Movies and TV: Chess Scenes That Mattered Part 1
Hey Everyone!
Recently my team and I worked on a project to review (and gave real-time reactions to) a bunch of different "chess scenes" from film and television. While preparing the chess diagrams to accompany the movie scenes, we realized that SOME of the chess positions were not only educational, but perhaps even worthy of our community's time...
Before going further, check out the video here:
In this blog, I wanted to share the actual chess analysis (if you can call it that) for the games that had real enough puzzles/positions to justify it! All of the positions below are from our first part above, and I'll be writing a blog on each part to come.
These are the chess positions from our first video:
There are two more parts on the way, and while we can already see (from the comments at the video) that we missed some moments/movies/shows worthy of coverage -- STOP YELLING! There will be an Encore dammit!
-- hopefully, you enjoy what we've done so far.
Peace to the people.
Danny
Danny Rensch is an international master and Chief Chess Officer at Chess.com. After a successful scholastic chess career, Danny joined Chess.com as a co-founder in 2009. He directs the company's content, media partnerships, and professional chess events. Danny is an accomplished commentator and broadcaster, which he used to establish Chess.com's streaming and creator programs. He has channeled his lifelong passion for playing and teaching chess to advance Chess.com's mission of growing the game and helping people enjoy their lives through chess. With over 200 million registered users, Chess.com is the leading platform for playing and learning chess.
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Read “Dark Squares,” Danny’s Highly Anticipated Memoir
Danny Rensch has released his highly anticipated memoir on September 16, 2025. Described as Educated meets The Queen’s Gambit, this powerful and deeply personal book dives into his upbringing in an abusive cult and how chess ended up saving his life.
