“What are the best movies about Chess and Chess Players?” We looked at 73 of the top Chess films, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 28 films, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Chess” movie lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 40+ movies, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.

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Top 28 Chess Movies

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28 .) Computer Chess

Lists It Appears On:

• Ranker
• Wikipedia

Set over the course of a weekend tournament for chess software programmers thirty-some years ago, COMPUTER CHESS transports viewers to a nostalgic moment when the contest between technology and the human spirit seemed a little more up for grabs. We get to know the eccentric geniuses possessed with the vision to teach a metal box to defeat man, literally, at his own game, laying the groundwork for artificial intelligence as we know it and will come to know it in the future.

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27 .) Geri’s Game [1997]

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• Wikipedia

An aging codger named Geri plays a daylong game of chess in the park against himself. Somehow, he begins losing to his livelier opponent. But just when the game’s nearly over, Geri manages to turn the tables.

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26 .) Hatley High (2003)

Lists It Appears On:

• IMDB
• Ranker

The Canadian teen comedy Hatley High sends up high school sports rituals by placing a most unlikely competitive game at the center of its story: that of chess. Tommy (Nicholas Wright) is a new arrival in his parents’ hometown of Hatley, whose mother recently died. He discovers, after the fact, that his mom was once a chess pro and thus a legend in the community. Tommy’s chess-fixated peers accept him almost instantly, inferring that he must have inherited his dear mother’s skills, but in time Tommy carves out a niche for himself independently of his mom’s legacy, and strikes up an enduring romance with Hyacinthe (Rachelle Lefevre) a “chess cheerleader.” Two fictional British filmmakers “frame” the tale by filming it for a documentary that they are producing, and thus provide witty, ongoing narration.

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25 .) Life of a King (2013)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Tutor
• Wikipedia

Life of a King is the true story of one man’s mission to give inner city kids of Washington DC something he never had – a future. After being incarcerated for eighteen years, Eugene Brown established the Big Chair Chess Club to get kids off the streets and working towards lives they never believed they were capable of. This is his inspirational story.

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24 .) Queen of Cactus Cove [2005]

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• Wikipedia

Teenage chess champ Billie (Alia Shawkat) faces the prospect of defeat for the first time when she faces her best friend (Alex Frost) at the biggest chess tournament of her career.

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23 .) Queen Sacrifice [1988]

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• Wikipedia

A welsh school teacher attempts to guard his teenage protege’s genius for chess from his burgeoning libido.

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22 .) Schwarz und weiß wie Tage und Nächte (1978 TV Movie)

Lists It Appears On:

• IMDB
• Wikipedia

A scientist who swore off playing chess after a nervous breakdown as a boy wunderkind, creates an undefeated chess program. But the Russian world champ beats Tommy Rosemund’s masterwork in a televised match. So the West German mathematician becomes a top chess pro himself, which the West German media boast will prove the superiority of Germany and democracy. The jowly, white-faced Rosemund believes that the entire Red Communist bloc is out to stop him from vanquishing their atheist pretty boy, Stefan Koruga, to become the next Bobby Fischer and a symbol that capitalism is preferable to socialism.

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21 .) The Dark Horse (2014)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Tutor
• Wikipedia

One-time Maori speed-chess champ, Genesis Potini, lives with a bi-polar disorder and must overcome prejudice and violence in the battle to save his struggling chess club, his family and ultimately, himself.

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20 .) The Great Chess Movie [1982]

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• Wikipedia

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19 .) Bobby Fischer Against The World (2011)

Lists It Appears On:

• Rafaelleitao
• Ranker
• Wikipedia

The first documentary feature to explore the tragic and bizarre life of the late chess master Bobby Fischer.

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18 .) Brainwashed (1960)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• IMDB
• Wikipedia

Werner von Basil (a Austrian intellectual) was captured by the Nazi in 1938. The want to break him to confess smuggling. Without any mental sustenance, the only thing left to keep his mind busy is an old tactics book for chess.

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17 .) Brooklyn Castle

Lists It Appears On:

• Ranker
• The Spruce
• Wikipedia

Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about I.S. 318 – an inner-city school where more than 65 percent of students are from homes with incomes below the federal poverty level – that also happens to have the best, most winning junior high school chess team in the country. (If Albert Einstein, who was rated 1800, were to join the team, he’d only rank fifth best.) Chess has transformed the school from one cited in 2003 as a “school in need of improvement” to one of New York City’s best. But a series of recession-driven public school budget cuts now threaten to undermine those hard-won successes.

