Dutch Treat
by Hans Ree

Subtle Clues

There are exceptions to the general rule that chessplayers in a film
are either devious crooks or madmen, but for La partie d'echecs
(The Chess Game), a film that I saw a few months ago on Belgian
TV, director Yves Hanchard has been faithful to tradition: World
Champion Howard Staunton is depicted as a crook and his French
opponent Master Max is mad.

It was a Belgian-French-Swiss co-production from 1994. Too
many cooks in the kitchen may be good for subsidies from
European cultural funds, but they tend to spoil the dish. This film
is far from a masterpiece, but for chess addicts it has quite a few
interesting points. 

Master Max, who is, contrary to Staunton, a character that doesn't
seem to be based on an actual chess player, is invited by Marquise
De Theux (played by Catherine Deneuve) to play at her estate
against the Englishman Howard Staunton, the reigning champion.
The winner of a two-game match will not only be the new World
Champion, he will also marry the beautiful daughter of the
marquise.

Poor Staunton - he is the proverbial villain of chess history. I
remember well how quite recently on The Chess Cafe's Bulletin
Board in the great Historians' Quarrel of Ken Whyld against the
gang of five, six, seven or whatever their number, he was still able
to attract the ire of contemporary historians. 

And in this film, being cast as the bad guy, Staunton has already
secured the love of the marquise's daughter by means that have
little to do with chess. He will get her whatever
the outcome of the match. One cannot really blame him for this, or
her, for the emotionally and socially disturbed Master Max is an
unlikely candidate for marriage.

But indeed shameful is the proposal that Staunton makes after he
has lost the first game. He promises to lose the second game also.
Then Max will be champion and marry the daughter. Afterwards he
will confess that the second game was fixed and then the title will
revert to Staunton, but not Max's new wife.

Max, madly in love with the marquise's daughter, believes
Staunton and runs through a nice game that they will stage the next
day.

The chess adviser of the film has not been able to prevent silly
lines such as "I want to beat Staunton with a discovered check!,"
but he did choose some very nice historical games and they are
presented in such a subtle way that only an attentive chess
detective will be able to figure out which ones they are.

The second game starts. We see the opening moves played quickly
with wildly flailing arms, as if the players are protecting
themselves from a swarm of bees, instead of starting a chess game.

White Staunton Black Master Max
1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. Ng1-f3 Nb8-c6 3. Bf1-c4 Bf8-c5 4. c2-c3 Ng8-f6
5. d2-d4 e5xd4 6. c3xd4 Bc5-b4+ This is the first time we get a
glimpse of the board. We see the black bishop giving check. Aha,
we think. Italian opening. 7. Nb1-c3 d7-d5 8. e4xd5 Nf6xd5 9. 0-0
Bc8-e6 10. Bc1-g5 Bb4-e7 11. Bc4xd5 Be6xd5 12. Nc3xd5
Qd8xd5 13. Bg5xe7 Nc6xe7 14. Rf1-e1 f7-f6 15. Qd1-e2 Qd5-d7
16. Ra1-c1 c7-c6 None of these moves we have seen on the screen,
but at this point we get a clue again, enabling us to reconstruct
them. (See Diagram)


We do not really see the position as it is given here, only a small
part of the board: pawn d4, pawn c6, the Queen on d7 and the
Knight on e7. It's clue enough for the chess detective, who realizes
that they are duplicating Steinitz-Bardeleben, Hastings 1895. He
briefly wonders in what year the film is set, as the real Staunton
died in 1871, but realizes that such musings are irrelevant.

Back to the film, where the previous day Max had told Staunton
that White could win in the diagrammed position with d4-d5 and
that White, if he didn't make that move, "would lose in thirteen or
fourteen moves," which must be another line that the chess adviser
vainly struggled to keep out.

