Chess in Movies: The French Dispatch

Wes Anderson is known for making oddball movies. His latest, The French Dispatch, is no exception. It's not surprising, then, that if Anderson were to feature chess in one of his films, it would be off-kilter chess.

Timothée Chalamet plays Zeffirelli, a university student in the fictional French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé during the late 1960s. Considering the town's name, it is also unsurprising that Zeffirelli should play a nice boring game like chess.

What's intriguing is that chess is used to solve disputes. The game in the photo above has a legitimate set-up, which is difficult to see but fortunately, the prop chess board was included in an exhibition with the pieces in position.

You'll notice that the board has algebraic notation markers on the edges, but that white and black are playing on the wrong sides of the board when it is oriented this way. In any event, I plugged the position into a board editor. If it is black's move, he takes the knight with the pawn and it's ultimately a drawn game. If it's white's move, he plays N-to-what-should-be-g7 with a +8 advantage.

You can also see in the background an analysis board that doesn't reflect the game going on. However, it too was in the exhibition.

I plugged this position into a board editor as well. It's black's move because his king is in check. He should play Qxc7, but even so white will be +3.

The movie also features the "Chess Board Revolution" in which the university students set up barricades against the police. The standoff culminates in a chess match between Zeffirelli and the mayor, in which Zeffirelli flags, prompting the mayor to order the police to fire tear gas and storm the barricades.

The French Dispatch is unlikely to inspire another chess boom, a la The Queen's Gambit, but the South Miami Chess Club already embraced the film with a French Dispatch Chess Tournament last month.