One of the mainstays of this blog are detective movies with often rather perfunctory appearances of chess and today’s subject, Hot fuzz, is no different. It’s about a too productive cop who gets transferred to a quite little town. Obviously, the town appears to not be so quite after all. There’s a reasonable chance you’ve seen this movie, because it is both highly regarded and wildly successful. And, if so, you may be wondering where on Earth the chess scene is.
And the truth is: there is no chess scene. But right at the beginning of the movie, there is a montage to convince the viewer that main character Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg1) really is an extraordinary policeman. And the best way to show someone is extraordinary, is to show him being successful at the chessboard.
Sadly, we only get a single shot of the chessboard, and it’s from the side. Consequently, reconstructing the position is pretty much impossible — which, of course, won’t stop me trying.2
The identity of the pieces is certain. The rank they’re standing on is at least broadly correct. The file, however, is little more than a guess. It does seem like Angel, who is playing white, has just taken on h7. The rook will be recaptured, of course, and white will undoubtedly win the resulting endgame.
But we get to see none of that as the director decides to cut to Angel winning some running competition. Where’s the fuzz when you need ’em?3
Realism: 3/5 I would even give higher points, but I have too little confidence in my reconstruction. And it must be admitted that taking on h7 is only reasonable in a very specific scenario: there probably was a queen on g8, white gave check on h4, and black had to interpose the queen. The only other reasonable option would be that there was a black rook on h7, but that seems highly improbable.
Probable winner: White seems to be a knight up. And he has the power of God behind him.
1. [Who, as always, has a very Ashen face.] ↩
2. [Hot diagram editor.] ↩
3. [On a dog’s face, probably.] ↩