Chess politics - Movie Plot Based on Chess

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Movie Plot Based on Chess

Sam Sloan

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

Movie Plot Based on Chess

I have often tried to create a screenplay or a movie plot based on
chess. Sometimes I think of fragments but never a full plot. Perhaps
some others can contribute some ideas.

Here is one idea. The start is similar to the movie "Dirty Dozen".

A man is laboring deep in the Salt Mines of Siberia chipping away at
the salt, in horrible drudgery.

In the next scene, Stalin is yelling. "We must send a man to represent
us in the World Chess Championship. A man who can beat the best in the
world and prove the superiority of the Soviet System. Where can we
find that man?"

Beria replies, "Well, actually, we have such a man".

Stalin says, "Bring him here".

Beria Replies, "But, he is in the bottom of a salt mine."

"I don't care where he is, Bring him out", says Stalin.

Next, we shift to a torture chamber at Auschwitz. A man is the subject
of medical experiments and being injected with poisons. He is on the
brink of death but Hitler calls Dr. Josef Mengele to bring him out to
send him to play for the world chess championship.

A chess player goes to the chess tables in Luneta Park in the
Philippines late at night. One of the players at the tables says: "Do
you play chess?"

"Yes. A little", is the reply

"How good are you?

"I am a beginner?"

"Oh. I am a beginner too. So, we have an even match: A Filipino
beginner against an American beginner! Let's play for pesos."

After the Filipino beginner loses the first game, he goes looking
under the chess tables to wake up a chess master who is sleeping
there. When he finally finds him, the guy crawls out from under the
table bleary eyed and sits down at the board and wins the game.

Later on in the movie, the protagonist is sitting at the board in a
tournament for the world chess championship. When his opponent arrives
it turns out to be the same sleepy Filipino Chess Player.

If anybody has any ideas, please contribute.

Sam Sloan

Dr. Jai Maharaj

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

Research material for the screenplay:

Chess was invented in Bharat (aka India) --
here is a 1991 review of a book:

[ Subject: SCIENCE IN THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
[ From: Dr. Jai Maharaj
[ Date: January 29, 1998
[
[
[ SCIENCE IN THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
[ by Sa'id-al-Andalusi
[
[ Book translated by S. I. Salem and A. Kumar University
[ of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, 1991.
[
[ Review by Rajen S. Anand
[
[ INDIA-WEST, November 29, 1991, page 61
[
[ Long Beach, California - An Indo-American professor,
[ along with a colleague, has translated and eleventh-
[ century book published in Islamic Spain which documents
[ the contribution of scientific knowledge from India,
[ Greece, Persia, Rome, Egypt and other Middle Eastern
[ countries.
[
[ During the Middle Ages, a thriving center for learning
[ and research existed in Muslim Spain, where students
[ gathered to consult Arabic manuscripts of earlier
[ scientific works and study with famous teachers.
[
[ One of these teachers was Sa'id-al-Andalusi (Sa'id of
[ Andalusia), who in 1068 wrote Kitab Tabaqut al-Umam
[ (Book of Categories of Nations) and recorded the
[ contributions to science by these nations.
[
[ Today, it is one of the very rare Spanish Muslim
[ texts. The book was recently translated by
[ Sema'an-I-Salem and Alok Kumar, both professors at
[ California State university at Long Beach.
[
[ Titled SCIENCE IN THE MEDIEVAL WORLD, the book
[ compiles the contributions of India and other countries
[ to science. The information of Greece, Egypt and Rome
[ is well-known to the scientific community in western
[ countries.
[
[ However, [knowledge by the West of the] role of
[ scientists and philosophers from such countries as
[ India, Spain, the Middle East and the contribution of
[ Islam to science is new and important.
[
[ Medicine, Astronomy, Numbers, Chess Invention
[
[ According to the manuscript, Indians are "of sublime
[ pensiveness, universal apologues, and useful and rare
[ inventions." The book also validates the earlier-known
[ facts that chess was invented in India and Indians
[ "surpassed all other people in their knowledge of
[ medical science and the strengths of various drugs."
[
[ It also documents India's contributions to astronomy
[ and mathematics, and confirms that the so-called Arabic
[ numerals originated in India.
[
[ Salem and Kumar have made a valuable contribution to
[ the knowledge of the history of science by translating
[ this ancient book.
[
[ The book contains important information on the
[ exchanges of scientific information from India to
[ Persia, and the Islamic empire of Harun-al-Rashid. It
[ also opens a unique window on the Islamic gifts to
[ science and its role in the European Renaissance Period.
[
[ SCIENCE IN THE MEDIEVAL WORLD, though written in a
[ reference style, reveals the multinational nature of
[ science. Modern science did not spring with existence
[ full-grown with the Renaissance in Europe. It was
[ influenced by the work of many people from the Middle
[ East and Asia. Their contributions have often been
[ ignored in science history courses taught in the western
[ world.
[
[ The book, published by the university of Texas Press,
[ sheds plenty of light on the multicultural aspect of
[ scientific contribution and confirms the glorious past
[ of India and the other so-called Third World countries.
[
[ End of review by Rajen S. Anand.
[ Authorized Reproduction.
[
[ Jai Maharaj
[ http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
[ Om Shanti

Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti

Locked Room

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan) wrote in message news:<417bda2e.109566875@ca.news.verio.net>...

quote:

> Movie Plot Based on Chess

quote:

> If anybody has any ideas, please contribute.
>
> Sam Sloan

The bad guy in the film is Sammy (played by Marty Feldman). He
realizes his mama and papa don't love him as much as they love his
brother, Creighton (the hero of the film, played by Tom Cruise).
Sammy, to get even with his daddy, converts from Christianity to Islam
and changes his name to Haji Fishmeal Mohammed. Mama dies. The 2
brothers are gathered together for the reading of the will. Mama left
all her money to Creighton.

"You mean I don't get nothing?" Haji (Sammy) said.

"That's right, it all goes to Creighton," the lawyer says.

Haji (Sammy) runs from the room in tears.

Creighton and his wife (played by Charlize Theron) go to Las Vegas to
celebrate all the money they have. They buy a mansion in Lynchburg,
Virginia, attend Jerry Falwell's church every Sunday, and live happily
ever after.

Haji (Sammy), a lifelong chessplayer, has a recurring dream every
night where he sees the severed heads of grandmasters placed on the
tops of chessboards. Then he goes to the hotel where a tournament to
decide the world chess champion is being played. He stands in the
middle of the world's top players and suddenly drops his trousers,
revealing an explosive belt tied around his crotch.

"Allah Akhbar! Allah Akhbar! Die you filthy infidels!" he screams. And
then he pulls the cord, killing (martyring) himself and all the
chessplayers.

The final image of the film is an open Koran surrounded by bright
flowers, showing the verse justifying the killing of infidels.

THE END

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

"Ron" <ronaldinho_m@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ronaldinho_m-14E6B4.14070524102004@individual.net...

quote:

> In article <5ZTed.1892$3_5.701340@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net>,
> "Chuck" <Chuck1@BabiesWithRabies.org> wrote:
>
>
> Well, chess is so inherently uncinematic that I think a movie about
> chess is going to have to REALLY be about something else. "Searching for
> Bobby Fischer" does this very well, because it's more about parenting
> and hoping your kids acheive success than chess; it could be reworked as
> a baseball movie pretty easily.

Maybe Sam should just take a baseball movie and rework it as a chess movie:

"If you whittle it, they will come..."

Sam Sloan

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:16:03 GMT, <U840@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

quote:

>Maybe the winner gets to stay free, is that where you are going with this?,
>and the loser has to go back to Siberia. But of course unless the game is a
>draw, in which case both players get sent back to their horrible fate, Diana
>Rigg/Phoebe Cates is killed.

Right. Stalin or Beria makes it clear to the player who is brought out
of the salt mines that if he looses the game he will go back to the
salt mines with double duty.

The American just plays the game for the glory, not realizing that if
he wins the game his opponent will be condemned to death.

Looks like we are making some progress.

Sam Sloan

Rostyslaw J. Lewyckyj

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

Ron wrote:

quote:

> In article <5ZTed.1892$3_5.701340@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net>,
> "Chuck" <Chuck1@BabiesWithRabies.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Well, chess is so inherently uncinematic that I think a movie about
> chess is going to have to REALLY be about something else. "Searching for
> Bobby Fischer" does this very well, because it's more about parenting
> and hoping your kids acheive success than chess; it could be reworked as
> a baseball movie pretty easily.

But the image of a big board chess game, sometimes with human chess
pieces, sometimes with fantastic pieces, and with fantastic chess
players playing the game has been used a multitude of times,
even in one of the Harry Potter movies.
Also the portrayal of a part of the plot as a kind of a "chess"
game between opposing forces/player intelligences, with no explicit
chess board has been employed.

