When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.
A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who is being hunted by occupying Russian forces.
Just after World War II, an American takes a railway job in Germany, but finds his position politically sensitive with various people trying to use him.
After two American prisoners are killed by guards in the act of escaping from a German POW camp in World War II, barracks black marketeer J.J. Sefton is suspected of being an informer.
Hélène, a housekeeper at a ritzy hotel in Corsica, is devoted to her family but lacks any passion in her own life. When she sees a handsome couple play a passionate game of chess, she becomes inspired to play herself. Hélène's working-class husband and spoiled daughter are soon bewildered by her obsession with chess. They also grow suspicious of Hélène's close relationship with Dr. Kröger, her eccentric American expat tutor.
At a local chess tournament, estranged brothers Edward and Oliver Abbott reunite after many years apart, harbouring ill will and eagerness to win.
Short TV film upon the story of Ludwik Niemojski of the same title, which was a part of his "Incredible Stories". It tells about Bartolomeo, brilliant chess player, who had ruined his private life because of his passion for chess.
Hoping to entrap Maria von Gall, who runs a courageous underground railroad for Jews in France, the Nazis kidnap her son Thomas, a brilliant 11-year-old chess master. An exchange arrangement goes awry and he sees her die in a hail of bullets; but he is rescued by his American father, whom he has never met before, and who plans to flee with him to Spain. However, Queen Maria had solemnly entrusted her little pawn Thomas with a precious secret and a terrifying mission, and it was time for him to move. A pawn may become an important piece by slowly, quietly advancing all the way through the enemy's ranks. Or a pawn may die trying. Retreat is what a pawn can never do.
Famed reporter Stephen O'Malley travels to a small town to investigate the death of a national hero.
A surrealist retelling of Caine and Abel in a black void, where a game of chess is taking place. A boxer uses a punching bag while watching from afar.
A man with a broken back dies after his wife has an affair with his brother.
After being separated for millennia, Lucifer invites Archangel Michael to a seemingly innocent game of chess, which becomes a deeply personal meditation on the nature of good and evil, the love they once shared and their ultimate place in the world.
Based upon the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, a chess grandmaster travels to Italy in the 1920s to play in a tournament and falls in love.
It would be chess that brought nightmares and hell to a dreamlike, fairy-tale universe. Chess was trying to manipulate the universe and humanity. It controlled its own destiny. Time had stopped, and now flowed with strategy. To stop it, a fair match had to be played as a last resort.
Yannick moves to a small, quiet town to study cinema. One day when he fell off his bike, he knocked at the door of the Beaulieu residence so he could clean the blood off his hands. But Jacques Beaulieu and his family had other plans for Yannick. Beaulieu is a righteous psychopath and fanatic chess player who wants to rid the world of evil. And even though Ian has done nothing wrong, he is beaten, tortured and tormented before Beaulieu makes him an offer: win at chess and he is free to go. And so Ian is now a pawn in Beaulieu 's game. A game in which he will either lose his mind or his life.
Private detective and former football player Harry Moseby gets hired on to what seems a standard missing person case - a former Hollywood actress wants Moseby to find and return her daughter. Harry travels to Florida to find her, but he begins to see a connection between the runaway girl, the world of Hollywood stuntmen, and a suspicious mechanic when an unsolved murder comes to light.
One-time Maori speed-chess champ, Genesis Potini, lives with a bi-polar disorder and must overcome prejudice and violence in the battle to save his struggling chess club, his family and ultimately, himself.
Knight To D7' is an extraordinary story of sacrifice that takes place one ordinary afternoon when Dustin Harper visits his longtime friend, Brady Collins. Their ongoing game of chess is brought to a halt when Brady reveals that his continuing battle with cancer has taken a turn for the worst. The only thing harder than saying goodbye will be honoring Brady's last request.
A Baker and a Train Driver meet during a festival to play a game of chess. While playing the game, both exchange ideas about Life and Death and their future destinies.
A young man prefers to play chess rather than taking a swim. Only by moonlight does he go for a swim alone. Or so he thinks.