The French Defense

A play by Dimitri Raitzin

Directed by Aleksey Burago

Starring Robert J. D'Amato
& Dan Simon

Television Directors
Raj Sirohi
Roger Hendricks Simon

Produced for Simon Studio Presents by
Dan Simon
Roger Hendricks Simon

It's Moscow, 1960. For a whole year the world has been waiting to see what happens when Tal and Botvinnik meet for the World Chess Crown. And now, the wait is over. The time is now.

The French Defense by Dimitri Raitzin is an award-winning play about this struggle of generations. The protagonists are the new and the old, pure talent and a lifetime of experience, two different styles and two different outlooks on life.

It is a play about a collision between the two best chess players in the world: the Champion - a survivor of the Stalin era who has held the World Title for 12 years, and the Challenger - a bright new phenom who has only one thing on his mind: victory.


Dimitri Raitzin was born in Moscow and emigrated to Israel and then to the United States in 1975. He is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia Business School. Prior to embarking on a career as a playwright he has had a 15 year career on Wall Street.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Dan
• Simon
• Actor
• Chess
• Drama
• Theater
• Acting
• Television
• 1960's
• Russia
• Politics
• Cold
• War
• Jews
• Moscow
• Competitive
• Intellectual
• Conflict

[SIMONSTUDIOPresents]

Dear Chess Fans,

The French Defense is not meant to be a reanactment of the actual game.

I ask you all, Dear Chess Fanatics, What is dramatic about Tal being the way he supposedly was- polite and humble?

[Justs99171]

Tal was humble, polite, witty, funny, and enigmatic. I've read that he was the only world champion who wasn't an arrogant meglomaniac.

[JG27Pyth]

There was a real contrast in character between the funny, life-loving, class-clown, chain-smoking pill-popping skirt-chasing Tal, and Botvinnik the dour Super Soviet electrical engineer and computer scientist who led the USSR to world chess dominance post WWII. It's the battle of the young wild-eyed romantic vs the classicist and their chess styles matched their personal styles beautifully.

From what I've seen this play does no justice to either man.

[theoak111]

@SIMONSTUDIOPresents life, their struggles, how their personal styles, seemingly so different, had many similarities, how their match was influenced by the politics of the time, how the attempt to solve the mysteries on the chessboard can be ultimately an attempt towards life's questions e.t.c. Of course, it is your film and your opinion on the matter. To me it seemed an oversimplification of what their actual fight could mean.

[theoak111]

@SIMONSTUDIOPresents ... score against him! This is probably the reason that people were critical about this play. Dramatization is not necessarily the outcome of intense dialogues in a film. If you do not expect your audience smart enough to understand then maybe you shouldn't film in the first place. A great idea about a chess film would be for instance the same kind of setting but with both opponents having an inner monologue as the game progresses. A monologue that bridges pieces of their .

[theoak111]

@SIMONSTUDIOPresents sorry for taking so long to answer! I like the dramatization in the film and I enjoyed it. Yet, there is an answer to your question. Tal's life was dramatic in a sense with many things that show that. His bad health never let him stay a champion for more than a year. In that sense he had a huge misfortune! A real chess gentleman with a fragile health, great inspiration on the board and respected by all champions. Even the late Bobby Fischer liked him, and he had a negative 

[jakrueg2pbg]

Thank-you ! I enjoyed this work, Jeffery

[BrianMayRedSpecial]

horrible.

[ani19bd]

Where is the rest of it?

[kooler2004]

he was far from polite and definitely not humble. If he was polite he wouldn't of made those cracks at the older guys age, and if he was humble he wouldn't be bragging about winning and how much smarter he was.