Chess Gaffs in Films

[Roger de Coverly]

This is Hugh Alexander - he won the British Chess Championship" and Alexander is quick to say "Twice!" - true enough, but the second time wasn't until 1956

With no Championship in 1939 because of the Olympiad, Alexander would have been "current" British Champion until 1946, having won in 1938.

[John Foley]

Just seen The Imitation Game and enjoyed it immensely. The film portrays mathematicians, chess players, linguists and crossword solvers as the best people in the country for code-breaking. Nice endorsement for the game of chess.

[Jon Mahony]

Yeah really enjoyed it myself, Benedict Cumberbatch is really maturing as an actor, I reckon we haven’t seen his best work. He played Turing perfectly. It’s a shame a little chess game wasn’t thrown in there between Turing and Alexander, in the hut - Similar to the game of Go in “A Beautiful Mind” I was rather hoping Milner-Barry would make an appearance too - indeed the biggest historical inaccuracy was Turing single handily writing a letter to Churchill, which achieved nothing except to get him put in charge of hut 8 - in actual fact Turing, Alexander Milner-Barry and Welchman wrote this letter, to petition for more equipment.

You have to expect little inaccuracy’s in dramatisations though and it shouldn’t take away from an excellent watch.

[Gordon Cadden]

Not difficult to imagine the intense rivalry between Alexander and Turing. My historical notes record Alexander as being in charge of Hut 8, which had the all important task of cracking the naval enigma codes. It does seem that Alexander was usurped by Turing.

[Kevin Thurlow]

I think Turing was in charge of Hut 8, but couldn't be bothered with the boring aspects of management, so Alexander gradually took over. This suited Turing fine as he could concentrate on the real work. The biography by Davies is well worth reading.

[Geoff Chandler]

Saw 'The Imitation Game' spotted the 'Twice British Champion' gaffe.
Wonder if they just looked up Alexander and saw 'Twice British Chess Champion.'
He was the British Boys Champion in Edinburgh 1926 - maybe he meant that.

Good film, The final wrap credits up left you wonder if they were praising Turing
or portraying how wrong the system was for persecuting Homosexuals.

Felt they could have at least mentioned his death may have been accidental.
(suppose that would have taken away part of the message of the film.)

The Queen's pardon was mentioned but not all the awards given that bear
his name or his statue: 'Wartime Code Breaker, Victim of Prejudice.'
Feel they missed a mark there.

Also a wrap up on the other main characters would have been OK.

Whay happened to the Spy? And a mention that Alexander was forbidden
to play chess in Soviet bloc countries due to his Intelligence connections.

Could not quite get how difficult the code was to break if, as the film would us
have believe, they knew the 6.00 message was always the same weather report
ending with 'Heil Hitler'.

Why did it take them so long to realise this is how you could crack it?
They could have filled in the rest of the mesage by simply looking out of the window.
You don't need a machine for that. The back of a brown envelope would suffice.

I don't know. These Cambidge and Oxford types, always looking for
problematic solutions when the answer is right under their noses.

But a good film.

[Stewart Reuben]

And a mention that Alexander was forbidden
to play chess in Soviet bloc countries due to his Intelligence connections.

Actually he was forbidden to travel to them, not forbidden to play chess there. Also it may have been a general edict, not directed at Alexander.

Minor titbit. Harry told me Philby had applied to join Bletchley Park but somebody, I've forgotten who but probably Alexander, thought there was something not quite right about Philby so he was turned down.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Stewart,

You can play there but you cannot go there.

Alexander could have done a Fischer and used a phone.

Stewart, off topic, but when did five minute chess become a normal sight in chess clubs in the UK.
I never saw any at the Edinburgh Chess club in the few visits I was allowed there in the 60's.

In the 70's it was all the rage and chess clocks were being broken.

[Stewart Reuben]

Geoff, you missed my point. Alexander was not allowed to travel to the Soviet bloc countries for security reasons. I am sure the establishment did not say, 'You can't play chess behind the Iron Curtain.' He did play in the Anglo-Soviet Radio Match of 1946, winning one and losing one against Botvinnik.

Geoff >when did five minute chess become a normal sight in chess clubs in the UK.
A popular form of chess used to be 'Lightning'. That is you had to move every 10 seconds on the buzzer, or when a gong was banged, or the 'arbiter' said move. That was because clocks were expensive. The British team and individual Lightning started in 1954 and died in 1992.
As clocks became more common, so did five minute chess. We certainly played a lot of it in Islington in the 1960s. Conditions would have varied around the UK.

My memory is clearer about New York 1963-5. Every Friday Manhattan Club had a 'rapid transit' tournament. That is the same as 10 second chess. But a great deal of 5 minute chess was played for money elsewhere. Playing blitz at the club was frowned upon because of the expected damage to the clocks. Nonetheless, I played some of my 5 minute games against Fischer at the club.

5 minute chess was a ponderous name. I resisted the move to call it blitz, preferring speed chess because, for me, there was the echo of the Second World War. But I realised I was losing the argument and gave up. Now it is universally known as blitz.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Stewart,

I picked up on the point - that was my wee joke,

Thanks for the reply. I thought it became more common in the 60's, though I never played my first 5 minute game till about 1970.

My memory is recalling letters to CHESS/BCM wanting 5 minute chess banned in clubs.
'too noisy' and 'breaking the clocks.'

The readers letters in these old magazine were sometimes very good.
(today of course we have chess forums and a reply can be seen within minutes.)
Back then you had to wait a month to see how the other lad replied.

[Roger de Coverly]

My memory is recalling letters to CHESS/BCM wanting 5 minute chess banned in clubs.
'too noisy' and 'breaking the clocks.'

The old BH Wood clocks of that era that looked like and probably were a pair of alarm clocks were never that reliable. BHBs on the other hand were and are immensely robust. It's difficult to judge with the rampant inflation of prices in that period, but I think clocks became relatively cheaper once VAT at 10% replaced Purchase Tax in 1973.

[John Clarke]

Followers of this topic (which perhaps now ought to be given its own thread?) might be interested in reading here how a regular 5-minute chess competition got started in the 1960s, and goes on still.

Five-minute chess wasn't actually banned outright at Enfield, but use of older less robust clocks for the purpose was definitely frowned upon.

Damage to clocks was still a concern in the mid-70s - I once had a cartoon with this theme published in Chess.

[Stewart Reuben]

But I remember introducing 'Reducer chess' in NY in the 1960s. We used to play it regularly in London before then.
You start the match with 5 minutes each. The each time you win a game, you lose a mi nute for your next one. You win the macth when you reach zero time. Draws don't count.
Have you ever played 40 moves in 1 minute, followed by all your moves in 1 minute? That required an electronic clock, 'Coundown'. The later introduction of an increment improved all chess greatly.

[Mick Norris]

Saw 'The Imitation Game' SNIP But a good film.

Have a go at this then
http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/crypt ... tion_game/

[Stewart Reuben]

A good film, yes. But based on Turing's life, not necessarily factually accurate. e.g. Turing reported to Bletchley the day after war was declared. He was in training though from 1938. The film has Alexander there before Turing.

In yesterday's Daily Telegraph there is a study by Duras. It says, 'black to play and win'. Of course it was white