Chessquest

Irving Finkel, Jeremy Silman and the Chess of
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"

by Jan Newton
March 13, 2005 -- Updated April 30, 2005

Hola to our readers and fans!  With this Chesstories article, I'm doing an experiment.  I'll be presenting a sort of "stream of consciousness" report here to demonstrate how we develop an article for Goddesschess, from initial inspiration, through research, to the final result, which is sometimes published - and sometimes ends up in the trash bin.

This particular article was inspired by a news report I discovered at the Guardian Unlimited (online edition).  Here are the relevant excerpts: 

Lewis chessmen start touring exhibition at Hadrian's Wall
by Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Monday January 17, 2005

(Left:  Irving Finkel of the British Museum, London, and two of his replica pieces of the "Lewis chessmen".) 

A small contingent of Vikings, and two impostors with their own place in British history, are heading north towards Hadrian's Wall this week.  The British Museum is sending 20 of the Lewis chessmen to a unique exhibition on the history of board games, which opens next week at the Roman fort of Segedunum, at the Newcastle end of Hadrian's Wall. It is the largest group the museum has loaned since it acquired the world famous set in 1831 - for £84, after the curator assured the dubious trustees that they would prove popular with the public.

.... The curator of the exhibition is Irving Finkel, an expert on board games, whose knowledge extends to the 4,600-year-old Royal Game of Ur, the rules of which, he learned by reading from a cuneiform-inscribed clay tile.

.... The Lewis chessmen are far later than the Romans, whose favourite game was Duodecim Scripta, which seems ideal storming out material; a possible ancestor of backgammon, the boards are often inscribed with rude messages such as "Levate Ludere Idiota" - get up to play, fathead.

The Lewis chessmen have been dated to around 1050, and were probably made in Scandinavia. The glum bishops, brooding queens and soldiers biting the edges of their shields in an ecstasy of rage or dread are regarded as among the museum's greatest treasures.

.... They will be accompanied to Segedunum by two fakes, which are just as precious to him [Finkel]. As a boy he was rewarded for special efforts in school or exams with reproduction figures from the museum shop, until he had a complete playing set. Four years ago he lent two figures, which normally live in his office, to the makers of the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It was his savage queen who whops the arm off a bishop in the film.

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I think that is so romantic! Imagine - iconic games historian Dr. Irving Finkel (he's practically a legend in our little world of board games historians) saving some inexpensive replicas of the Lewis chess pieces from his childhood, yet willing to lend them to the producers of a Harry Potter movie. We all know how priceless such personal treasures are. And a real, live American chessmaster, who is a prolific author of chess books, lending his expertise to what must be considered one of the most exciting and hair-raising movie scenes of all time!

Who has not heard of Harry Potter? J. K. Rowling's books have single-handedly inspired a whole new generation of otherwise video game-addicted, book-adverse youngsters to actually pick up a book and READ. That, in and of itself, is a great accomplishment. That Rowling also produced characters and a storyline that have hooked millions of readers that number at least as many adults among her fans as children is a genuine phenomenon of the early 21st century.

I have to tell you that ever since Harry Potter first burst upon the scene, I resisted the craze despite all the buzz. Doubtless like many others, I thought that a children's story and characters could hold no appeal for me. But, after seeing television broadcasts of the Harry Potter movies "The Sorcerer's Stone" and "Chamber of Secrets", my curiosity about what was in the books (for everyone knows that the books are always better than the movies) finally overcame me. One day I ventured into a local bookstore disguised in Groucho mustache and glasses and I purchased book number five in the series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". I started reading it that night...

Now - I confess, I am hooked! I have purchased books 4 and 3 in the series, own the videos of the movies made from books 1 and 2, and eagerly await book number 6 "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price", along with millions of other fans.

This could be a GREAT Chesstories! I've got to find out more...

01/23/05 initial research:

"It was his savage queen who whops the arm off a bishop in the film." ...

Well, actually, I DON'T think the chess pieces in this "Harry Potter" set I found online (image, left) look anything like the Lewis chess pieces, and the queen in the set at the left certainly  does NOT resemble the "Lewis" queen!  Thinking perhaps I'm mixing up my Harry Potter movies here, although the Guardian Unlimited article (quoted above) specifically states "Four years ago he lent two figures, which normally live in his office, to the makers of the film 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'".  I specifically recall a scene in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (as the movie was titled in the USA) where Ron, Harry and Hermione entered a chamber and in order to get to the other side they had to battle their way across a giant chess board, playing a real-life game against chess pieces whose only object was to annihilate the opposition.  THOSE chess pieces are depicted at the left, and they are NOT Lewis pieces!

