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Another "White Collar" TV chess reference

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Paul Leggett
Chess Librarian

The Stacks

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In the episode entitled "Bottlenecked", which aired on Tuesday 2/23/10, the episode begins with one of the main characters, Neal, receiving a correspondence chess move in the mail. The position is unclear from the camera angle, but the move he received is "Nd7".

The writers must be chess players at some level.

p

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At least they got the notation right. Neal said the position came from an unfinished game. I doubt that it really came from a famous game -- probably some opening variation of the King's Indian Defense. I heard them reference "The Game of the Century" a few episodes back -- referencing Fischer's Queen sac.

K

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Originally posted by Paul Leggett
In the episode entitled "Bottlenecked", which aired on Tuesday 2/23/10, the episode begins with one of the main characters, Neal, receiving a correspondence chess move in the mail. The position is unclear from the camera angle, but the move he received is "Nd7".

The writers must be chess players at some level.


If you freeze it at 58 seconds you can see that the white king and queen are on the wrong squares. The writers may be chess players but the prop guys sure aren't.

In the scene, they say that the main character has been receiving chess moves on postcards from an anonymous person. I wonder what the odds are that you could randomly pick a name out of the phone book and send that person a postcard with 1.e4 written on it and the person would respond. Probably pretty slim chances here in the U.S.

K

Boston, MA

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Originally posted by KneeCaps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU2AG4N0NQo

If you freeze it at 58 seconds you can see that the white king and queen are on the wrong squares. The writers may be chess players but the prop guys sure aren't.

In the scene, they say that the main character has been receiving chess moves on postcards from an anonymous person. I wonder what the odds are tha ...[text shortened]... 1.e4 written on it and the person would respond. Probably pretty slim chances here in the U.S.
Also curious that black is missing both g- and h- pawns. I would like to see the moves that led to this position...

greenpawn34

e4

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1 edit

We in the UK saw this whole show last December.

The King and Queen being on the wrong square is a clue.

The killer is a women dressed as a man who drinks at the 'Queens to Kings' bar.

The missing g & h pawns turn up in the stomach of the man/fish creature
that I don't you have seen yet.

The Killer is eventually killed by a bus driven by a relation of Fred Reinfeld,
hence the chess connection.

K

Boston, MA

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Originally posted by greenpawn34
We in the UK saw this whole show last December.

The King and Queen being on the wrong square is a clue.

The killer is a women dressed as a man who drinks at the 'Queens to Kings' bar.

The missing g & h pawns turn up in the stomach of the man/fish creature
that I don't you have seen yet.

The Killer is eventually killed by a bus driven by a relation of Fred Reinfeld,
hence the chess connection.
Of course! When you put it like that it's so obvious...

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