Staunton had agreed not to play d4-d5, but of course the scoundrel
has no intention of keeping his promise and he plays it all the
same. The moves that follow we do not get to see on the screen,
but of course we know what they must have been: 17. d4-d5 c6xd5
18. Nf3-d4 Ke8-f7 19. Nd4-e6 Rh8-c8 20. Qe2-g4 g7-g6 21.
Ne6-g5+ Kf7-e8 22. Re1xe7+ Ke8-f8 23. Re7-f7+ Kf8-g8 24.
Rf7-g7+ Kg8-h8 25. Rg7xh7+ This is the moment when
Bardeleben left the playing room and let his time run out, after
which a disappointed Steinitz showed what would have happened,
had Bardeleben not sneaked out so unsportingly: 25... Kh8-g8 26.
Rh7-g7+ Kg8-h8 27. Qg4-h4+ Kh8xg7 28. Qh4-h7+ Kg7-f8 29.
Qh7-h8+ Kf8-e7 30. Qh8-g7+ Ke7-e8 31. Qg7-g8+ Ke8-e7 32.
Qg8-f7+ Ke7-d8 33. Qf7-f8+ Qd7-e8 34. Ng5-f7+ Kd8-d7 35.
Qf8-d6 Mate.

His treachery has brought Staunton the point; it's now 1-1 and a
final decisive game is scheduled. Again we see the wild and quick
arm movements in the opening stage. 

We see that Master Max, who plays White, moves a piece in the
middle of his first rank, one square up, it appears. An important
clue. It must be Ke1-e2. The Steinitz Gambit! A sharp game
indeed. After this, we see no other recognizable moves made,
except at the end.

Max has, inadvertently it seems, touched a piece that he doesn't
want to play, and Staunton demands the traditional penalty: a
King's move. Now we see Max moving his King at the far edge of
the board, apparently to the square a7, and then Staunton, the
marquise, her admirers and her daughter realize what Max has
realized all along, that Staunton will be mated in a few moves.
And the chess detective now has enough information to know what
game was enacted. Of course it was that fantastic game that ended
with 26. Ka7.

White Steel Black NN, Calcutta 1886 
1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. Nb1-c3 Nb8-c6 3. f2-f4 e5xf4 4. d2-d4 Qd8-h4+
5. Ke1-e2 The Steinitz gambit. 5...d7-d5 6. e4xd5 Bc8-g4+ 7.
Ng1-f3 0-0-0 8. d5xc6 Bf8-c5 9. c6xb7+ Kc8-b8 10. Nc3-b5 Ng8-
f6 11. c2-c3 Rh8-e8+ 12. Ke2-d3 Bg4-f5+ 13. Kd3-c4 Bf5-e6+
14. Kc4xc5 a7-a5 15. Nb5xc7 Qh4-h5+ 16. Nf3-e5 Nf6-d7+ 17.
Kc5-b5 Qh5xd1 18. Bc1xf4 Qd1xa1 19. Kb5-a6 Nd7xe5 20.
Nc7xe8 f7-f6 21. d4xe5 f6-f5 22. Bf4-e3 Rd8xe8 23. Bf1-b5
Qa1xh1 24. Be3-a7+ Kb8-c7 25. Ba7-c5 Re8-d8 (See Diagram)

26. Ka6-a7 Black resigned.

Thanks to Tim Krabbe and Dutch IM Gerard Welling, we know
that this was actually only analysis by Robert Steel, a British
government official in India, not a game that was really played. But
that is not the point here. Master Max did play a splendid game.
And nice work too by the chess adviser, who knew that just a few
clues would suffice to recognize it. 

His choice of Steinitz-Bardeleben as a model for the second match
game in the film can be explained simply on the grounds of its
beauty, but I think there is more to it.

In the final scene, Master Max is shown as a kind of mad king on
the terrace of a mountain castle, playing with giant-sized chessmen
on a giant board. Then he jumps off the edge of the board into
Nothingness.

His disappearance mimics the death of the man whose moves he
had copied, Curt von Bardeleben, who in real life jumped to his
death in1924. 

It appears as if the chess adviser, whoever he is, in the margins of a
somewhat trashy film played a game of his own, involving the few
chess addicts who would see the film as a conspiracy of shared
knowledge. The chess detective salutes him and purrs contentedly.
                                   
This column first appeared in the Dutch newspaper
NRC-Handelsblad September 9, 2000. Copyright 2000 Hans Ree,
All Rights Reserved.