Harry Potter's Chess Teacher

by Robert Coontz

from Muse, September 2002

International Master Jeremy Silman

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.

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 tor 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