Isn't there a documentary movie or several about the man
vs machine chess history, and machine vs machine chess
tournaments. Now those are not great human drama,
but they are chess specific, with some human sidelights
added to keep them from being deadly boring technical
presentations.

odnamrA

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan) wrote in message news:<417bda2e.109566875@ca.news.verio.net>...

quote:

> I have often tried to create a screenplay or a movie plot based on
> chess.

Uh... I assume you've already seen "Searching For Bobby Fischer"?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108065/

Hell of a movie.

Ron

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

In article <5ZTed.1892$3_5.701340@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net>,
"Chuck" <Chuck1@BabiesWithRabies.org> wrote:

quote:

> ...an idiotic thread.
>
> Any movie could lay some claim to being based on chess.

Well, chess is so inherently uncinematic that I think a movie about
chess is going to have to REALLY be about something else. "Searching for
Bobby Fischer" does this very well, because it's more about parenting
and hoping your kids acheive success than chess; it could be reworked as
a baseball movie pretty easily.

Phil

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 14:46:42 -0700, "ian burton"
<notvalid@notvalid.com> wrote:

quote:

>

quote:

>
>You're kidding, right? I can't believe you take this plot seriously.

If you knew Sam, you'd know he was serious about this.

Phil
=====
visit the New York City Homebrewers Guild website:
http://hbd.org/nychg/

Phil

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 20:08:33 GMT, "Chuck"
<Chuck1@BabiesWithRabies.org> wrote:

quote:

>...an idiotic thread.
>
>Any movie could lay some claim to being based on chess.

And it doesn't mean there would be enough people in it to make it
worthwhile to produce it.

Phil
=====
visit the New York City Homebrewers Guild website:
http://hbd.org/nychg/

Todor

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

Completely missed the connection between the Russian/German part and
the Filipino/American one.
However, are you familiar with "Chess Fever" by Kuleshov? Classic!

"Orin Oríg" <lusterlux@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:<cL9fd.8256$ta5.2523@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net>...[vbcol=seagreen]
> There was the Broadway musical "Chess." (Lyrics by Tim Rice)
>
> I think in the demo album, it implied that the Russian chess champion was a
> fruit and had hots on the American chess champion who was suffering from
> "attention deficiency syndrome."
>
> When the album was released, homosexuality was banned in the Soviet Union
> and that could be the biggest conflict in the plot . . . now homosexuality
> is not banned in Russia anymore.
>
> I like the demo album, however, when they translated it into the Broadway
> stage, it did not even get a single Tony nomination.
>
>
> Orinello
>
>
>
> "Sam Sloan" <sloan@ishipress.com> wrote in message
> news:417bda2e.109566875@ca.news.verio.net...

Jerry W

2004-10-31, 6:46 am

> How about a human sized chess game with Harry Potter and a bunch of naked

quote:

> women?
> Would that make a good movie?
>

Yes, if you leave out Harry Potter

regards

Jerry

Orin Oríg

2004-10-31, 6:46 am

"Tristán White" <Tristan_White@rocketmail.com> wrote in message
news:2j5sn0d24422suobnbc8jr1rijfgac87vf@4ax.com...

quote:

> On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 16:22:32 GMT, "Orin Oríg"
> <lusterlux@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
was a[vbcol=seagreen]
homosexuality[vbcol=seagreen]
>
>
> Ahhhh, I remember ...
>
> One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
> The bars are temples but the pearls aren't free
> You'll find a god in every golden cloister
> And if you're lucky then the god's a she
> I can feel an angel sliding up to me
>

And that angel could be a queen.

Orin Oríg

2004-10-31, 6:46 am

"Orin Oríg" <lusterlux@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:8%tfd.8146$5i5.4665@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...

quote:

>
> "Tristán White" <Tristan_White@rocketmail.com> wrote in message
> news:2j5sn0d24422suobnbc8jr1rijfgac87vf@4ax.com...
> was a
from[vbcol=seagreen]
Union[vbcol=seagreen]
> homosexuality
Broadway[vbcol=seagreen]
>
> And that angel could be a queen.
>
>

s7ven

2004-10-31, 6:46 am

said...

quote:

> There is a move in basic chess called forking? I think that is it?
> Where you get something on a diagonal with your bishop like a rook and
> if the rook is moved then the queen would be taken far behind it on
> the diagonal or the king would be in check. So you get to take a
> higher value piece than a bishop because there is no way for it to
> move and expose the piece behind? That is what I am thinking about.

