The Luzhin Defence
A grandmaster's mind unravels as love and chess collide.
Marleen Gorris directed this 2000 romantic drama, which follows a chess grandmaster struggling with mental turmoil and the woman he encounters during a major Italian tournament. John Turturro and Emily Watson star, with the script adapted from Vladimir Nabokov’s novel The Defense. Watson earned best actress nods from the British Independent Film Awards and the London Film Critics Circle.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Marleen Gorris
- Producer
- Caroline Wood
- Screenplay
- Peter Berry
- Based on
- The Defense; 1964 novel, Vladimir Nabokov
- Starring
- John Turturro
- Emily Watson
- Geraldine James
- Stuart Wilson
- Christopher Thompson
- Kelly Hunter
- Music
- Alexandre Desplat; Layla Stanson
- Cinematography
- Bernard Lutic
- Studio
- France 2 Cinema; Clear Blue Sky Productions
Facts from the source article.
Plot
In the early 1920s, Aleksandr Ivanovich 'Sascha' Luzhin, a gifted but tormented chess player, arrives in a Northern Italian city for an international chess competition. Before the tournament he meets Natalia Katkov and falls in love with her; she finds his manner appealing and they begin seeing each other despite her mother's disapproval. Competing alongside Luzhin is Dottore Salvatore Turati, who is approached by Leo Valentinov, Luzhin's former chess tutor from pre-revolutionary Russia. Valentinov tells Turati that Luzhin cannot handle pressure and intimates he will unsettle his former prodigy off-table. The competition starts badly for Luzhin, unsettled by Valentinov's presence, but he soon begins winning again as his relationship with Katkov deepens. She informs her parents she will marry him, and Luzhin reaches the final against Turati. In the finals, Luzhin loses to the time clock, forcing adjournment. Outside, an accomplice of Valentinov abandons him in the countryside, triggering memories of his parents' abandonment. Luzhin wanders until he collapses and is found by Blackshirts. Hospitalized with complete mental exhaustion, a doctor tells Katkov that Luzhin will die if he keeps playing chess. Valentinov visits with a chess board, urging him to finish the match; Natalia defends Luzhin but urges him to quit. He seems to agree. After leaving the hospital, they plan to marry. On the wedding morning, Valentinov puts Luzhin in a car, telling him he must finish the competition. In terror, Luzhin leaps from the car, dazed and cut, and stumbles back to the hotel to dig up glass chess pieces he buried years ago, but does not find them.
Production
The novel The Defense was inspired by the real-life story of German chess master Curt von Bardeleben, who apparently died by jumping from a window in 1924. Filming took place entirely in Europe. Budapest stood in for St. Petersburg, with the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, Hungarian National Museum, and Heroes' Square appearing as outdoor locations. The chess tournament, though set in Italy, was filmed inside the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest. Hotel interiors were shot at Villa Erba in Cernobbio on Lake Como, while the railway station scene was filmed in Brenna-Alzate near Como. Unlike the film, the novel never gives Valentinov a first name, and Luzhin’s first name appears only in the final sentences. The book also concludes with Luzhin’s suicide, leaving his chess game unfinished.
The finale
In the final game between Turati and Luzhin, Black holds a winning position despite being down material. If White plays 1. Kg4 rather than 1. Kf2, a forced checkmate follows with a rook sacrifice: 1. Kg4 f5+ 2. Kg5 Kg7 3. Nd5 Rh3! 4. gxh3 h6+ 5. Kh4 Bf2#. Choosing 1. Kf2 instead leads to heavy material loss for White, as Black captures a rook: 1. Kf2 Rxc3+ 2. Ke1 Rxc1+. In the film, Luzhin’s fiancée made his final moves. The tournament had been halted after Luzhin suffered a nervous breakdown from extreme strain. On the day he was to marry, he jumped from a hotel balcony and died. His fiancée later discovered a note in his jacket with the moves he intended to play against Turati.
Cinematic error
In the film, Luzhin’s winning move in an earlier game is actually illegal. He plays a queen sacrifice and then moves his rook from d1 to d8 for checkmate, but the rook is pinned to his king at h1 by a black rook on c1. This means moving the rook would expose his own king to check, which is not allowed. The sequence shown is: 1. ... Bf8 2. Rxf8+ Kxf8 3. Nf5+ Kg8 4. Qf8+ Kxf8 5. Rd8#. The error comes from placing the black rook on c1 instead of c2. In the real game where this combination was played—a famous win by Milan Vidmar against Max Euwe—the rook was on c2, making the move legal.
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