"Shakhmatnaya goryachka" or "Chess Fever" is a 28-minute black-and-white silent short film from 90 years ago. The writer and director is Nikolai Shpikovsky and fittingly to the title, this film also features the chess world champion from back then in a little cameo. The lead actor is Vladimir Fogel and this one one of his early performance. Then again, "early" is a strange description in his case as he committed suicide before the age of 30 already. I myself actually like chess and think it can be a fascinating activity, especially if 2 people play against one another and have similar skill. Nonetheless, this film never got me interested. It would probably even better to read the story/screenplay as the action was pretty obscure here. This is frequently a problem with silent films if they use intertitles not half as frequently as they should and this is the case here as well. I do not recommend this Soviet short movie. Thumbs down.
Review of Chess Fever