Off Topic:

That's actually a pin. A fork is where you movie you peice to a spot on the
board where it is threatening two peices simultaneously. Like I move my
bishop to a place where it is threatening a Rook and a Knight at the same
time. If he moves the rook, I take the knight and vice versa.

A pin is where you move your piece to a spot where it is threatening only
one peice, but moving the threatened peice would cause a more valuable
peice to be threatened. For example, I move my bishop to a square that
threatens a Knight, but moving that knight would cause the rook even
further down the board to be threatened.

I played chess to much as a child. Funny, I never got good at it.

<snip the rest>

- Robert

Boracay Bill

2004-10-31, 6:46 am

"Doom & Gloom Dave" <dwhent@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<_Gffd.5981$Mc.5759@tornado.tampabay.rr.com>...

quote:

> Sam Sloan wrote:
> How about a brash American, and his female second meeting the Russian and
> his cohorts in Merano for the world championship match. The American
> alienates his second who takes up with the Russian player who happens to be
> married. Switch to Bangkok for the second half of the match, the Russian has
> defected, the American has quit the match and roams the streets of Bangkok
> as an observer. A new Soviet challenger is playing the Russian. Eventually
> the Russian chooses the game over his new lover. The end is unhappy or
> bittersweet for all.

Maybe it should be a musical. No, wait....
see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389851/

StanB

2004-10-31, 6:46 am

"Martin Wilber" <martinwilber@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1be88f798d055780989689@news.chi.sbcglobal.net...

quote:

> I think Sylvestor Stalone should be in it as the Rocky character. In
> the movie, his brain has become mush from all those hits to the head.

He can play Sam Sloan.

Robert Vervoordt

2004-11-11, 6:46 am

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 23:28:21 -0400, "Rostyslaw J. Lewyckyj"
<urjlew@bellsouth.net> wrote:

quote:

>Ron wrote:
>
>
>But the image of a big board chess game, sometimes with human chess
>pieces, sometimes with fantastic pieces, and with fantastic chess
>players playing the game has been used a multitude of times,
>even in one of the Harry Potter movies.
>Also the portrayal of a part of the plot as a kind of a "chess"
>game between opposing forces/player intelligences, with no explicit
>chess board has been employed.
>
>Isn't there a documentary movie or several about the man
>vs machine chess history, and machine vs machine chess
>tournaments. Now those are not great human drama,
>but they are chess specific, with some human sidelights
>added to keep them from being deadly boring technical
>presentations.

Ahem. The screenplay for has probaly been written for a cinematic
movie based on Chess. John Brunner wrote a novel called "Squares of
the Cityu" in which the events and charcters were dictated by a well
known game of Chess. It takes place in a city that is laid out as
asqure with a grid of squares within. Some of these Squares represent
large government buildings, some city blocks, parks, mansions,
markets; you get the picture. The plot and character moves are
precisely modeled on the moves of the Chess pieces in that game.

I had a friend who was both a Chess and Sci-fi nut and he just swooned
over it. Me, I couldn't get past the first 30, or so, pages. Yet, I
have to admit it was a dramtic story with enough chamges of time and
space to be cinematic.

Brunner wrote a lot that I truly relished; mostly Science Fiction. I
think he also wrote some screenplays. He was one of my favorite
authors. But this, to my mind, was just somewhat better than the
talking dog.

Robert Vervoordt, MFA

Robert Vervoordt

2004-11-16, 5:00 pm

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 23:28:21 -0400, "Rostyslaw J. Lewyckyj"
<urjlew@bellsouth.net> wrote:

quote:

>Ron wrote:
>
>
>But the image of a big board chess game, sometimes with human chess
>pieces, sometimes with fantastic pieces, and with fantastic chess
>players playing the game has been used a multitude of times,
>even in one of the Harry Potter movies.
>Also the portrayal of a part of the plot as a kind of a "chess"
>game between opposing forces/player intelligences, with no explicit
>chess board has been employed.
>
>Isn't there a documentary movie or several about the man
>vs machine chess history, and machine vs machine chess
>tournaments. Now those are not great human drama,
>but they are chess specific, with some human sidelights
>added to keep them from being deadly boring technical
>presentations.