1. By Rook Or By Left Hook
In 2003, Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh became the first World Champion of Chessboxing. This brain-busting combination of alternating rounds of chess and boxing was in fact an art performance calling for more balance in a world of extremes, and the audience reaction was so electric that it inspired Rubingh to push it as a real sport. Rubingh’s methodical ability to achieve balance in the ring is put to the test outside of it when impulsive British TV Producer Tim Woolgar takes up the sport and his opposing vision for success creates a rift between them, endangering chessboxing’s future.
2. 2ⁿ: A Story of the Power of Numbers
2ⁿ is a story about the exponential growth of numbers raised to powers. Part of the Mathematica Peep Shows, one of five films made to accompany the Mathematica: A World of Numbers and Beyond exhibition at the California Museum of Science and Industry and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
3. Magnus (Magnus)
From a young age Magnus Carlsen had aspirations of becoming a champion chess player. While many players seek out an intensely rigid environment to hone their skills, Magnus’ brilliance shines brightest when surrounded by his loving and supportive family. Through an extensive amount of archival footage and home movies, director Benjamin Ree reveals this young man’s unusual and rapid trajectory to the pinnacle of the chess world. This film allows the audience to not only peek inside this isolated community but also witness the maturation of a modern genius.
It has an average vote of 6.9 on TMDB.
4. The Masters of Disaster
Documentary about an unlikely youth chess team from Indianapolis who went on surprise the chess world with their success. The team, made up of young African Americans with no previous experience and led by their devoted teacher, went on to win the United States elementary school chess championship.
It has an average vote of 6.3 on TMDB.
5. A Fork, A Spoon & A Knight
An inspiring creative documentary that follows the story of one of Uganda's unsung heroes - Robert Katende. Popularly known as 'Coach Robert', he was able to transform a little unknown slum in the outskirts of Kampala, into an internationally recognized army of Chess Champions.
6. Closing Gambit: 1978 Korchnoi versus Karpov and the Kremlin
The story of the 1978 World Chess Championship between the Soviet Communist Party's protege, Anatoly Karpov and the traitor and Soviet defector, Viktor Korchnoi. One of those instances in life where truth is stranger than fiction.
It has an average vote of 8.7 on TMDB.
7. Mind Games - The Experiment
Can exercise sharpen the brightest minds? In this ground-breaking experiment, four world-class gamers, competing in eSports, Chess, Mahjong and Memory Games, put this to the test.
It has an average vote of 3.5 on TMDB.
8. The Love For Wood (Liefde Voor Hout)
A documentary about the top Dutch chess players of 1979
9. Algorithms
Four blind Indian boys compete to become chess masters.
10. Marcel Duchamp: A Game of Chess (Jeu d'échec avec Marcel Duchamp)
Marcel Duchamp and French director Jean-Marie Drot discuss life, art, and chess.
11. Street Games
Several days in the lives, and profiles of, the owners and players of the open air street chess tables in downtown San Francisco. An informative and insightful portrait of a freely public, yet effectively anonymous, subculture: a unique and colorful patch of eccentric americana in the urban quilt of an international city. —Anonymous
12. A Collection of Images From My Last Year of Naivety
Three weeks to make three films. Filmed in my last semester before College. "Time", "One Night", "8x8".
13. Glory to the Queen
Against the backdrop of Cold War, Glory to the Queen reveals stories of four legendary female chess players from Georgia who revolutionized women’s chess across the globe and became Soviet icons of female emancipation.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
14. This is Not a Game
Angela Su’s fictional artist Rosie Leavers is the last remaining person to upload her consciousness to a video game. Contemplating during a pandemic year which also saw people’s resistance movements in many parts of the world, the work pinpoints the uncanny affinities between gaming and warfare strategies. They have mutually informed the infrastructure of both worlds since time immemorial when diplomatic conflicts played out on the battlefield of the 64 squares of a chess board to flight simulation technologies which were adapted to shape gaming experiences as we know it now. When the conflict is between the state and its people, she speculates that gaming strategies empower civilians in resistance movements to counter imperialism through its own operative logic. But once we upload our consciousness, are we able to return to the sensibilities and political motivation that inspired the revolution to begin with?
15. Brooklyn Castle
Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about I.S. 318 – an inner-city school where more than 65 percent of students are from homes with incomes below the federal poverty level – that also happens to have the best, most winning junior high school chess team in the country. Chess has transformed the school from one cited in 2003 as a “school in need of improvement” to one of New York City’s best. But a series of recession-driven public school budget cuts now threaten to undermine those hard-won successes.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
16. Creating The Queen's Gambit
A fascinating character. Exquisite sets. A wig for every era. The stars, creators and crew reveal how the hit series about a chess prodigy came to life.
It has an average vote of 7.861 on TMDB.
17. Chess på svenska: The musical that came home (Chess på svenska: Musikalen som kom hem)
A film about Chess - from reading to first night
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
18. Europa (Europa)
A young, idealist American gets a job as a train conductor for the Zentropa railway network in postwar, US-occupied Frankfurt. As various people try to take advantage of him, he soon finds his position politically sensitive, and gets caught up in a whirlpool of conspiracies and Nazi sympathisers.
It has an average vote of 7.3 on TMDB.
19. The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet)
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.
It has an average vote of 8.195 on TMDB.
20. Stalag 17
It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17 and the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem—there seems to be a security leak.
It has an average vote of 7.7 on TMDB.
