The King is always the King

In my opinion one of the best Chess metaphors ever is in episode 2/3. When i saw the chess set I groaned, too often chess is used in a film as some kind of half arsed way of showing a character being intelligent, or to introduce a theme of tactics/strategy that will run in the film. Possibly the worst example of this is in Independence Day where Jeff Goldblum plays chess with his dad, as a not to subtle hint that the aliens are 'strategically' positioning their air craft.

Jeff Goldblum: It's like in chess: First, you strategically position your pieces and when the timing is right you strike.

wow. genius. (my favourite line: "What has unanimously been agreed as the front of these spaceships" is of course over Washington - the capitol of the USA.. american egos eh!) Not forgetting the classic heaven chess scene in Bill and Ted and in the finale of X-men.... anyway, there are so many examples of terrible chess moments in films (Bill Wall helpfully lists 1715 examples here). that I thought The Wire was loosing it. It turned out to be great, D'angelo proved his superior intelligence (on TV/films chess ALWAYS indicates intelligence) by knowing the rules (the others are using a chess set to play draughts), whilst also demonstrating the way the drug runners operate. I thought it was great.

Those asshole cops got what they deserved when they went into the projects at 2am, hehe, that was definately a highlight. While the drug dealers are playing chess, the police are behaving like thugs...