Chess Movie Mistakes: Knight Moves (1992)

Knight Moves is a 1992 chess thriller. While I enjoyed the film, I could not help but notice they got the chess wrong at one point.

About halfway through the film, protagonist GM Peter Sanderson is playing a game while under a lot of stress (a killer is on the loose, and he is the prime suspect). Peter is White and it is Black to move in this position:

While the position is equal, Black blunders with Rc2 ??

Peter's blind elderly coach and Peter's young daughter observe the game with the following hushed exchange:

• Daughter: "Rook c2."
• Coach: "Yes!"
• Daughter: "What is it?"
• Coach: "Mate in 5!"

Now, while it may be obvious that White has only one good move, Re8+, I struggled mightily to work out the mate in 5. Giving up, I plugged the position into an engine. Turns out, it is actually mate in 14!

In any case, Peter immediately blunders mate in 2 with Qe3 ??, to which Black replies Qh2+ (saying "check" out loud, for dramatic effect), and Peter resigns in disgust (tipping his King over, for dramatic effect).

Later in the movie, the coach shows Peter the position and Peter affirms that he sees it is mate in 5, so the mistake can hardly be dismissed as a simple miscalculation by the coach.

Anyway, it is an enjoyable movie overall, but sometimes I wonder how the producers and director can get a detail like this wrong, unless they just figure no one would notice or care.