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16 .) Endgame (2011)

Lists It Appears On:

• IMDB
• Ranker
• Wikipedia

In the year 2025, a nuclear holocaust has left New York City an irradiated, but not abandoned, wasteland. The ruined city is inhabited now by scavenger packs and telepathic mutants, who are persecuted by the elite survivors. Keeping the people pacified is the reality television program Endgame, where hunters and gladiators fight to the death.

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15 .) Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine (2003)

Lists It Appears On:

• Rafaelleitao
• The Spruce
• Wikipedia

Garry Kasparov is possibly the greatest chess player who has ever lived. In 1997, he played a match against the greatest chess computer: IBM’s Deep Blue. He lost. This film depicts the drama that happened away from the chess board from Kasparov’s perspective. It explores the psychological aspects of the game and the paranoia surrounding IBM’s ultimate chess machine.

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14 .) Ivory Tower (2010)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• IMDB
• Wikipedia

The film revolves around a sibling rivalry between two brothers, Hershell and Thadeus Graves (played by Gonzales and Tiga, respectively), as they compete during a game of chess. Peaches plays Marsha Thirteen, a former performance artist and the shared love interest of both brothers.

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13 .) The Chess Players (1977)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• IMDB
• IMDB

It is the year 1856. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah is the king of Awadh, one of the last independent kingdoms of India. The British colonialists, intent on controlling this rich land, have sent general Outram on a secret mission to clear the way for an annexation. Pressure is mounting amidst intrigue and political manoeuvres, but the Nawab whiles away his time in pursuit of pleasure and religious practice. The court is of no help either—Court nobles Mir and Mirza, ignoring the situation of their country and all their duties towards their families, spend their days playing endless games of chess. The film is based on Munshi Premchand’s short story of the same name.

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12 .) Uncovered (1994)

Lists It Appears On:

• IMDB
• Ranker
• Wikipedia

While restoring an old painting showing a woman and two men playing chess, Julia discovers the text “Who killed the knight” underneath the paint. The owner of the painting tells her that one of his forefathers was killed, the painting might identify the murderer. When Julia’s friend is killed she understands that there is more to it. She consults Domenec, a chess genius who reconstructs the game from the painting. With any piece he takes, somebody dies.

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11 .) Pawn Sacrifice (2014)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Tutor
• IMDB
• Ranker
• Wikipedia

American chess champion Bobby Fischer prepares for a legendary match-up against Russian Boris Spassky.

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10 .) Queen of Katwe (2016)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Mates
• IMDB
• Ranker
• Wikipedia

A young girl overcomes her disadvantaged upbringing in the slums of Uganda to become a Chess master.

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9 .) The Luzhin Defence (2000)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• IMDB
• Ranker
• Wikipedia

Based upon the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, a chess grandmaster travels to Italy in the 1920s to play in a tournament and falls in love.

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8 .) Chess Fever (1925)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• IMDB
• Ranker
• The Spruce
• Wikipedia

With an international chess tournament in progress, a young man becomes completely obsessed with the game. His fiancée has no interest in it, and becomes frustrated and depressed by his neglect of her, but wherever she goes she finds that she cannot escape chess. On the brink of giving up, she meets the world champion, Capablanca himself, with interesting results.

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7 .) Dangerous Moves (1984)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• Chess Tutor
• IMDB
• Rafaelleitao
• Wikipedia

World Chess Champion Akiva Liebskind (Michel Piccoli) faces his former pupil Pavius Fromm (Alexandre Arbatt), who defected to the West from the Soviet Union five years earlier, for the World Chess Championship in Geneva, Switzerland. The tension and strategies between the players draw parallels to the political conflicts and ideologies between East and West during the Cold War.

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6 .) Knight Moves (1992)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• Chess Tutor
• IMDB
• Ranker
• Wikipedia

A psychologist falls for a world-class chess player suspected of odd murders linked to his game.

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5 .) The Seventh Seal (1957)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• IMDB
• Rafaelleitao
• Ranker
• Wikipedia

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

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4 .) Fresh (1994)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• Chess Tutor
• IMDB
• Rafaelleitao
• Ranker
• Wikipedia

Michael is a 12-year-old drug pusher who lives in a crowded house with his cousins and aunt. His father has become a street bum,but still meets with Fresh on occasion to play chess. Fresh is rather quiet in a crazy world. Fresh’s sister is a junkie who sleeps with the dealers that Fresh sells for. As the story progresses Fresh realizes that he doesn’t want to sell drugs anymore – he wants revenge.

