Announcing Blitz Event For Movie "The Man Who Knew Infinity" with GM Maxim Dlugy

In celebration of the theatrical release of "The Man Who Knew Infinity", Chess.com is proud to host a special blitz event with GM Maxim Dlugy.

Dlugy will be taking on all comers at 3 0 blitz from 7-8:30 pm PDT on Tuesday, May 3rd. All victors will receive tickets to an opening showing of their choice. Dlugy will also also be streaming and commenting live throughout the event en Chess.com/TV.

The Man Who New Infinity tells the story of the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. Chess players love to state that true prodigies exist only in math, music, and chess. Ramanujan is one of the greatest prodigies of all time. In his teenage years, he had already mastered all texts he crossed and was developing new theorems.

At age 26, Ramanujan traveled to Cambridge to work with the mathematician, G. H. Hardy. Much of the movie takes place in England in the context of the cultural and academic clash that occurred between the brilliant but untrained Ramanujan and the Cambridge professorate.

Ramanujan at center at the University of Cambridge. 

Written and directed by Matt Brown, the film stars Dev Patel (best known for his starring role in the 2009 Best Picture, Slumdog Millionaire) as Ramanujan, and Oscar winner Jeremy Irons as Hardy.

The film has already shown at multiple major film festivals and the incoming reviews are positive. The film has earned a fresh rating on rottentomatoes.com.

The trailer is available now and reveals high production values and attention to historical detail which match the quality of the lead performers.

Former world champion, Viswanathan Anand, shares a hometown with Ramanujan and has a great admiration for his person and work. He wrote the following essay in commendation of the man and the film.

Former world champion Vishy Anand provided the following letter and quote for the movie producers and this Chess.com Article:

"When I first became a grandmaster, a close relative presented me with a book, The Man Who Knew Infinity. I remember reading the book and being very intrigued about Ramanujan and Mathematics.

As my career took off and I started almost being abroad for months on end, I would keep going back to this book and read it. Each time I would recognize a new facet of Ramanujan that would fascinate me. Although we come from the same hometown, Kumbakonam, I am a city boy and so was slightly more accustomed to Western ways before I traveled. But I could empathize with his feelings of not being able to fit in.

In the late 80's, chess information was heavily centered around the Soviet Union and Western Europe. So for a lot of my conclusions, I had no way of checking for references, and my mind would go to Ramanujan sitting outside his house writing his calculations with only primitive source material. I still have a lot of my chess diaries where I have written summaries. Looking back on it, it seems almost innocent, but having known that one could come up with new discoveries without having knowledge of what is out there was indeed inspiring.

His life was a brilliant albeit short one. A lot of his work and dream remained unfinished mainly due to societal norms of the past century. Although I never had to be restrained by these norms in my career, I was very aware of its existence.

I hope that this movie will help rekindle our love for Math as a society and more so bring out the greatness of a man who only had his numbers to speak for him.

As a chess player, whenever I watch a chess-related movie, my first reaction is to check if the position they are showing is legal. Manjul Bhargava who is an acclaimed Mathematician himself explained to me that the film's director/producers/cast went through great lengths to get the Math part correct, both in its numerical and emotional sense. I really look forward to the film and hope to be one of the first few to watch it."

Signed Viswanathan Anand (Chess Grand Master & wannabe mathematician)

Chess.com is happy to be able to host this event to further enthusiasm for both math and chess in education. Math and chess have a strong relationship. Many young students excel in both, and each emphasizes logic and problem solving skills.

If you would like to begin a chess program at your school, we offer a FREE chess curriculum that is common core aligned.