Knight Moves (1992)

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I like Lambert, and he's the main reason I liked the movie. It's a pretty standard suspense movie. Keeps you guessing at times.IMDb says there's a factual error in one of his games. They say the problem is that there's a mate in 5, not a mate in 4. I don't agree. It's a mate in 5 for black (if played correctly by both sides, correctly meaning that white plays to avoid mate as long as possible.) The problem I see is that Lambert's coach suggests he can win with a mate in 5, and misses it. But Lambert is playing WHITE. His rook move to c2 is correct, but only in the sense that's the best move to delay an already lost game. The coach seems to imply HE can win the game, otherwise why say "he missed it"? But he can't win, his game is already lost.

**SPOILERS** It's not as if American Chess Grandmaster Peter Sanderson, Christopher Lambert, didn't have enough headaches in trying to defeat his arch-rival fellow Chess Grandmaster Lutz, Alex Diakun, in the "Tournament of Champions" in the out of the way town of Roxbridge in Washington State. He also gets himself involved in a string of grizzly murders that soon starts to effect his concentration. This leads Senderson to make a number of misplays and slip ups that almost cost him the final, or rubber, match with Lutz.It's very obvious that the person committing these killings has something very personal against Sanderson besides him being #1 in the world of American, as well as world, chess. Murdering as well as using young and beautiful women as chess pieces in this deadly and bizarre game of chess he's playing has his opponent Chess Grandmaster Sanderson become the #1 suspect in the murders that this lunatic is committing! That's the absurd an illogical conclusion that the towns two top "Keystone Kops", who very probably got their police badges out of a Crackerjacks box, Capt. Frank Sedman & Det. Andy Wagner, Tom Slerritt & Daniel Baldwin, come up with! Even though Sanderson as an alibi, in most cases Sedman & Wagner themselves, for where he was when the murders were committed!Crime suspense thrillers just don't get any better then "Knight Moves" in just how in your face and brazen it is in manipulating its audience. We know right from the very start that Sanderson is innocent of the crimes that he's charged with yet were, as well as Sanderson, boxed into a corner where it's almost impossible, even if we were on a jury, to be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn't commit them! In that Sanderson comes across so guilty looking, as well as acting, that you suspect that he somehow committed the murders not psychically but through some kind of, by being in two places at the same time, telepathic or OBE, out of the body, experience!***SPOILER*** The killer leaves clues at the scenes of his crimes to what the real reasons-besides playing chess-for his murderous rampage is all abut that the smart as a whip, in being a Chess Grandmaster, Sanderson should have easily picked up. It's when all the pieces, or moves, finally fall into place it's not "smartly pants" Sanderson who finally figures who who this shadowy killer really is but it's the local police psychiatrist Kathy Sheppard, Dane Lane, who beats him to it! That leads to the grand final in the film as Sanderson and his opponent, the psycho killer, have it out with Sanderson's 10 year-old daughter Erica, Katharine Isabella, as the grand prize. In her being ritually murder with all her blood drained out, like all his other victims, by the psycho killer or rescued by her now wiser and smarter dad, in him finally getting it to who the killer is, Peter Sanderson!

Excellent film who-dunnit. The setting of a chess tournament as a backdrop for the various murders is unusual. Constantly kept guessing as to whether the "hero" is in fact the murderer, until the very end where the killer is revealed.Christopher Lambert as the chess master plays out his anguish well as the evidence pointing to him builds to the point where the police believe he did it. The slips of the tongue from Lambert also give the impression he 'could' be the killer... But is he? Diane Lane is good as usual, not a lot is asked of Tom Skerrit so he doesn't give a lot as the police chief. Baldwin is good as the prejudiced cop who takes a serious dislike to Lambert's character.Worth watching the first time for your own pleasure. Watch it a second time with someone who hasn't seen it before to see their reactions to the mystery!

Christopher Lambert stars as Peter Sanderson a master chess player who is targeted by a serial killer who is killing women and blaming it on Sanderson, Captain Frank Stedman(Tom Skerritt) and Detective Andy Wagner believe that Sanderson is behind it all, while a Dr.Kathy Shepperd unwisely falls for Sanderson in this entertaining yet confusing thriller. The ending while a good twist, is somewhat disappointing. However Knight Moves works fairly well most of the time.