Petrosianic: <keypusher> <Well, not every use of chess in TV and the movies can be on the level of "From Russia With Love,"> Yeah, but I remember one that was pretty good, maybe even better than <From Russia With Love> just because they used a legal game and showed it move for move from beginning to end.
It was some TV show from the 70's. I don't remember the name, but it was some kind of <Touched By An Angel>-like show, where an angel went around improving people's lives every week (kind of like a supernatural <Quantum Leap>).
There was this one show where this week's beneficiary was this chess player, whose big wish was to beat the top guy in his club, named Kropotkin (I do remember that name).
For some reason I don't quite remember, the guy didn't actually wish for something outright, he just wanted to be surprised by whatever good thing was going to happen to him. But he made it clear he wanted to beat Kropotkin.
So he challenges him to a game for the top spot in the club. Kropotkin doesn't want to play someone so weak, but our hero wagers an antique set he owns that had once been owned by Howard Staunton, in exchange for the title shot.
Kropotkin accepts, but our hero breaks his glasses before the game, and can't see the board clearly. Kropotkin doesn't want to call the match off, so our hero actually tries to play semi-blind, with a friend calling the moves to him.
They play a short, but <legitimate> game, which Kropotkin wins quickly and which I actually remember. It went:
1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 d6 3. exd6 Bxd6 4. Nc3?? Qh5+ 5. g3 Qxg3+ 6. hxg3 Bxg3++.
Our hero wants another chance. Kropotkin agrees to play... for the title, but <not> for the Staunton set. Now that he's got it, he doesn't want to risk it. Kropotkin's would-be girlfriend, who our hero has had his eye on from the beginning, is turned off by his attitude, making him play without his glasses, and refusing him a chance to win the set back, so she dumps Kropotkin and goes out with our hero instead.
At the end, the friend who'd called the moves out tries to console our hero, but he says he doesn't need any consolation, because today he <finally> beat Kropotkin.
Wish I could remember the name of the series that this episode was from. I've looked at the prime time TV schedules from the late 70's, and don't see anything that looks like it might be it. It may have been a summer replacement or something.
I'd like to see it again because it's VERY rare for a TV show or movie to show you, not just a chess <position>, but an entire legally played game.
In the <Prisoner> episode <Checkmate>, for example, they call out moves in a game that start as a legal Vienna game, but quickly devolves into nonsense moves.
