Kubrick was quoted as saying, "Chess helps you develop patience and discipline in choosing between alternatives at a time when an impulsive decision seems very attractive."
He also said, "Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good and it trains you to think objectively when you're in trouble."
Stanley Kubrick was born on July 28, 1928 in the Bronx, USA. His father [Jack or Jaques] taught Stanley how to play chess in 1941, when Stanley was 12. Stanley quickly became a skilled chess player and chess hustler in Central Park. At the age of 17, he was offered a job as an apprentice photographer for Look magazine.
During this time, Stanley was playing in chess tournaments at the Marshall and Manhattan Chess Clubs. He as also playing in the parks such as Washington Square in Greenwich and elsewhere for money as a chess hustler. He knew when to get a park chess table in the shade during the day and a table under the lights at night. He played chess for 12 hours a day, playing chess for quarters. He was friends with Grandmaster Larry Evans. Kubrick made about $20 a week hustling chess.
In 1956, he wrote the screenplay for The Killing (also called Bed of Fear), based on a novel (Clean Break) by Lionel White. This was his first movie with chess in it. After getting out of Alcatraz prison after 5 years, Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) masterminds a race-track heist (filmed at Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo) to steal $2 million. Clay goes to the Academy of Chess and Checkers (the Flea House), looking for a buddy of his. He passes by several chess games in progress until he reaches one being overseen and kibitzed by big 250 pound Maurice Oboukhoff (Kola Kwariani (1903-1980)). the club is run by a guy named Fischer. Clay interrupts the kibitzing to talk to Maurice. They go to an empty chess table by the window where Clay offers Maurice $2,500 to start a fight diversion for a robbery at the race track. When Clay asks Maurice how's life been treating him, Maurice says, "About the same as always. When I need some money, I go out and wrestle. But mostly I'm up here, wasting my time playing chess. But I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have this place to go to."
A still from the movie made the cover of Chess Review magazine in March, 1956. The movie was released on June 6, 1956.
In 1957, he directed Kirk Douglas (Col Dax) in Paths of Glory (1957). Kubrick used a chessboard pattern on the marble floor where three soldiers stood in front of the judges of the court martial. The theme was a stalemate between French and German forces in No Man's Land during World War I. The trial has been compared to a strategic chess match by some reviewers. The movie was based on a novel by Humphrey Cobb.
In 1964, he directed Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. It was a novel, called Red Alert, written by Peter George. During the filming of the movies, he played many chess games with cast and crew, including games with George C. Scott.
In 1968, he directed 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). It was based on a short story, called The Sentinel, by Arthur C. Clarke, written in 1948. Clarke did not play chess and said if he did, 2001 would never have been made becuase Kubrick and Clarke would have just played chess.
Astronaut Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) plays a game of chess with HAL 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain). The game in the movie is from a position that came from Roesch-Willy Schlage, Hamburg 1910 (Game 322 in Chernev's book The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess and game 344 in my book (i>500 Ruy Lopez Miniatures). There were several mistakes with the chess scene. The moves were in English Descriptive instead of aglebraic, a move was in wrong descriptive notation for Black ("Queen to Bishop Three" when it should have been Queen to Bishop Six), and it was a mate in three, not a mate in two, since the moves were not forced by HAL.
The surname (Smyslov) of the chief Soviet scientist who visited the space station was named after former world chess champion Vassily Smyslov.
He also said, "Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good and it trains you to think objectively when you're in trouble."
Stanley Kubrick was born on July 28, 1928 in the Bronx, USA. His father [Jack or Jaques] taught Stanley how to play chess in 1941, when Stanley was 12. Stanley quickly became a skilled chess player and chess hustler in Central Park. At the age of 17, he was offered a job as an apprentice photographer for Look magazine.
During this time, Stanley was playing in chess tournaments at the Marshall and Manhattan Chess Clubs. He as also playing in the parks such as Washington Square in Greenwich and elsewhere for money as a chess hustler. He knew when to get a park chess table in the shade during the day and a table under the lights at night. He played chess for 12 hours a day, playing chess for quarters. He was friends with Grandmaster Larry Evans. Kubrick made about $20 a week hustling chess.
In 1956, he wrote the screenplay for The Killing (also called Bed of Fear), based on a novel (Clean Break) by Lionel White. This was his first movie with chess in it. After getting out of Alcatraz prison after 5 years, Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) masterminds a race-track heist (filmed at Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo) to steal $2 million. Clay goes to the Academy of Chess and Checkers (the Flea House), looking for a buddy of his. He passes by several chess games in progress until he reaches one being overseen and kibitzed by big 250 pound Maurice Oboukhoff (Kola Kwariani (1903-1980)). the club is run by a guy named Fischer. Clay interrupts the kibitzing to talk to Maurice. They go to an empty chess table by the window where Clay offers Maurice $2,500 to start a fight diversion for a robbery at the race track. When Clay asks Maurice how's life been treating him, Maurice says, "About the same as always. When I need some money, I go out and wrestle. But mostly I'm up here, wasting my time playing chess. But I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have this place to go to."
A still from the movie made the cover of Chess Review magazine in March, 1956. The movie was released on June 6, 1956.
In 1957, he directed Kirk Douglas (Col Dax) in Paths of Glory (1957). Kubrick used a chessboard pattern on the marble floor where three soldiers stood in front of the judges of the court martial. The theme was a stalemate between French and German forces in No Man's Land during World War I. The trial has been compared to a strategic chess match by some reviewers. The movie was based on a novel by Humphrey Cobb.
In 1964, he directed Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. It was a novel, called Red Alert, written by Peter George. During the filming of the movies, he played many chess games with cast and crew, including games with George C. Scott.
In 1968, he directed 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). It was based on a short story, called The Sentinel, by Arthur C. Clarke, written in 1948. Clarke did not play chess and said if he did, 2001 would never have been made becuase Kubrick and Clarke would have just played chess.
Astronaut Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) plays a game of chess with HAL 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain). The game in the movie is from a position that came from Roesch-Willy Schlage, Hamburg 1910 (Game 322 in Chernev's book The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess and game 344 in my book (i>500 Ruy Lopez Miniatures). There were several mistakes with the chess scene. The moves were in English Descriptive instead of aglebraic, a move was in wrong descriptive notation for Black ("Queen to Bishop Three" when it should have been Queen to Bishop Six), and it was a mate in three, not a mate in two, since the moves were not forced by HAL.
The surname (Smyslov) of the chief Soviet scientist who visited the space station was named after former world chess champion Vassily Smyslov.
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