need help with movie with chess scene

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donaldjamesparker

I'm shooting a movie with a college intramural chess tournament. I'm going to feature two games.  I want to have the pieces arranged when the scene starts - so the white is one move away from mating the black opponent. However the black opponent has a trap set up and puts white in check - 3 times - but the King is able to hide behind another piece preventing checkmate and even check. One move by black positions him so he will get the mate in the next move. Distracted by the nearness of the mate, black forgets to check his defense and moves into position for the kill.  However since he doesn't put white in check - white moves and ends the game.  Can anyone help me set up this scenario?   This particular scene will be shot on Dec 11th.

I have the white setup for mate once black stops putting him in check with a queen and a knight.  I need to set up White's defensive position and black's offensive position where he would be put in check 4 times in a row with only one move to escape mate on the 4th one - and not being able to put White in check again on the next move - but where the subsequent move puts black in a killer position for a sure mate.  I spent a few hours trying to set this up but my chess skills are insufficient for a rubix cube puzzle like this.  

I have black king in king side castle position with 3 pawns in front unmoved. Knight on b3. 

White Queen on a4. White knight on b4

Black has 2 rooks, 2 bishops, Queen, one knight,and  6 pawns.  White has 1 rock, 1 bishop, 1 knight, Queen and 6 pawns.   However if you need to add or remove pieces for either side - that's fine.

This might not be possible.  I might have to change my movie script instead. 

notmtwain

That kind of ending is called a cheapo. Are you sure that's what you want?

At any rate, such a scenario, focusing on giving a mate while missing a back rank mate being open probably happens hundreds of times a day here- to beginners.

This isn't right, since the sequence isn't totally forced but I think it shows the basic setup. You have given Black a big material advantage.  I moved black's rooks off the back rank and made it so no piece would be able to stop the cheapo. That makes the position look pretty unnatural and harder for black to hold off on giving mate , so black doesn't make the best moves, but it's Hollywood and you didn't say you wanted it to arise from a real game.

I tried for a couple of minutes but I'm tired. Uhoh, I didn't put the black knight on b3. Why is that important?

You should post it as a chess puzzle for all those guys who live to claim "first post".

donaldjamesparker

This is just an intramural chess tournament at a small college - so rookie mistakes would not be out of the realm of possiblity. I did post this in the puzzle forum but nobody took a stab at it.  The idea I was trying to convey is that white seems doomed - and black even mistakenly says checkmate when there is one more evasive move. I realize that this is an artificial and unlikely scenario - before black even misses that he's in jeopardy because the smell of blood causes him to ignore his defense.

QueenTakesKnightOOPS

I think trying to construct a scenario like this is fraught with danger. Chess on TV & in movies is already a subject of ridicule to the Chess community.

Why not take a real game that fits your requirements as closely as possible & fine tune the script around it?

There are 100's of thousands of recorded games over the last 150 years & chess.com has 8 million members, surely someone can find a real game that will give you what you need.