However, Internet searches have also revealed the Lewis pieces touted as "Harry Potter" chess pieces!  So, what's the scoop?  Was there a scene or scenes in the movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"  that show Harry playing chess with Lewis pieces?  (image, right, from Studio Anne Carlton as shown at the Rochester Chess Center website, where the artist states "This is the classic Isle of Lewis Chess set played in the Harry Potter movie." 

Okay...  Anne Carlton hedged her bets!  She coyly declined to give the name of the Harry Potter movie in which the Lewis chess set appeared.  So, it could be ANY Harry Potter movie thus far produced (as of March, 2005, that is, when I'm writing this).  Here is another website that advertises a replica of the Lewis chess pieces as a "Harry Potter" chess set.

Following another line of inquiry:  Is there a scene in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" where the queen cuts off the arm of a Bishop?  Yes, the only chess scene I remember - the one I wrote about above - and those were not Lewis-modeled pieces wielding weapons of brutal destruction!  The queen I remember from the movie was standing, tall and enwrapped in a full-length cloak or gown; she wore a helmet with a face guard entirely covering her face, and both of her hands were resting on the hilt of a long sword, centered in front of her, with its point resting on the chessboard (although the Silman article mentioned below called this her "scepter", ha!). The queen from the movie was utterly terrifying!  The Lewis queen, by contrast, is not so much terrifying as - well, to me she looks as if she is saying "Oy Vay!  We left the matzo in the oven too long!" 

Points of Contrast in the Two Queens:  The Lewis "Oy Vay" Queen is sitting, not standing; she is crowned, not helmeted; we can see her face, it is not obscured by a helmet face shield; she does not hold a sword or, as far as I can tell, a scepter as mentioned in the Silman article.

Further research on 01/23/05:

IM Jeremy Silman actually worked with the producers of the "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" movie to create the moves for the grand chess battle that I remember - the one with the terrifying queen, not the Oy Vay queen.  Unfortunately, the lovely sequence of moves that Silman envisioned was hacked to pieces by people who know absolutely nothing about chess and the moves, therefore, do not make much sense.  The scene's superb drama and tension as finally edited, however, cannot be denied, even to those who are chessophiles.

Which takes me back to the original issue - where, oh where, did the Lewis chess pieces appear in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"?  I haven't read the first book in the series, but I have read books 3, 4, and 5 and watched videos of the movies for books 1 and 2.  So I know that there are scenes in these books where Harry is playing chess, sometimes with Ron, sometimes with Hermione.  Perhaps that is where the Lewis chess pieces come in, because they definitely were not featured in the dramatic chess scene in "Sorcerer's Stone". 

Let's talk a minute about credits.  It seems that IM Silman received no listing in the credits for his weeks of work in developing the thrilling sequence of chess moves - all mostly deleted from the chess in the dungeon scene in "Sorcerer's Stone". 

Tentative Conclusion:  The Guardian Unlimited article was wrong!  Sorry, but it was not Irving Finkel's Lewis chess queen that was used in the "dungeon" chess scene with Ron, Hermione and Harry in the "Sorcerer's Stone" movie.

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01/25/05 Further Research:

Here is the article I discovered about IM Jeremy Silman's role in creating that climatic chess scene in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"  (the scene which did NOT employ the Lewis chess pieces!):

Muse, September, 2002

Harry Potter's Chess Teacher
by Robert Coontz

[Photo: IM Jeremy Silman.  I think he looks like Norm Abram, the master carpenter of PBS' popular series "This Old House"].

If you are shooting a movie about wizard chess and can't find a wizard to conjure up a game for you, what's your next-best move? Find a Muggle chess master who loves movies. [A "Muggle" is a human who has no magical powers].

That's what the makers of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" did when planning the movie's unforgettable chess scene, in which the young heroes battle enormous pieces that smash one another to bits with every capture. Unlike Joanne Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, the filmmakers couldn't just leave the game to readers' imaginations; they had to show it. So they asked Jeremy Silman to give them some moves.

Silman, who lives in Los Angeles, says he got the job through friends at Warner Brothers studios, which made the Harry Potter movie. But he had been in training for almost 36 years. "I learned how to play when I was an old man of 12," he says - later than most top-ranked chess players. "I totally got into the game. I swore revenge on a short, fat kid who kept beating me."

