NR | 1h 52min | Drama | Jan. 13, 2023
Chess terms like “checkmate” and “end game” lends themselves to military strategy. The game is also a pastime that sometimes blossoms into an obsession, but that is a feature rather than a problem for Dr. Josef Bartok (Oliver Masucci), at least while his National Socialist captors hold him in solitary confinement.
The test of wills becomes a metaphorical and perhaps literal chess match in Philipp Stolzl’s “Chess Story,” based on Stefan Zweig’s novella “The Royal Game.”
Bartok is a respected Austrian solicitor and notary, most notably for the former nobility, whose secret numbered accounts he manages. The anti-Nazi advocate is caught flat-footed by Germany’s sudden Anschluss annexation of his former nation, but he manages to sufficiently destroy his banking records before the German secret police take him into custody….