When was the last time we saw a frame narrative on this blog? I don’t know, but we’re doing one again today. The French Dispatch is a relatively recent movie by Wes Anderson.1 The title comes from the name of a newspaper and the different stories of the film follow the different reporters making their stories, while the framing device shows them talking about their pieces with their editor-in-chief.
The second of the stories is about a student rebellion. It starts by male students demanding to be let into the girls’ dormitories. To decide the matter, Zeffirelli,2 the students’ leader plays a game of chess against one of the professors.
He has both white and the following position:3
I can easily imagine this position actually arising in practice and, although white is winning, it is not unreasonable to continue as black..What’s more, white plays a perfectly sensible move: Ng5. What could I possibly complain about then? Well, two other students are kibitzing, so perhaps I can glean something worthy of derision there.
Student #1: Zeffirelli’s cramping the professor’s bishop.
That’s reasonable. White did just take the e4 and h3 squares away from the bishop. It probably didn’t want to go there, but still.
Student #2: He should open the position and counter with both rooks.
Aha, there it is! I knew they’d mess up! There are no rooks anymore, my friend; they have been driven to extinction.4
Realism: 4/5 The position seems normal. I have no proof it actually occurred in practice, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if it had.
Probable winner: Zeffirelli is up a pawn with no compensation. It’s not even very hard to convert.5
There is another scene of some youngsters playing chess in a cafe, but the view of the position is not good enough so say anything definitive, though. But at the end of this story, there is a confrontation between protesting students and the mayor with his policemen.
For reasons that are probably symbolic each side is playing on a board that only shows their own pieces. Luckily, there are demonstration boards that give a pretty good overview:
There has been a miscommunication between the parties somewhere,6 because the mayor, who has white, has his king’s rook on d1 instead of f1. I went with the students’ version because they are underdeveloped enough as it is.
Zeffirelli should probably take on d3, get his pieces out quickly, and hope he doesn’t get overrun in the meantime. Instead, he plays Nc6. White could have won the c-pawn, but choses to play Nxc6, which is also fine. No more moves are forthcoming from the students and white declares a victory on time. That’s very unrealistic, though: only the young win on time.
Realism: 3/5 Black has been up to some weird stuff, but nothing totally implausible.
Probable winner: White is much better, even if we disregard the time situation.
1. [We never find out what the French dispatch, though.] ↩
2. [A rather famous Italian director of that name died around the time the filming was finished. Was the character named after him?] ↩
3. [At least we know what the Poles dispatch: really good diagram editors.] ↩
4. [To the delight of Henry VIII..] ↩
5. [If we remove the h-pawn, white is still winning, but it has become very tricky. For example, 1. Nf6+ doesn’t win here, because of specifically 1. … Kf8 (not 1. … Kf7 after which 2. Nh7 brings us more or less to the same position again) and after 2. Nh7+ Kf7 3. Ng5+ Kg8 and we have the same position as after 1.Ng5 but with white to move. The point is that, with white to move here, 1.Nf3 Bd3 2. Nd4 Kf7 protects everything. With black to move, he has to either play Kh8, after which he cannot protect his e-pawn, or he has to play Kf8 Kh7 and now must allow either Kg7 or the taking of his e-pawn with check.] ↩
6. [A miscommunication between students and authorities?! Surely not!] ↩