1938
A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who is being hunted by occupying Russian forces.
1957
When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.
1953
After two American prisoners are killed by guards in the act of escaping from a German POW camp in World War II, barracks black marketeer J.J. Sefton is suspected of being an informer.
1991
Just after World War II, an American takes a railway job in Germany, but finds his position politically sensitive with various people trying to use him.
2017
Jewish family man Marvin leaves his wife and son for a male lover during the height of the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York City.
1993
A seven-year-old chess prodigy refuses to harden himself in order to become a champion like the famous but unlikable Bobby Fischer.
1981
Television play
1994
Death and violence anger twelve year old drug courier Fresh, who sets his rival employers against each other.
1985
The plot revolves around three men waiting to be deported in a prison. To escape the monotony, they form chess pieces from their bread rations, with which they then play against each other. Grünstein, a Polish Jew, proves to be a real talent, because although he is a beginner, he manages to defeat even the experienced player Lodeck, a German sailor, with his "Grünstein Variant".
1987
Branko Kralj is an alienated businessman and avid chess fan. He is married to the attractive Visnja and they have a son. Their marriage is weak and Branko feels much closer to his mistress than to his wife. One day Kralj and Visnja travel on a half empty train. Kralj goes to a far away compartment for a game of chess, and leaves Visnja alone. Three men take advantage of the lone woman in her compartment and rape her.
1943
Famed reporter Stephen O'Malley travels to a small town to investigate the death of a national hero.
2009
Yannick moves to a small, quiet town to study cinema. One day when he fell off his bike, he knocked at the door of the Beaulieu residence so he could clean the blood off his hands. But Jacques Beaulieu and his family had other plans for Yannick. Beaulieu is a righteous psychopath and fanatic chess player who wants to rid the world of evil. And even though Ian has done nothing wrong, he is beaten, tortured and tormented before Beaulieu makes him an offer: win at chess and he is free to go. And so Ian is now a pawn in Beaulieu 's game. A game in which he will either lose his mind or his life.
