West Berlin was bizarre. An enclave, right in the capital city, governed by, if not the official enemy of the state, then at least their political antithesis. To make matters worse, there was quite a large wealth differential between the two parts of the city. In these circumstances, the wealthier side usually protects its boundaries, but here it was the opposite, perhaps because the divide was neither cultural nor historical. As a consequence, defections to West Berlin were quite popular on that side. They were often daring and heroic and therefore a popular subject for movies.
For this movie, though, they jut made stuff up, as far as I can tell. The conceit of the film is that, ostensibly, an East German bigwig wishes to defect.1 He contacts the Brits who sent Harry Palmer,2 a rather unwilling secret agent, to arrange things. A first meeting takes places in the bigwig’s quarters and, as he’s an East German bigwig, he has a chessboard in his office.
The last few blog posts, I was able to give reasonably reliable reconstructions. Not so this time.3
All of the identities are in doubt, and so are most of their positions. The most salient fact is true, though: the board really has been set up wrongly.
Our bigwig asks Palmer whether he plays chess. At this point, Palmer is on the other side of the room, so the fact he hasn’t screamed out in pain and anger is not an indication he doesn’t play. In fact, he confirms he does play, but he prefers games with better chances of cheating. Here, though, the problem is not that it’s hard to cheat at chess, but that someone did it before him.
Realism: 0/5 Usually, I forgive rotated board and usually I’m lenient when the position is hard to make out, but both together — that’s too much.
Probable winner: Nobody. Black has a large material advantage, but no target to mate.
1. [Actually, it’s a very small wig if it’s a wig at all.] ↩
2. [He is also a former crook. Probably, he was wont to palm things that weren’t his.] ↩
3. [You can hold a funeral for your diagram related worriesl.] ↩