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BARDWICK: Chess, spy style

By Todd Bardwick, Special to the Rocky

Published November 9, 2008 at 3 p.m.
Updated November 9, 2008 at 6:03 p.m.

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From Russia With Love

From Russia With Love

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The 1963 James Bond movie From Russia with Love is likely the most famous movie of all time that incorporates chess.

The movie opens with Bond's archenemy, SPECTRE agent Grandmaster Kronsteen (Czechoslovakia) brilliantly defeating Grandmaster MacAdams (Canada) in the fictional Venice Invitational Grandmasters Championship.

The chess scene takes place in an old castle with a large demonstration board behind the stage where the magnetic pieces are moved with long sticks. A large audience quietly watches as the moves are called out in the old descriptive notation.

The grid

Movie position after 21...Bxe5.

The game continued, 22.Nxe5+ Kh7? (22...Ne6! may be winning or drawing as black is ahead in material if he survives White's attack) 23.Qe4+ Resigns

Do you know where this realistic chess position came from?

It occurred three years earlier in the famous 1960 game from the 28th USSR Championship between Boris Spassky and David Bronstein.

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 Bd6 5.Nc3 Ne7 6.d4 0-0 7.Bd3 Nd7 8.0-0 h6 9.Ne4! Nxd5 10.c4 Ne3 11.Bxe3 fxe3 12.c5 Be7 13.Bc2 Re8 14.Qd3 e2 15.Nd6! Nf8 16.Nxf7 exf1=Q+ 17.Rxf1 Bf5 18.Qxf5 Qd7 19.Qf4 Bf6 20.N3e5 Qe7 21.Bb3 Bxe5 22.Nxe5+ Kh7 23.Qe4+ Resigns

Note that the Kronsteen name rhymes with Bronstein.

Playing through the moves of the game up to 21 . . . Bxe5, you will notice the position is identical to the movie position except that White's pawns on d4 and c5 are missing. These two extra center pawns are important to White's position!

Could the movie producers have been worried about using the actual game position because of copyright infringement? Today it is widely known that you can copyright chess analysis, but not a chess position.

Nuggets chess event

* Family Chess Knight with the Denver Nuggets: Chess seminar starts at 4:45 p.m. Nov. 30 before the Nuggets game against Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets

* Tickets: $16 for seminar, Nuggets game, hot dog and soda. Call Nick Gray at 303-405-6187 or go to: www.pepsicenter .com/Groups /Nuggets/Chess

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