Discuss Mission: Impossible
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Cordell is a chess master. He is also a hit man, but conventional law enforcement just can't prove it. More importantly, they don't have a clue who he is working for. Someone else needs to take over. The IMF, as always, chooses to accept the mission.
They convince him he is going crazy and try to trick him into giving away the name of his boss.
Occasionally in the series, there is a chessboard present in Jim's swanky apartment. He gets to use his knowledge of the game in this story. (With Barney's technical wizardry present to help him cheat.)
Since I have, over the course of my life, had an on again off again obsession with this game, this episode was of particular interest to me. Unfortunately, any problems involving chess get magnified in my eyes.
Barney's computer program can allegedly solve any computer program. This was, what? 1972 or so?
In 1985, I was lucky enough to meet Harry Nelson, one of the programmers of Cray Blitz, which was, at the time, the best computer chess software on the planet. I was a mildly precocious high school student who was good at the game. I was undefeated in interscholastic play, but I was FAR from a master chess player. Cordell probably could have beaten me. Mr. Nelson let me play against the program. The first time I played, I was soundly defeated. The second game was a little more competitive, but I was once again defeated. In the third game, I accidentally discovered that the program was not designed to properly take advantage of a passed pawn and managed to squeak out a win.
I can safely say that there was no computer program in 1972 that would be able to defeat an alleged chess master like Cordell. I decided to let that slip. Barney is just a flat out genius and none of his inventions ever made it to the public. He could have been wealthy beyond his wildest dreams but instead squandered his talents on bolstering national security and fighting crime. My hat's off to him.
When Phelps and Cordell are playing chess, they contemplate their moves before making them. This is fine. EXCEPT when they do that on opening moves. Real chess players, especially when a clock is present, play the opening moves very fast. Both players know the openings and won't waste time or effort doing any thinking. I guess the director thought it was more dramatic so have the players take their time. It just bugs me.
At the end, we learn that the secret code between Cordell and his boss is something to the effect of "In the 1892 chess championship, Steinitz defeated Chigorin in 29 moves. What was the winning move?" That's nice, but the game was only 28 moves. And then the winning move in the episode was Q-B4. NO!!!! The winning (28th) move was Q-Q4+ followed by Chigorin's resignation. Stuff like this shouldn't bother me, but it did.
But-- this may not have been an accident. I took a look at the game again. If Chigorin had not resigned, he would have had only one legal move. If Steinitz then played (on the 29th move) Q-B4, it would have been check mate. So my feelings for the writing went from contempt to admiration.
Finally, I have to give kudos to the episode for implying that playing too much chess can drive a person crazy. I can write pages of semi-coherent stories about the game and how it rewired my brain so that it isn't quite right. I'll spare the reader, though.
I give this episode an A+. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Maybe next I will watch The Thomas Crown Affair (the original Steve McQueen/Faye Dunaway version) and From Russia with Love. ("Quit pausing this part," says my wife, "I want to see Sean Connery.")
Reply by wonder2wonder
on December 30, 2019 at 4:59 PM
Did you mean Q-D4+?
Reply by sukhisoo
on December 30, 2019 at 5:13 PM
Well, in the episode, they were using the old descriptive notation rather than the newer algebraic notation so I followed suit. Q4 and D4 are the same square.
Reply by wonder2wonder
on December 30, 2019 at 5:26 PM
Ok. I never liked the descriptive notation. It'd be confusing when written in different languages, e.g. Spanish, French.
Reply by sukhisoo
on December 30, 2019 at 5:42 PM
I don't blame you. It is inherently confusing because Q4 is a different square for black than it is for white. And there are two B4 squares in the game. Often, only one of them is reachable by the piece in question but if it isn't then it is necessary to clarify it as KB4 or QB4. (In the game referenced in the episode, the queen could have gone to either of the Bishop 4 spots, so that is another flaw that could have gotten my goat.)
Still, I learned the game reading books that use the descriptive notation, so I am reasonably comfortable with it.
The Steinitz-Chigorin game is in the "The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games". That book not only uses algebraic notation, but uses pictures of the pieces instead of R,N,B,Q, or K. So the final move is "♕xd4+", which is clear and unambiguous.
Reply by wonder2wonder
on December 30, 2019 at 6:38 PM
I used to read chess literature in different languages, and I often had to adjust for that.
Reply by Savage918
on December 30, 2019 at 7:21 PM
I'm so impressed that both of you are so knowledgeable about the game. It's strange, but when I first saw From Russia With Love I couldn't understand why there were so many people watching the chess game.
Reply by wonder2wonder
on December 30, 2019 at 7:56 PM
With me it's not only chess. There are many other things I'll watch or listen to, given the time and mood I'm in at that moment. For example, during the 2018 Winter Olympics I was watching curling.
I'm not following any of those two sports now. My attention has wandered away to something else.
Reply by Savage918
on December 30, 2019 at 7:59 PM
I love curling! I was so happy when the US Men's Curling Team won the gold medal!
Reply by wonder2wonder
on December 30, 2019 at 8:02 PM
I was rooting for Sweden.
Reply by sukhisoo
on December 30, 2019 at 8:03 PM
I'm glad to see you are back, Maria. I always get a little bit concerned when regular posters with known health issues take extended breaks from these forums.
Some trivia:
The From Russia with Love game was closely based on a real game in 1960 between David Bronstein and Boris Spassky. (For the movie, they removed a couple of superflous pawns because I guess it made the board look less cluttered and more cinematic.) Bronstein's flashy move near the end was brilliant and unexpected (and the only time he was able to beat Spassky). The character making the identical move in the movie was
Kronsteen.
Reply by Savage918
on December 30, 2019 at 8:05 PM
Wow! Thanks for the information.
Reply by Jayhn1111
on April 18, 2020 at 2:37 PM
That was the dude from airwolf 😁
Reply by LansingFan
on December 3, 2020 at 3:47 PM
The actor who played Kronsteen in From Russia With Love appeared in a few episodes of the British Science Fiction cult tv series UFO. He played a doctor who worked for S.H.A.D.O., a secret anti-outer space aliens agency. It's pretty decent. You can find it on YouTube. And the actor who played KGB head General Gogol in several of the Roger Moore Bond movies is in FRWL.
Reply by LansingFan
on December 18, 2020 at 12:36 AM
There was also a episode in season 2 or 3 called Chess where the team had to make sure that the chess playing bad guy didn't get his hands on some gold.
Reply by Jayhn1111
on December 19, 2020 at 2:44 PM
Yeah great stuff 👍