Chess in Movies

I enjoy it when I am watching a good movie and then suddenly I am treated to a slice of a chess game. Of course, often in movies the chess game is just a prop, an extra if you will. Sometimes the game actually affects the plot. Or, even more rarely, sometimes chess IS the plot.

Either way, I am wondering if anyone here has a particular favorite example of chess in the movies. If you need a list of candidates to jog your memory check out this website which has a lengthly list.

In the meantime, here are some popular instances:

 Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey might be among the more renown example. In it, Dr. Frank Poole plays HAL-9000, the cold-calculating computer. Chess.com already has a decent article on it which delves into the nature of the game itself. Take a look here.

 In George Romero's excellent remake of the zombie classic Dawn of the Dead, we see two characters, Andy (pictured) and Kenneth, on two rooftops playing correspondence chess with binoculars and cue cards. Why are they doing this? Well there are thousands of zombies between them and not a whole lot else to do.

Searching for Bobby Fischer is perhaps one of the finest chess dramas you'll ever see. If you want chess for a plot, this is the one! It tells the story of young Josh Waitzkin (right) who learns to balance being a child with being somewhat of a chess prodigy.

 According to IM Jeremy Silman (who coordinated this scene), there was once meaning behind the moves in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. But, alas, everything revealing got cut (including an official credit to Silman, I believe) leaving us with no sense of what the game was actually like (though Silman could tell you if you asked him). This might be one of the more dangerous chess scenes ever.

Geri's Game, a Pixar animation short, is a cute little romp into dementia as the old man here casually sets up a game of chess and then plays himself - though his other self is a sneering, intimidating, aggressive player who makes his counterpart sweat...until the sweet old man plays some dirty pool.

Lucky Number Slevin is a decent movie with fast-paced, smart dialogue and, coincidentally, Ben Kingsley who played the chess teacher Bruce Pandolfini in Searching for Bobby Fischer. He plays a jewish mobster here. But I digress. Morgan Freeman, aka "The Boss" (pictured) challenges Slevin (Josh Hartnett) to a game of chess as a chance to pay off a debt. Bruce Willis has a role and also plays against The Boss. We don't see too much, but it's still a nice nod.

 In the firt X-Men movie, of course, at the very end we see good guy Prof. Charles Xavier playing a game against nemesis Magneto over plastic pieces on a plastic board in a plastic prison. Not much here, but a fine way to end the move, I feel.

Now that I've listed some of my favorite scenes, I'd be curious to hear some of yours. 

I believe that what was chosen for the Harry Potter scene was a Scandinavian Defence from some reason. (Looking odd I guess.)

I recall reading somewhere that Silman had assigned the characters to various chess pieces whose role in the game reflected their personalities in the movie. 

Yes, I agree, it is great "to be watching a good movie and then suddenly I am treated to a slice of a chess game."   And it was great to be checking forums and be treated to this refreshing one.  

Thanks.

The chess game in Dawn of the Dead reminds me of a cue-card-game I played long ago when I worked on an assembly line.  My friend worked on another line and we played by cue card secretly, because that was not permitted.  He made his set from nuts and bolts I had a small travel set.  We hid the sets in our tool drawers. 

This memory brings back a smile to me, because I remember one day of looking at my position and discovering that my queen was hopelessly trapped.  Everything around me stopped as in a time-freeze. Finally, my opponent yelled at me, "What's matter, Crosspinner?" (He used my real name, of course.)  Suddenly I realized I had let my responsibility pass by me.  I was now hopelessly behind in my work, and my friend kept badgering me with shouts, "Is your Queen in trouble?"  "What are you going to do?"  "Face it, the Queen is dead!"  "Resign." "It's over!" He was laughing and taunting me, and at that moment he was not my friend anymore. When I finally caught up with my work, I looked again at the board, and by that time I had had time to realize in my mind the case for saving my Queen was definitely hopeless. Hopeless not only for my Queen, but for my game. It was devastating then, but fond memories now.  

That's cool. Thanks for sharing, Crosspinner. 

Just as a point of clarification, this should probably read:

"In Zack Snyder's remake of George Romero's excellent classic "Dawn of the Dead""

George Romero's is the original -- the screen-capture shown is most definitely from the remake, however.

Oops. You're right. My bad there. But I do enjoy the remake more than the original.

Oh, the remake was OK, but was by no means as good as the original.  The whole social commentary of the original got lost somewhere in the mix, and that was the best part of George Romero's version.

One thing I will give the remake:  Fast zombies = scary as hell

I agree with that. If you read the book: The Undead and Philosophy, a book that looks at what zombies movies are trying to say about humans, culture, etc, it talks about that symbolism.

I admit the remake lacks that, to some degree, but as far as scary goes, it's no contest: remake.

The Thing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2R-K0vl94s

From Russia with Love features a chess game (that is actually a King Gambit from a Spassky-Bronstein game.

I have yet to see a James Bond film.

You're welcome, you thanks to you fond old memories were alive once again today.

Hey, it was fun remembering that game and my friend shouting at me.  Of course, it wasn't then. It was humiliating! But it was part of my training in how easily a Queen can be trapped unawares. I recorded that game, but those notations are long gone.  I wish I had kept them.  I had scores of them. 

Did you recognize that while watching the movie, or read about it?

Now the special effects are not as dramatic as they were then, but my wife and I still enjoy watching them once in awhile

It's not from a movie, but my favorite example of chess in entertainment is an episode of the tv show Lexx.  In it, a game is played between two characters, with every move of the game being explicitly shown and analyzed, but remaining easy to understand and entertaining even for non-chessplaying fans of the show.  An excellent review can be found on Jeremy Silman's personal website here: http://www.jeremysilman.com/movies_tv_js/lexx_chess_episode.html

Another great example of chess in entertainment is the musical Chess, a semi-political drama which uses a chess match between a Russian and an American as the backdrop to the action.

I just saw "The Seventh Seal" recently again, and it's actually an incredibly dull film. Waaaaay overrated! I guess I thought it was good before, because I didn't really see that many good films when I first saw it. But now, I think it's complete crap