged as a Soviet spy. During the mission, Agent 47 will find Jesper Knight routinely visiting a chess board.
Name This Position
Agent 47 is able to view the chess board and interact with it.
Agent 47 can choose between two moves to play as White. Should he move Rf8 or Qg3? Take a quick moment to determine the solution.
If you chose Qg3, then congratulations! You selected the correct answer! The alternative move is clearly inferior since the move Rf8?? allows Black to win material after taking with the knight. If the rook were moved there, White converts his winning advantage into a disastrously losing position.
In HITMAN, choosing the correct move results in Jesper Knight's enthusiasm, and he will soon be drinking vodka to celebrate finding a good move (and an opportunity for Agent 47 to carry out his mission). Choosing the blunder, however, is met with disgust, and Jesper Knight quickly moves the rook back to its original square.
This is not truly a chess "puzzle" because the correct move is a positional move rather than a tactic. Rather, this chess position itself serves as an Easter egg. If you are not already familiar with this classic position, this game was played in the extremely famous game 6 between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in the 1972 World Championships.
There is nothing to comment or analyze about this famous game that has not already been accomplished. Rather, I will leave resources at the bottom of this post which point towards more information about "The Match of the Century".
A Bobby Fischer Fanfiction
The Hitman franchise is no stranger to using fictionized versions of real life people or allusions to popular fictional characters as targets for Agent 47's work. For example, Hitman Blood Money's target of Lorne de Havilland was a clear reference to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. A target in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin was Charlie Sidjan, whose first name and female bodyguard entourage served as an allusion to "Charlie" from Charlie's Angels.
It should come as no surprise then that Jesper Knight is a fictionalized version of Bobby Fischer.
The evidence and dialogue add up. Knight lives in the same era as Fischer (although Knight is roughly ten years older). Knight and Fischer are both grandmasters. But, most importantly, the game position is telling. Knight is literally playing from Fischer's position from the match with Spassky!
After Agent 47 assists Knight with the best move, Knight's dialogue may consist of two telling lines:
- "Why on Earth didn't I think of that?"
- "This game will be legendary. I will call it 'Knight's Gambit'."
Although this game was never given a title, the idea of "Knight's Gambit" follows consistently with the Queen's Gambit Declined opening in the Fischer-Spassky match. But Knight was right about one thing: this game was indeed legendary.
This fictionalized character of Fischer is a little interesting. In short, this alternate reality Bobby Fischer was a Soviet spy - an interesting twist on the idea that the Fischer-Spassky match was advertised as Americans versus the Soviets. In his role as a Soviet spy, Knight assassinated the Soviet ambassador to the U.S. who was planning on defecting from the Soviet Union. During a private match between Knight and the ambassador, Knight was able to eliminate the ambassador using poisoned chess pieces - literally! Seeking safe travel to the Soviet Union, Knight goes to Cuba where the game mission takes place.
The Legacy of Fischer-Spassky
Recently, the very popular video game franchise Call of Duty revealed hints of an upcoming game using the Fischer-Spassky match as a theme. Additionally, the 2014 film Pawn Sacrifice focused entirely on the 1972 World Championship.
This Easter egg in HITMAN further illustrates the continuous influence of this classic chess match in pop culture. Although having occurred over 40 years ago, video games and cinema continue to find inspiration from the historic showdown.
Additional Links
Mike Klein's Article Concerning the 1972 World Championship
agadmator's Analysis of Fischer vs. Spassky Game 6
ChessNetwork's Analysis of Fischer vs. Spassky Game 6
Hitman Fandom Article Regarding Jesper Knight