Silman's early moves were far from magical.  In his first tournament he lost four games in a row.  He finally won one when his opponent, out of pity or disgust, grabbed one of Silman's rooks and checkmated himself.  Silman stuck with chess, though, and improved quickly, rising through the ranks of chess players to become certified first as an expert, then a master, and finally an international master, the category just below grandmaster in skill.

For years Silman made a living at chess, playing for tournament prizes all over the world.  Later he started giving lessons and writing books about the game.  So far he has written 37 books on chess and one on casino gambling (which isn't nearly as much fun, he says).  When Warner Brothers hired him as a chess consultant for "The Sorcerer's Stone," Silman says, he took the job seriously.

"Often when people play chess in movies and TV, you'll see the board turned the wrong way or other embarrassing mistakes," he says. "Its like a baseball movie in which the pitcher throws the ball to the outfield."

Determined to do better, Silman studied the chess passage in Rowling's book and then spent weeks talking on the phone with the film's screenwriter, trying to get every detail just right.  He wound up composing the end of a chess game that followed the book closely but included some wrinkles of his own. "I had the whole scene constructed very carefully," he says. "You had to be very into Harry Potter to get it."

In Silman's game, for example, Harry's friend Ron, who commands the black pieces from the saddle of a black knight, could win the game faster by letting the other side capture Harry.  Instead Ron nobly sacrifices himself so Harry can finish the game and pursue the villain. Silman also adds a move to let Harry take revenge on the fearsome white queen, who clobbered Ron with her scepter when she captured him.

The crew filmed the scene as Silman wrote it.  When he watched the movie, though, he was disappointed to see that very little of his game wound up on screen.  Most of his moves had been edited out, making the game impossible to follow. (Muse readers, however, can see them all on pages 23-26!) [Not on this site, but see the note at the bottom of the page.] Still, Silman says, the chess game was dramatic and powerful, and working with the filmmakers was great fun.  He'd gladly do it again.

Chess may not be Hogwarts-style magic, but it is a wonderful hobby, Silman says.  Not only is it exciting, but it also teaches players to concentrate, to stay calm under pressure, to think logically and recognize patterns, and to keep their minds clear. For kids, it also provides an arena in which they can be equal to adults. "It's not inconceivable to see a 50-year-old man playing a three-foot-high child who's totally destroying him," Silman says. And unlike the demolition-derby pieces in "The Sorcerer's Stone," the losers can shake hands, learn from their mistakes, and try again.

You can see the original, uncut Harry Potter chess game at:
Jeremy Silman's Web site.

Copyright © 2002 Robert Coontz

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Research 03/04/05:

It's been awhile since I visited this article, and I'm no further ahead now as then!  I found an online interview of Daniel Radcliffe, the young actor who portrays Harry Potter in the movies, at Nickelodeon Magazine (USA) (link not recommended - tons of pop-up ads and who knows what they harbor - be sure not to click on any of them!) and he says in this interview: 

"Daniel's favorite...
Harry Potter Book: Number two, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". "I suppose it's the darkest, but so much goes on it "

"Character: Hagrid

"Scene to Film: The chess scene. "The set is amazing.""

Well, that doesn't add anything to the discussion at hand, but I just think he's so cute!  It amazes me that girls in their early teens aren't swooning in droves all around the globe every time Daniel Radcliffe opens his mouth.  Well, perhaps they are.  Anyway, at first reading I thought he was referring to a chess scene in the movie "Chamber of Secrets" and I got all excited about that, and did some internet searches on the topic too; but a second reading made it clear that was not, in fact, the case.  Radcliffe was obviously talking about the great chess battle scene in "Sorcerer's Stone".  Back to the drawing board...

Research 03/12/05 - 03/14/05:

Holy Goddess!  This article has been hanging out in limbo for two months.  Time to get down to business and wrap it up.

In doing more internet searches under "Harry Potter chess", it has become evident that Harry Potter chess is BIG BUSINESS, and I do mean big.  There are hundreds of websites touting "Harry Potter chess sets" at prices of up to 300 British pounds sterling (that's a lot of money!)  Most of those sets are replicas of the pieces seen in the "Sorcerer's Stone" movie - the pieces that really don't resemble the Lewis Isle chess pieces in any way (most particularly not the queen). (See a picture of such a set in the 01/23/05 research above).

Time to cut to the chase and see what the experts had to say on the subject.  I visited Mugglenet, perhaps the penultimate Harry Potter fan  website, and did an internal site search for "chess".  Some 68 references came up.  Well, I'm not about to read through those 60 "hits" to track down all of those references to chess.  

