Any Chess Players Out There?

My computer came with an electronic chess board. I never really learned to play as none of my childhood friends enjoyed the game. The closest I came was when my by now long deceased cousin attempted to teach me the moves of each piece on the board. That was my first and last lesson. He was eleven and I was sixteen. That was a lifetime ago.

What brought this to mind, in addition to the electronic game on this iMac, was a French film. Entitled Queen to Play in English and La Joueuse in France, it was released in the U.S. earlier this year and features   wonderful performances by Kevin Kline and Sandrine Bonnaire.  Bonnaire plays a maid in a small Corsican hotel who chances upon a couple, played by Kline and Jennifer Beals, engrossed in a game of chess. At first startled to find them on the balcony of their room when she comes to clean, Bonnaire's character, Helene, finds herself entranced by the intensity she witnesses. She soon asks Kline, who plays an irascible American doctor, to help her learn the game. While he does so rather begrudgingly at the start, Kline's character soon realises Helene's quiet intelligence, something that isn't given much notice in her life as a housewife and mother or as a hotel cleaner.

The transformation that occurs in Helene begins subtly enough. She purchases a chess set and, unable to interest either her husband or daughter in the game, begins playing against herself after her family has gone to bed at night. Quickly reaching the limit of what she can learn on her own, She enlists Kline's assistance and having faced familial resistance to her increasing fascination with chess, meets with him secretly. As her prowess with the game increases, Kline is soon outclassed and he sends her to a colleague who is a master at competitive chess. She applies to play competitively and is accepted. The film concludes with Helene winning all the rounds with more experienced players than she and emerging as a champion. Her family and friends, who initially see chess as simply a silly game, come to realise the grueling nature of the matches and the mental effort and strategy necessary to complete competition. For herself, Helene begins to radiate a newly-found confidence and pride of accomplishment.  This little gem of a film is also the debut for director Caroline Bottaro and is now available on DVD.

While I don't see myself becoming a chess champion, the allure Helene experienced exists for me as well, so much so, in fact, that I am seeking a teacher or a club for adults.

Until Next Time...