Die Grünstein-Variante (1985)

The film begins in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. The three main characters meet in a detention prison in Paris: Lodek, a German sailor and enthusiastic chess player; a Greek cook who was on his way to visit the former German emperor in exile in Doorn; and Grünstein, a Polish-Jewish butcher who had travelled to Paris to claim an inheritance. Their passports were taken from them under a pretext, after which they were arrested as unidentifiable persons and imprisoned pending deportation. They spend several weeks in their cell, and to pass the time, Lodek scratches a chessboard into the table, makes pieces out of bits of bread, and begins teaching Grünstein to play. Although the Pole has never played chess before, he proves to be greatly talented. In a relatively short time, he manages to checkmate Lodek with a knight using a sequence of moves he has discovered himself. The film shows a smothered mate with a knight on f2. Lodek calls this sequence the “Grünstein Variation.” He realizes that a chess player using the Grünstein Variation could force checkmate from the starting position, which would rob chess of its purpose. One day, Lodek is released. He is the only one of the three to survive the war, and spends the rest of his life trying to remember the Grünstein Variation, which he has forgotten.