Chess in the arts Poul Anderson's short story "Immortal Game", inspired by the 1851 game played by Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky (which also appears in the film "Blade Runner"); or Waldemar Łysiak's "Szachista" (), centered on a game played between Napoleon Bonaparte and The Turk. The game Frank Poole versus HAL 9000 from the film "" is also based on an actual match, albeit not widely known. Other artists drawn their inspirations from the life of players. Vladimir Nabokov wrote "The Defense" after learning about Curt von Bardeleben, while the musical "Chess" was loosely based on the life of Bobby Fischer. Some authors
Chess in early literature Chess in early literature One of the most common ways for chess historians to trace when the board game chess entered a country is to look at the literature of that country. Although due to the names associated with chess sometimes being used for more than one game (for instance Xiang-qi in China and Tables in England), the only certain reference to chess is often several hundred years later than uncertain earlier references. The following list contains the earliest references to chess or chess-like games. a. 923 - at-Tabari's Kitab akhbar ar-rusul wal-muluk 79 BC - 8 BC - lifetime