Shakhmatnaya goryachka (1925)

With an international chess tournament in progress, a young man becomes completely obsessed with the game. His fiancée has no interest in it, and becomes frustrated and depressed by his ... See full summary »

Directors:

Vsevolod Pudovkin, Nikolai Shpikovsky

Writer:

Nikolai Shpikovsky

Stars:

José Raúl Capablanca, Vladimir Fogel, Anna Zemtsova

Cast

Complete credited cast:
José Raúl Capablanca	...	The World Champion
Vladimir Fogel	...	The Hero
Anna Zemtsova	...	The Heroine
Natalya Glan
Zakhar Darevsky
Mikhail Zharov	...	House Painter
Anatoli Ktorov	...	Tram Passenger
Yakov Protazanov	...	Chemist
Yuli Raizman	...	Chemist's Assistant
Ivan Koval-Samborsky	...	Policeman
Konstantin Eggert
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ernst Grunfeld	...	Himself
Fyodor Ivanov	...	(as F. Ivanov)
Sergey Komarov	...	Grandfather
Frank Marshall	...	Himself

Storyline

With an international chess tournament in progress, a young man becomes completely obsessed with the game. His fiancée has no interest in it, and becomes frustrated and depressed by his neglect of her, but wherever she goes she finds that she cannot escape chess. On the brink of giving up, she meets the world champion, Capablanca himself, with interesting results.

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Plot Keywords:

chess | chess tournament | chess player | tournament | absent mindedness | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Short

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Release Date:

21 December 1925 (Soviet Union)

Also Known As:

Chess Fever

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mezhrabpom-Rus

Technical Specs

Runtime:

28 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Besides José Raúl Capablanca's appearance, the tournament scenes include brief footage of actual games being played in the Moscow 1925 international tournament. Some of the leading chess masters of the era, including Richard Reti, Rudolph Spielmann, Ernst Grunfeld, Frank Marshall, Carlos Torre and F.D. Yates are shown playing their games.

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Connections

Featured in Fejezetek a film történetéböl: Az orosz és a szovjet némafilm (1989)

User Reviews

One of Cinema's Few Comedies About Chess

A Russian silent comedy doesn't really sound that enticing, does it? But this really isn't that bad. It follows the fortunes of a young man who is completely obsessed with chess. At first the film looks as if it might be a dry and serious study of the game, but then we're introduced to our hero. For some reason he has dozens of kittens in his flat, most of them living in his shoes or his jacket pockets. This chap is so obsessed with the game that he is magnetically drawn to a chess shop even though he is late for a date with his girlfriend. Even his socks and hankie have chessboard patterns. Of course, this is all driving his girlfriend to distraction…

There are quite a few good laugh-out- loud moments in this short, directed by the Russian master Pudovkin, and it's at least the equal of most of the comedies coming out of Hollywood at the time. There's also the bonus of glimpses of a snow-covered Russian cityscape with troikas rushing past in the background.