noxteryn
Since: Jun, 2013
Mar 1st 2021 at 10:12:10 AM
•••
This entire article is very inaccurate.
Surprise checkmates can happen all the time in fast chess, which is what most casual players play. When people play quickly, they can easily make blunders, even if their skill level is extremely high. So, in the context of fiction, this trope is perfectly plausible for 99% of the chess population, especially if they are preoccupied with conversation during the game.
Here's a direct example of a Woman FIDE Master missing checkmate in one while distracted by talking, even though she was playing against an opponent of far lower skill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JypHOdu0K9c&t=7m30s
Deleted the following Conversation in the Main Page that also violated Example Indentation in Trope Lists and Repair, Don't Respond.
If this belongs anywhere on the page, it should be in the Literature section as part of an example of the novel, not under Films - Live-Action.
- Note that this is averted in the novel — when Kronsteen gets a message from SMERSH ordering him to report immediately, he's just placed his opponent in an unwinnable endgame, it's the opponent's move, and there's only three minutes left on the clock. The drama of the scene comes from Kronsteen choosing to wait out those three minutes while his opponent looks desperately for a way out (which Kronsteen knows he will not find) — despite knowing that his superiors will be angry at even this tiny act of disobedience.
Edited by Arivne