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3 .) Knights of the South Bronx (2005)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• Chess Mates
• Chess Tutor
• IMDB
• Ranker
• Wikipedia

A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.

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2 .) Queen to Play (2009)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• Chess Tutor
• IMDB
• IMDB
• Rafaelleitao
• Ranker
• Wikipedia

In a small Corsican village, the life of Hélène, ordinary and single, She works as a maid in a hotel and is married happily with her Husband Ange and her fifteen year-old daughter. Her modest and monotonous life seems to be predetermined… One day while cleaning a hotel room, she meets a young, seductive, American couple which is playing a game of chess. First fascinated and then passionate about the game, Hélène learns with great tenacity she studies the rule of the game to perfection. She can count on Dr. Kröger, who is a mysterious inhabitant, to help her to achieve her goals. But this positive transition towards a liberty for Hélène does not go about without deeply changing her relationship with family, friends and inhabitants of the village.

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1 .) Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)

Lists It Appears On:

• Chess Craft
• Chess Mates
• Chess Tutor
• IMDB
• IMDB
• Rafaelleitao
• Ranker
• The Spruce
• Unreality Mag
• Wikipedia

A prepubescent chess prodigy refuses to harden himself in order to become a champion like the famous but unlikable Bobby Fischer.

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The 40+ Additional Best Movies Chess

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#	Movie	Lists
(Films Appear On 1 List Each)
29	8 × 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements	Wikipedia
30	A Chess Dispute	Wikipedia
31	A Little Game	Wikipedia
32	Alice in Wonderland (I) (2010)	IMDB
33	Arcibel’s Game (2003)	IMDB
34	Assassins	Unreality Mag
35	Belyy sneg Rossii (1980)	IMDB
36	Blade Runner	Unreality Mag
37	Capablanca (1987)	IMDB
38	Chess King	Wikipedia
39	Chess Player (1938)	IMDB
40	Chess: In Concert	The Spruce
41	Columbo (1971–2003) Episode: The Most Dangerous Match (1973)	IMDB
42	Final Move (2006)	IMDB
43	Five Fingers	Ranker
44	Fool’s Mate	Wikipedia
45	Golubye dorogi (1948)	IMDB
46	Grossmeyster (1973)	IMDB
47	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)	IMDB
48	If Tomorrow Comes (1986)	IMDB
49	Independence Day	Unreality Mag
50	King of Chess (1991)	IMDB
51	La partie d’échecs (1994)	IMDB
52	Lang leve de koningin (1995)	IMDB
53	Le collectionneur des cerveaux (1976 TV Movie)	IMDB
54	List of books and documentaries by or about Bobby Fischer	Wikipedia
55	Long Live the Queen	Wikipedia
56	Maximum Shame [2010]	Chess Craft
57	Me and Bobby Fischer	Wikipedia
58	Odysseus’ Gambit	Wikipedia
59	Patrie (1946)	IMDB
60	Return from the Ashes (1965)	IMDB
61	Shatranj Ke Khilari	Wikipedia
62	Shawshank Redemption	Unreality Mag
63	Silence of the Lambs	Unreality Mag
64	Star Wars	Unreality Mag
65	Steam Above a Pot (1950)	IMDB
66	The Chess Set	Wikipedia
67	The Creatures (1966)	IMDB
68	The Grass Arena	Wikipedia
69	The Lookout	Ranker
70	The Tournament	Wikipedia
71	Vesyoloye snovideniye, ili smekh i slyozy (1976 TV Movie)	IMDB
72	War Games	Unreality Mag
73	Zatoichi and the Chess Expert	Wikipedia

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10 Best Chess Film Sources/Lists

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Source	Article
Chess Craft	ChessCraft: 17 Movies about chess, to inspire you in your next game.
Chess Mates	Good Movies that Happen to be Chess Movies
Chess Tutor	Top 10 best movies about chess
IMDB	Best Movies about Chess
IMDB	Movies about chess
Rafaelleitao	Top 7 Best Chess Movies
Ranker	Best Chess Movies
The Spruce	Five Great Movies About Chess
Unreality Mag	Eight Awesome Chess Moments in Movies
Wikipedia	Category:Films about chess