Why do the movies love chess?

 I think chess is a game most people can play. If you can’t play it, it’s very easy to learn the basics. Well, the basics are the pieces, names and how they move. Also, make sure you know whenever you play chess, that there’s always a white square on your right hand side! Otherwise, your board is set up wrongly! And, the white pieces go on the rows marked 1 and 2, black on 7 and 8. In some movies, you will find the board set up wrongly and even the Queen not on the colour she should be! White Queen goes to the white square …. so the Queen goes to “her” colour. I’ve found an interesting article why they – directors – like chess in the movies! So, have you got any plans to be an actor? Then…learn to play chess…or at least know the basics…. lol!
Click HERE to play through the game from the movie: From Russia with love!

By Finlo Rohrer
BBC News Magazine

The late Ingmar Bergman’s film the Seventh Seal helped cement his reputation as a cerebral director, and might explain why chess is such an enduring theme for film makers.

In the Seventh Seal a Swedish knight returns from the crusades to find his home country ravaged by tragedy and is soon locked in a game of chess with death.

Without giving much away, it’s a fairly intense game.

Bergman’s arthouse favourite is perhaps the most notorious example of chess on celluloid, but there are hundreds and hundreds of others. From the brainiest to the schlockiest, one of the movie world’s favourite devices is chess.

And among the chess-playing fraternity there’s a whole subculture of “chess in the movies” discussion, with a number of dedicated websites, and Bob Basalla’s book Chess in the Movies, providing exhaustive lists stretching up to 2,000 titles.

Perhaps the second best known chess scene is in the Thomas Crown Affair, where Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway enjoy a romantically-charged game.

Satyajit Ray’s the Chess Players is another arthouse classic, while 2000’s Luzhin Defence had a grandmaster as its central character.

But for many chess aficionados, the best example of the game has to be in the second James Bond film, From Russia With Love, where the Spectre agent Kronsteen ruthlessly beats the Canadian master McAdams
Sometimes chess is in a movie because a star or director is a player. Humphrey Bogart was reputed to be at the top end of amateur players, and suggested a chess scene for Casablanca. And Stanley Kubrick was so taken with chess that it features in The Killing, Lolita and 2001 and alluded to the game in Paths of Glory.

“The best scenes are where there is some tension between the protagonists. Humphrey Bogart has a special place in my affections because he did love chess. The board was definitely the right way round in Casablanca,” Pein adds.

The chess authorities have tried to capitalise on the movies to recruit new players, such as when the game was heavily featured in a Harry Potter movie.

And the fans like most the movies – such as From Russia With Love – that at least attempt to use a real game. Blade Runner features a game based on Anderssen against Kieseritzky in London in 1851, known to some as the Immortal Game, and 1925’s Chess Fever which featured Cuban world champion Jose Raul Capablanca playing a champion.

Read more HERE about chess in movies.

Click HERE to see how the pieces move and if you don’t know these little funny men on the pic here, you can click
HERE to read about the Lewis Chessmen!

Another fantastic link HERE about Chess in movies.

If you click HERE you can see a list of more than 1700 movies where a chess scene can be found!