Reviewed here:
I saw that movie (“Queen to Play”) a couple days ago. It does a beautiful job of portraying chess the way tournament players see it, and wrapping it into an engrossing family drama at the same time.
In the Chicago area, it is playing only at the Music Box theater. As Chicagoans will recognize, that means that it is a superb movie and off the beaten path. It will never get a wide audience. See it while you can!
Bill Smythe
The DVD is coming out May 31, so if you miss it in the theater, you won’t have to wait long.
They like chess at the Music Box: their parent corp acquired the Fischer documentary a couple months ago, as noted here.
I went to see QUEEN TO PLAY in a movie house in Portland. It was the last showing of the run and had about 8 other people watching it. I did not see any mistakes. What computer was she using? Interesting that they had them keeping score but I don’t recall that Kevin gave her any lessons on how to do it.
Looking forward to the Bobby Fischer HBO soon. I signed up for HBO on my cable just to be able to watch it. Might drop it after I have watched it as there does not seem to be much else of interest to me.
Russell Miller
Vancouver WA site of 2012 US Open
I remember one. Somebody moved a piece to the J file. I’m sure this was a mis-translation from the French, probably should have been the G file.
And, of course, every game ended in checkmate, never resignation. This, however, is legitimate artistic license, when you are creating a chess movie for the general public.
I was happy to note that they never made the “beginner’s mistake” of having a black square in the right-hand corner.
Bill Smythe
Another very favorable review of “Queen to Play” by Stephen Holden for the New York Times:
movies.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/mo … eview.html
The NYT article includes a 90-seconds movie trailer.
I thought Queen to play was an excellent movieand contrary to several posts here believe it could attract a wide non-chess audience if marketed and advertised to chieve that. Kevin Klein was one of the two stars and he did his usual class role. i can’t recall who played the women’s role.
Don Schultz
You can see it on NetFlix streaming now.
I liked it but thought it faltered badly from the chess tournament to the end of the movie.