There might not be any chess on the tellybox these days, but at least there's plenty of it around in films. Your task today: identify ten films from just a line or two of their chess-scene dialogue. (No googling!)
1.
"Err … Rook to king one."
"I’m sorry Frank, I think you missed it: queen to bishop 3, bishop takes queen, knight takes bishop, mate."
"It looks like you’re right. I resign."
"Thank you for a very enjoyable game."
2.
"He made a fair move. Screaming about it can’t help you."
"It’s not wise to upset [BLANKETY BLANK]."
"But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid."
"That’s because a droid don’t pull people’s arms out of their sockets when they lose."
3.
"Do you play?"
"Try me."
4.
"My congratulations sir. A brilliant coup."
5.
"Your move: bishop to knight four. My move: knight to rook three."
"Poor baby. You’re starting to lose it aren’t you?"
"Your move: king to rook one. My move: rook to knight six. Check mate, check mate."
"Cheating bitch."
6.
"Not king. Checkmate in two moves. Use bishop to queen four."
"Thanks for your advice, comrade, but I think I’ve got it covered."
7.
"I teach him as much as I choose."
"You haven’t taught him enough. Sacrifice. It’s one thing you can’t teach them, captain. Sacrifice! Checkmate."
8.
"Where are we?"
"A graveyard."
"This is no graveyard … it’s a chessboard."
9.
"Are you in the middle of a game?"
"No. Well, actually I’m studying the grandmasters. This was a game between Fischer and Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972 ..."
"You don’t have anyone to play with."
"No. Not since Len."
"You could always get one of those chess computer game things."
"You didn’t come here to talk about chess."
10.
"At this hour? What can I do for you Sebastian?"
"Queen to bishop six, check."
"Nonsense. Just a moment. Hmm. Queen to bishop six. Ridiculous. Queen … bishop six. Hmm. Knight takes queen. What’s on your mind Sebastian? What are you thinking about?"
(off screen whisper): "Bishop to king seven. Checkmate."
"Bishop to king seven. Checkmate I think."
16 comments:
I always look forwarding to films which have chess in them, but nearly always find myself irritated/distracted by various things: (a) descriptive notation used, verbally, which movie producers have obviously decided sounds "more chess-like" than algebraic and (b) the winner proudly announcing "checkmate", which is clearly just a movie-tool to the audience to let them know who has won: no serious player is ever surprised by being checkmated, suddenly.
Having said all that, let's play along :-)
1. 2001
2. Whichever Star Wars film had R2D2 playing against Chewbacca
3. Sounds awfully familiar, but I can't place it
4. ...
5. ...
6. ...
7. ...
8. Harry Potter: the one where Ron plays with the big stone statue pieces (Chamber of Secrets?)
9. ...
10. Bladerunner
Hmm, wonder how many of those others I actually *know* and just didn't realise: especially 3.
Correct on all counts Dave
Which leaves 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9
Oh, and 3 which is a classic scene.
Not a clue. However, 4 reminds me of one of my favourite lines in cinema, from Witness for the Prosecution.
"Congratulations, here are your cigars."
Since it was nagging me so much, I'm afraid I had to cheat and look up the quote for #3 - I won't say here what it is, though, so others can have a go ;-)
Number four is surely from Russia With Love.
Yup that's right. 4 = From Russia With Love
shurely no.8 is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?
Oh, yes, that's right Jonathan. It, #8, was the first HP.
So,
3, 5, 6, 7 and 9 to go.
Some clues:
9 we've had on here before.
One of them is the foxiest chess scene ever
One of them the character would have been freezing cold if he'd been outside instead of inside playing chess
One of them features Farah Fawcett, Harvey Keitel and one other (the guy who delivers the line quoted)
One of them appears in a film where you also see Arnie Schwarzenegger's bare bum
3 - Thomas Crown Affair?
On a quick skim, the only one I recognized was 10.
I remember unduly impressing someone else sprawled drunkenly in the student lounge as I was, watching the film, when I said "oh, wait, I think I know the game that's taken from". He really seemed to think it was a feat of staggering divination, rather than a set pattern resurfacing from beneath the alcohol.
Yup that's two more down. Five is a John Carpenter movie and three is Thomas Crown.
Is 6 Red Heat (?) - James Belushi and Arnie?
Bingo. That's another one down.
5) The Thing (love it!)
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