MARK RUBERY CHESS

A number of years ago a list was compiled of the ten best films containing chess scenes. The most famous to my mind being the opening scene of the James Bond film ‘From Russia with Love’ featuring Spassky’s wonderful combination against Bronstein during the 1960 USSR Championship. Spassky, Boris V - Bronstein, David I [C36] URS-ch27 Leningrad, 1960

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 Bd6 5.Nc3 Ne7 6.d4 0–0 7.Bd3 Nd7 8.0–0 h6 9.Ne4 Nxd5 10.c4 Ne3 11.Bxe3 fxe3 12.c5 Be7 13.Bc2 Re8 14.Qd3 e2 15.Nd6! Nf8 16.Nxf7! exf1Q+ 17.Rxf1 … Bf5 (17…Kxf7 18 Ne5+ Kg8 19 Qh7+!! Nxh7 20 Bb3+ forces mate) 18.Qxf5 Qd7 19.Qf4 Bf6 20.N3e5 Qe7 21.Bb3 Bxe5 22.Nxe5+ Kh7 23.Qe4+ 1–0

1. A matter of life and death (1946 starring David Niven)

2. The Seventh Seal

3. Casablanca

4. 2001 a Space Odyssey

5. Ivan the Terrible

6. Blazing Saddles

7. Blade Runner

8. Knight Moves

9. The Thomas Crown affair

10. From Russia with Love

There have been films that have dealt with chess exclusively such as ‘Innocent Moves’ (initially released as ‘Searching for Bobby Fischer’-no prizes for guessing who objected to that title) and ‘Luzhin’s Defence’, the latter film having GM Jon Speelman on call to authenticate all the chess scenes. More recently ‘Pawn Sacrifice’ focused on the drama of the 1972 world championship match between Fischer and Spassky while the highly acclaimed miniseries ‘Queen’s Gambit’ is perhaps the greatest cinematic portrayal of the Royal Game.

For those with more weird yearnings there is an old Betty Boop cartoon in which Betty is captured by the Black king and rescued by the white pawns. In this politically correct age it might well be categorised as soft pawn.

On the same theme a chess team distilled from the entertainment industry would roughly in order of strength be:

Humphrey Bogart

Al Jolson

John Wayne

Charles Chaplin

John Lennon

Frank Sinatra

Harry Houdini

Marlon Brando

One can almost see the board seven wriggling in an apparently hopeless position while on either side of him the Sicilian Defence is being played with a perceptible swagger…

Boris Vasilievich was the only top-class player of his generation who played gambits regularly and without fear ... Over a period of 30 years he did not lose a single game with the King’s Gambit, and among those defeated were numerous strong players of all generations, from Averbakh, Bronstein and Fischer, to Seirawan. - Garry Kasparov