ok there's been some confusion this morning about CHESS (1978) [aka FOOL'S GAMBIT]

since i'm board game twitter's (self appointed) resident horror expert, i thought i should shed some light on the CHESSIVERSE, the sequels, the reboots, and the unfairly maligned tv series
[1/x] https://twitter.com/PonchoRebound/status/1309027618663137282

the first film, theatrically titled FOOL'S GAMBIT is a mediocre 1978 Canadian produced intellectual thriller. there's a chess tournament, someone is killing the players, etc.

it's honestly pretty boring, but the highlight is John Saxon as the Chess Federation investigator
[2/X]

it didn't do well, and was sitting around in someone's storage vault until Vestron got desperate for home video content. in 1984 Benny and Bjorn from ABBA along with Tim Rice put out a concept rock opera album called Chess. it's (sort of) about Bobby Fischer. it's a huge it
[3/X]

so as sort of a cash-in on people being interested in chess again briefly, in 1985 Vestron releases FOOL'S GAMBIT on home video as CHESS with a lurid cover - the famous bloody pawn on a checkerboard you're familiar with. it's a big hit on VHS
[4/X]

big rental sales - Nightmare on Elm Street is really driving home video horror hard in '85. so the next year the original producers put out a sequel - CHESS 2: CHECKMATE (1986) and it's a straight up slasher that has little to do with the first film. it's almost a remake?
[5/X]

in CHECKMATE there's again a chess tournament and people are being murdered, and again John Saxon is the Chess Federation investigator but he has a different name and a mustache. it's got some good kills and is mostly regarded as the best of the series
[6/X]

2 does ok in the theater but again is gangbusters on video. People went as The Mastermind (the supernatural killer in the movie) for halloween. it was a whole thing. So of course they immediately start production on 3. unfortunately Sid Groider, the original producer, dies
[7/X]

Groider was an exploitation guy and was really just interested in making a buck. but his kid Allan Groider wanted to make a blockbuster - hence CHESS 3: QUEEN'S GAMBIT. they took all the money from the merchandising and sunk it into this movie. an obscene amount of money
[8/X]

there are no exact figures but reportedly they spent something like 9M on this movie (more than double what Elm Street 3 cost) - unfortunately Allan Groider decided to direct it himself as well as totally rewriting the script on set. Saxon got so fed up he just walked out
[9/X}

Since they were behind and couldn't afford to reshoot they rewrote his character to get murdered by The Mastermind about 30min into the movie, and that's where it goes off the rails. the focus shifts to Mastermind and his backstory, mostly about his mother and it's... bad
[10/X]

the speculation is that Groider is trying to work out his own issues on screen and he's just not a good director. this movie is painful to view and when we rewatch the series i usually skip it. needless to say it tanks in the theater and is sluggish on video
[11/X]

the reviews were just brutal and the film bankrupted Groider and his company. Flash forward 7 years to 95. New Line buys the rights to CHESS at auction and immediately puts out CHESS 4: BISHOP'S OPENING a direct to video prequel starring Treat Williams and Gary Kasparov
[12/X]

Williams is Seth Denning, The Mastermind's biological father and he's (of course) a chess master and serial killer. Kasparov is only in it for like two minutes as a judge but it's a great 2 minutes. this is a solid and fun horror flick with good kills. it knows it's dumb.
[13/X]

BISHOP'S OPENING is probably my 2nd favorite after CHESS 5: STALEMATE (1996), which is a direct sequel to 4. Jeff Fahey plays a rival chess killer to Seth Denning (Williams) and Denning gets to be the good guy. it's an over the top action slasher. a cable staple for years.
[14/X]

there was supposed to be a CHESS 6 in 1998, titled CHECKMATES that would have incorporated both The Mastermind and Denning via time travel or some nonsense but it got shelved by New Line who were focused on SCREAM and IKWYDLS. they later used the script for the comic run
[15/X]

so in 2006 everyone is rebooting everything and New Line brings back CHESS. it's sort of remake of 2 but with Josh Hartnett and Rosario Dawson as rivals at an elite chess college who's classmates start dying. it's mediocre but Peter Dinklage as The Mastermind is genius
[16/X]

Hartnett and Dinklage were too good to come back for the sequel the direct-to-cable CHESS: FOOL'S GAMBIT (2008) but Rosario Dawson pulls a SAW III and... wait for it... she's the killer now! weirdly the plot is a direct copy of the first film, but more violent.
[17/X]

Gary Kasparov plays himself in FOOL'S GAMBIT but he's the investigator too? he's still only in it for maybe 15 minutes total. it's mostly about some blank faced teen chess champions who are on the run from Rosario Dawson. Scifi spun the teens off into CHESS: THE SERIES
[18/X]

the show actually isn't terrible and i think if it hadn't been on SciFi in 2010 it might have actually had a chance. it's just so basic cabley that it's not any fun. it's not gorey, it's not not scary. the plots are fine but it needed to be streaming
[19/X]

what's the future hold for the CHESSIVERSE? there have been 3 attempts at reboots and there's a long running comic series. I want Treat Williams come back and kill more chess teens, but IMDB has CHESS GAME (2021) listed as "in production", so we'll have to wait and see
[20/20]

my rankings are:
5 STALEMATE (1996)
4 BISHOP'S OPENING (1995)
2 CHECKMATE (1986)
1 CHESS (1978)
r1 CHESS (2006)
r2 FOOL'S GAMBIT (2008)
3 QUEEN'S GAMBIT (1988)

thanks to fellow ChessHeads @CeraphimFalls and @jdbullock for research assistance on this article