Seinfeld is one the most beloved and popular sitcoms of all time and, judging from this single episode, that seems justified. The plot is admittedly flimsy, but the jokes are frequent and good, the delivery is solid, and there’s chess in it! Some fifteen minutes in this episode, Jerry is playing chess with his new girlfriend.1 But his heart isn’t really in it, because he knows there’s some story with a tractor that she hasn’t told him yet — and he’s mightily curious.
Almost as curious as we are about the position. And we can sate that curiosity to our heart’s content, because the view of the position is absolutely perfect. The view of the position, not the position itself.
Because that’s this one:2
Black — that’s Jerry — has been shedding material at an impressive rate, losing a full queen and half his pawns without a single, measly pawn to show for it.3 Not even the teeniest little advantage in development. And it’s white’s move to boot.
She takes the pawn on d6. At first glance, that seems a slightly silly move, although giving up a knight for a pawn would still leave white with an easily winning position. But it doesn’t even do that. If black takes the knight — and what else can he do? — white has the neat move Qf3, which wins the knight back. Jerry doesn’t find a decent reply, possibly because there isn’t one, and instead tries to distract her by the suggestion that the pieces should be updated. Instead of a knight, he argues, we should use a tractor. Understandably, his girlfriend immediately leaves. You don’t mess with our royal game.
Realism: 2/5 Every piece is on a normal place, but it is hard to imagine how black lost all his pieces.
Probable winner: White is up tons of material. There’s no coming back from this.
1. [Tom is probably really jealous.] ↩
2. [Not just the view of the position, but also this diagram editor.] ↩
3. [Sounds like the French revolution.] ↩