Okay - it's now hours later as I did, in fact, skim read through most of those 60 hits to see if I could find anything that might be pertinent to this article.  Geez, the things I do for this website!  Anyway, I noted two extremely interesting articles that focus on the creation of a 7x7 "matrix" based upon facts/patterns garnered from the first five published Harry Potter books, that also includes the author's suppositions/projections about what the remaining two Harry Potter books may contain in an attempt to fill in the missing pieces of the 7x7 grid.  Why the number 7?  Because J. K. Rowling has stated several times that she only plans seven books in this Harry Potter series, thus, her fans write endlessly about the contents of the final two books, as five have already been published.  Here are links to the two articles about the 7x7 grid:

Reading the 7x7 Matrix: (Tentative Predictions for the 6th and 7th Books), (12/13/04) by Daniela Teo;

The Riddle of the Seven Tasks: A 7x7 Matrix, by Daniela Teo.

Okay, okay.  A 7x7 matrix doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with the original premise of this article - I keep forgetting what that was (I have to keep going back to the title to remind myself of what I was working on.  Maybe I should get tested for Alzheimer's???).  But hey - it sure seems like a board game to me and that's what this website is about, after all.  So, I copied Teo's two articles I referred to and also some earlier articles written by her that show her progression of thought.  Yeah, I know, I'm not supposed to do that - but I haven't published them here as my own work (like some websites steal from us and then publish it, presumably as their own work, with no link back or credit to us at all - THIEVES - and you know who you are, disgusting creatures!)  Instead, I am now going to print them out and read through them - thoroughly, because I think she's on to something.  And if O.K.. Rowling intentionally set out from the beginning to form a 7x7 magic square based on characters and events in her seven planned novels, well, all I can say is the woman is a bloody genius and all Nobel prizes for physics and literature for the next century should go to her - with a large cut to Toe who seems on the way to figuring it all out.  I am cheating now - here is a slightly modified version of the last  7x7 grid eo created in her December 13, 2004 article:

For those of you who aren't familiar with the characters/objects from the Harry Potter series of novels, this grid will probably not make much sense. But I think if you assign a mathematical constant to each individual character or object, you will see a pattern emerging, just like in a magic square. I'm no mathematician - don't know how I ever managed to pass college calculus, actually, but I got A's in both semesters, go figure! I'll need to play with this magic square some and if I come up with any astounding revelations I'll let you know. In the meantime, if anyone out there has any suggestions about how to make this square more magical, drop me (or Daniela Teo over at Mugglenet) a line!

Conclusion: Yes, I actually have one! Dr. Finkel's Lewis pieces may have provided some inspiration for the set and graphics designers working on the chess scene in the first Harry Potter movie "Sorcerer's Stone", but that's it. All the evidence I've been able to find leads to the conclusion that the Dr. Finkel's Lewis "Oy Vay" queen is NOT the queen who whopped off the Bishop's arm in "Sorcerer's Stone". Ta da!

More interesting to us at Goddesschess and our fans is that Dr. Finkel has shown himself to be a man with a sense of humor, a sense of nostalgia, and a man possessing an "inner child" who appreciates Harry Potter and his tales of magical daring-do! Perhaps, after all, there is hope for the sterile and generally BORING world that ancient board games historians usually inhabit...

BUT WAIT A MINUTE - THERE'S MORE (OH NO! OH YES!)...
Research 03/23/05: OHMYGODDESS!
Was I WRONG? After all the research I did, too - what a catastrophe! May the Goddess say it is not so! But I keep coming across references to the Lewis chess pieces appearing in the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone! And I had concluded that this was not the case...hmmmm.....

First, earlier today, at the website for the British Museum (where I was searching for something totally unrelated to Harry Potter), I saw this comment from the "Top 10 British Treasures":

Suffolk AD 410-430 Room 49
These famous chess pieces were found in mysterious circumstances some time before 1831. They were probably made in Norway and are carved from walrus ivory or whales' teeth. Who owned the chess pieces and why they were hidden are even greater mysteries. These small kings, queens, knights and bishops have fascinated people ever since their discovery. Modern chess sets have been modelled on the figures and even Harry Potter played with replica Lewis chessmen in his first film!

Then, tonight, in an article I discovered at The Sunday Times - Scotland, from March 20, 2005, I read the following:

Replicas of the collection [Lewis pieces], comprising forlorn bishops, brooding queens and soldiers biting the edges of their shields in terror or rage, featured in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the film of the book by JK Rowling.

