Which Chess player do you think there should be a movie about?

Philidor would be an interesting one, because he was also a prominent musician/composer, and he lived in extremely interesting times in France. 

@BradStone, you are right that a movie about Chess would be a complete failure. The point of this thread is, instead, to find an interesting person about whom a succesful drama could be made (who happens to be a chess player). Despite the takeover of violent action films in Hollywood, there is still a decent market for biographical drama films (Recent examples include "La Vie en Rose", "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", "Bright Star", "The Last Station" etc.)

This is why "Searching For Bobby Fischer" was a relatively succesful movie. Josh Waitzkin's personal and family story was interesting enough that it appealed to non-chess players. 

So any movie about a Chess player would have to feature someone whose life story was/is interesting enough to merit a biographical drama with or without their chess play. My nominations are Alekhine (as someone mentioned before, he was involved in both World Wars, the Russian Revolution, and also had severe personal issues including depression, mood swings, alcoholism, and even an alleged suicide attempt, not to mention his many wives and unexplained death), plenty of material there for a film. 

The rise of Kasparov during the decline of the Soviet Union would be a very interesting one, although given Kasparov's personality he would want to be intimately involved in it, and likely ruin the film by refusing to grant his permission if he didn't like the script or the way he was portrayed. Maybe it can be made after he dies. 

1. Miguel Najdorf was playing a tournamnt in Argentina in Argentina in 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland and killed nearly all his extended family. He became a citizen of Argentina.

2, Akiba Rubinstein was the top challenger to WC Emanual Lasker before WWI. A match never took place because of the war, and Rubinstein descended into madness. If someone came to visit, he wouls welcome that person, excuse himself and escape out a back window. He was notoriously late for his games, but he could beat vurtually anyone with only 30 minutes on his clock.

I read through these, I liked the Jeff Sarwer idea best. It could make a good sequel to "Searching for Bobby Fischer". Maybe "Searching for Boris Spassky"?

Carl Schlechter played by Ed Norton

Or Ed Norton playing any chess player.

60 Minutes interviewed a US GI who played chess with Rudolf Hess in Germany before he was sent to the USSR. Hess was talkative and eager to play. The GI laugheed because Hess was much better than him, but they played several games. He was a guard.

Alekhine.

Not a nice fellow (it'd be like the Ty Cobb bio pic), but his life had lots of conflicts, including political. 

Good points Manos...

I sometimes forget that Chess players don't enjoy the best reputation among the general public. In any case, I do think that this traditional image is changing, and I think Alekhine's life is interesting enough that it could overcome it. 

Though, perhaps the best possible way to do the movie would be to do the Philidor movie. The advertising could emphasize his musical talents and the French Revolution, rather than purely chess. 

"Grandmaster and French Women's Chess Champion has left the Secret Story 6 edition within 48 hours of entering it. When leaving the house with her suitcase, in the confessional room, Sebag said, "I want to leave the Secret Story House because I do not feel at home here.""

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/12306296-french-chess-gm-marie-sebag-quits-tv-reality-show-secret-story-6-in-48-hours

Her actual home had more cameras?

@batgirl: have you written about Herman Steiner?

Frank Marshall devised a gambit fo black in the Ruy Lopez (The Marshall Attack) with the specific intent of using it to defeat Capablanca. It was 10 years before he had the opportunity to use it against him,  but whem he did Capablanca refuted it over the board the first time he saw ut!

Bobby Fischer End of Discussion

This is a chess blog  for one thing, and I'm not going to write enormous blocks of text on topics the readers are already familiar with if they have much knowleedge  about ches history anyway.. Secondly, I will happily leave thus thread if you can get 3 other people to join you in your disaproval.

It worked, I'm high.

What "ideas" did you post? That artists make better subjects for movies than chess players? How cliche and sadly unimaginative. btw, a movie about Keats won't be too long He only lived to be 26. Did you know that? Did they teach you that in you freshman lit class so you could impress people by throwing his name around?

Botvinnik.

The Duke

How quickly you resort to name calling, a sure sign of a keen wit. So tell me where Spandau was and you can rejoice in your mental superiority, but are you trying to tell me he wasn't held by the Soviets?

Capablanca would be my 2nd choice behind Tal. I think you could make some great movies about them. Fact is, you could make a good movie about many of the chess legends' lives/careers.