FIVE BEST CHESS MOVIES
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Critic Robert Basalla recommends five movies that feature chess less foolishly than most:
“Searching for Bobby Fischer.” Basalla’s favorite of many 1990s chess films hams up its true-life sources, but makes few outright blunders and captures the game’s mystique.
“The Seventh Seal.” Death plays black in Ingmar Bergman’s often-parodied 1956 classic.
“The Luzhin Defence.” A 2000 version of a Vladimir Nabokov novel about a eccentric chess player. (Is there any other kind?)
“Dangerous Moves.” This 1985 Oscar-winner from Switzerland shows the drama and strain of a championship showdown, but mistakes include English subtitles describing different moves than the dialogue.
“Knight Moves.” Players fall faster than pawns in this 1993 killer thriller.
Other info can be found here. Do you have other favorite movies?
This is a pretty good list 🙂
theres a short russian movie, publicized on chessbase a while ago. the title is shaxmatnaya goryachka (the chess fever). its a funny little sketch (featuring the great capablanca!)
i believe it can be found on youtube.
Here are mine:
Chess Fever (Capablanca is good and it is a funny movie to watch).
Searching for Bobby Fischer (Fischer is good to watch and a good movie on chess parents and children in tournament situations).
Knight Moves (Christopher Lambert is good in this crime/physchotic chess thriller/murder mystery)
The Luzhin Defence (John Turtoro is good in this failed love story with tragic chess ending but book is better I think, but then again, books are always better than movie).
Hatley High is a cute story using chess team as a tool.
Dangerous Moves is foreign movie and it reminded me of Fischer vs Russians theme.
The Chess Players is by Satyajit Ray is a good character study with two chess fanatics as a device in movie.
King of Chess is a oriental movie about a chess prodigy with extrasensory powers brought in to teach an arrogant chess master humility on live tv.
There was also the Ted Danson Movie Knights of the South Bronx I believe based on a true story of how one man made a change in the lives of inner city youths through a chess club at school.
If someone can help me out here, there was a movie I saw about 20 years ago about a chess grandmaster who plans the perfect murder of his wife while he is playing in an international chess tournament. I do not remember the title but if someone does I have to add that movie to my chess movie collection! Please let me know if you know the title of the movie, thanx in advance :o)
An interesting movie is “Schachnovelle” (1960) with Curd Jürgens and Claire Bloom (of course from the book of Stefan Zweig). In this case it’s not about an eccentric mad chessplayer, quite the opposite: it’s chess what saves from madness.
“Searching for Bobby Fischer” is my all time favorite. And I guess everyone knows by now that the real Bruce Pandolfini plays a cameo in the movie. How many times does he show up?
My niece likes the blitz chess scenes.
FRESH. a inner city youth only connection with his dad is chess. and plays strategy with drug dealers pitting one against the other to help him and his sister get out of the ghetto. decent movie
The very best chess “movie” is not a movie at all, it’s a 1st Season episode of the Get Smart television show, entitled “Smart the Assassin”.
Max and the Chief play chess regularly at the exclusive Regency Club, where the Chief always wins….
“How long has it been since I beat you at chess, Chief?”
“You’ve never beaten me at chess, Max.”
“That long, huh?”
…but the manager is a KAOS agent. In order to get rid of them both, KAOS kidnaps Max and gives him a post-hypnotic suggestion, good until midnight that night, to shoot the next person that he hears say the word “checkmate”…
“But what if Smart wins the game?”
“Have you ever seen Maxwell Smart play chess?”
…That night, though, Max is tired of constantly being trounced, and comes prepared, with a copy of “How to Play Chess in 6 Easy Lessons”, written by an 8 year old champion, which he studies during the game, causing it to drag on interminably…
“Congratulations, Max, it’s only 45 minutes, and already you’ve made your first move.”
“What’s the matter, Chief? Afraid I may win my first game?”
“No, I’m afraid this will be my last game.”
…As midnight approaches, the game is still going strong, and the manager is terrified it will last past the hour. Max boasts that he’s got the game won, and plays a move which is actually a terrible blunder. The Chief says “Thank you, Max, that’s…” and the manager, so relieved that the game is actually ending shouts out “Checkmate” himself and is gunned down by Max…
“Max, you just shot Devonshire! Why?”
“I don’t know, Chief. But believe me, I’d better have a darned good reason.”
…In the end, they’ve figured out what’s happened, and Max suggests unwinding over a game of Chinese Checkers. “Fine,” says the Chief. Any game that doesn’t end with the word checkmate.” Max pulls out his gun again, and takes a shot at the Chief, which he barely ducks. “Uh, sorry about that, Chief. But if there’s anything tough to beat, it’s a bad habit.”
This Pixar short is a favorite of mine too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG5LCQH0-sg
– Enrique
Hmmm… I didn’t notice the dubbing before. I should have been more careful with my search.
– Enrique
Yes I like Fresh also. I forgot to mention that on my list. Does anyone know of the movie about an international grandmaster who plans the perfect murder to kill his wife but of course he gets mated in the end when the police catch him and his wife is still alive.
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Casablanca. No it’s not *about* chess, but chess was prominently featured, the movie is one of the best ever, and Bogart was a serious chess player.
There is a little known full feature Soviet movie called “Grandmaster” with Viktor Kortchnoi and Andrei Miagkov, but I don’t know where to find it. Yes I found the shaxmatnaya Goriachka movie here, it’ very good.
Let us not forget The Bishop Murder Case and The Chess Player.
There is a beautifully-done dedicated website, Chess in the Cinema (Schach im Kino), which displays scenes from movies that feature chess. Who knew that Beauty and the Beast wooed over chess?
I love the Maxwell Smart post! I
would like to see a movie based on
the NY high school chess team
profiled in a recent book about
their experiences at national
scholastic events.
Does anyone recall a film or novel which contains the story of a sadistic prision guard who forces a man to play using the members of his family as pieces. The key to the story is that the man must figure out a way to win the game (and spare the life of the remaining members of his family) while sacrificing as few members of his family as possible?
By the way, I’ll second the recommendation of “Fresh”- An excellent, sadly overlooked, movie.
As far as great chess films go, there are two ways to look at it: Films that do chess well and Films that are great and have chess as a minor element.
In the former category, the best chess film would have to be, hands down, “The Knights of South Bronx.” In and of itself, not a great film, but there’s no other movie that gets the culture of chess as right as it does- abliet scholastic chess. The film itself plays more like a “Public Service Announcment” for the benefits of chess in the schools, but the details of the world of chess are just right.
In the latter category, the best film which contains a chess scene would, to me, have to be “2001: A Space Oddysey”, with a small chess scene that references a classic old game. The chess is not crucicial to “the plot” (whatever that might be) of the film, but the film is, to my mind, timeless.
Brad Hoehne