So, is the Goddess of Chess pulling my leg? Are these quotes wrong? If the Lewis chess pieces were in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, why could I not find any mention of them in any reviews IÕve read about the movie??? Where are they?

Where? Help, help! I'm going mad, mad I say!

Er, okay, back to reality. There is no help for it, IÕm going to have to watch the video of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone...

In the meantime, I have a complaint against the British Museum. Why is it that, in this, the 21st century, the editors insist upon referring to the Lewis chess pieces as the "Lewis Chessmen"? ChessMEN? Hey guys - HELLOOOOOO!!! (they must all be guys writing this stuff at the British Museum) Ð there IS A QUEEN in the pieces, they are NOT all chessMEN! Geez! For this I went to law school back when women were still a minority in the legal field?

Okay, okay, I'll go watch the video - and report back.

Research 03/27/05:
Well, guess what? I don't OWN the video of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, geez! I ran downstairs on March 23rd intent on putting the tape into the VCR and watching the movie like a hawk to see ANY chess pieces - other than the giant ones that we know aren't Lewis chess pieces. Only, I discovered, to my chagrin - that I own the videos Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban, as well as volumes 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the novels, but I don't own the Sorcerer's Stone video. Eek!

So, as it was past 8:00 p.m. and I was too tired to run down to the Blockbuster video store, I did what any red-blooded American researcher would do - I tried more searches on the internet. Didn't find A THING.

Didn't find a thing on March 24th or March 25th, either. I will make a stop at the Blockbuster and rent the video of Sorcerer's Stone tomorrow night because - tonight, I found this quote from the movie:

[Hermione, after seeing Ron's queen destroy Harry's knight]

Hermione: That's totally barbaric!
Ron: That's wizard's chess.

That is dialog regarding a chess game that Ron and Harry played with each other. Perhaps this is the scene where the Lewis chess pieces were used (a scene I donÕt remember from the movie). It seems obvious from this dialog that Hermione was watching Ron and Harry play "wizard's chess" where the pieces destroy each other. This makes sense because, during the climatic chess battle on the giant chess board where Ron, Hermione and Harry took the places of the black Knight, Rook and Bishop, Hermione said to Ron:

Hermione: Ron, you don't suppose this is going to be like . . real wizard's chess, do you?
Ron: Yes Hermione, I think this is going to be exactly like wizard's chess.

So - mea culpa - maybe. Will let you know, darlings, just as soon as I do...

Update April 30, 2005:
Well, I have the answer!!!! At last - I WAS WRONG, Darlings! I was wrong! Oh no! Oh yes, Hermione, I was wrong! Please forgive me. Tonight ABC network broadcast the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I made sure I was front and center by the television set and - watching with a very keen eye this time - I at last spied the LEWIS CHESS PIECES. Yes! They are in the movie. It was during a scene that took place just before the Christmas break. Harry and Ron were playing chess in the Great Hall, and Hermione came in pulling a suitcase behind her; for a moment she watched Ron and Harry playing chess - "Wizard's Chess". The camera was focused on the chessboard. The pieces were definitely Lewis Chess Pieces, and they were red and white. Ron verbally advanced his Queen upon Harry's Knight and IT WAS THE OY VAY QUEEN! Bless her heart, the Queen then stood up from her throne and smashed Harry's Knight into pieces. Hermione said "That's totally barbaric!"

Oooh! Atttttttttttt lllllllllaaaaaaaasssssttttttt!!!!!!!!! (Sound effect here - imagine hearing those opening words and music of the classic recording of "At Last" by Etta James, makes me sigh just thinking about it, aaaahhhh....)

I HAVE FOUND THE TRUTH - AND THE TRUTH HAS SET ME FREE! YIPPEE!

Darlings, I have to tell you that I DID purchase a DVD of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on or about March 28, 2005 - only I never unwrapped the darn thing and watched it! I just had too many other things to do, like filling out my income tax returns (super ICK), undertaking major Spring House Cleaning, and dealing with an old and ailing doggy who has since gone on to Doggy Heaven. I'm depressed now after losing Tasha-dog and working on the final denouement of this article is, I suppose, a form of therapy.

Never let it be said that the researchers at Goddesschess don't know when to say they made a mistake. Never let it be said that the researchers at Goddesschess will ever give up their quest for the truth, the full truth, and nothing but the truth of the origins of chess. Ta da!

THE END (I think...)