2/4/2021 – Chess has always been a popular theme in films. French director Luc Besson uses it in his latest film "Anna", an action movie released in 2019. Anna Poliatova, the main character of the film, is an excellent chess player, but unlike Beth Harmon in "The Queen's Gambit", she fails to have a successful tournament career but instead works as an assassin. | Photos: Studiocanal
new: Fritz 20
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
In this dynamic and practical video course, IM Andrew Martin arms you with powerful antidotes to White’s most annoying sidelines.
€34.90
Anna: Assassin and chess player
Luc Besson is arguably the most successful French director of recent times. He scored his first big hit with the cool "Subway" (1985). Many other blockbusters followed, including action films such as "Nikita" (1990), "Léon: the Professional" (1994), "The Fifth Element" (1997) or "Lucy" (2014), but also family films such as "Arthur and the Minimoys" (three films, 2006-2010).
His most recent film is "Anna", released in 2019. Besson borrows here from his own great success "Nikita". Anna, a young woman (played by Sasha Luss), who has gone off the rails through no fault of her own is hired by an organisation to work as an assassin.
"Anna" is set at the end of the Cold War, in the mid-late 1980s, when the KGB and the CIA were still engaged in a war for information. After drug-addict Anna Poliatova (Sasha Luss) becomes involved in a robbery committed by her boyfriend, she receives a proposal from KGB officer Alex Tchenkov to work for the KGB as an agent and assassin. Originally, Anna had started training at a military academy to follow in the footsteps of her father. But the death of her parents threw her off track.
Alex Tschenkov has Anna trained as an agent and recommends her to his superior Olga (Helen Mirren) for higher tasks:
"She has top marks everywhere. She also beats everyone in chess."
Olga is not convinced: "I don't give a shit if she plays chess. If she fixes my heater, then I care about her."
Helen Mirren
But Olga mellows when Anna can recite from Chekhov's "The Seagull", Olga's favourite play, and later even develops motherly feelings for her agent.
Anna proves herself in a difficult test assignment and is sent to Paris where she pretends to be a model to carry out a deadly mission. But gradually, CIA agent Leonard Miller (Cillian Murphy) gets on her trail.
Deadly assassin
Anna is exposed by the CIA and has to work as a double agent to survive, though her greatest wish is to leave her dirty trade behind. The CIA orders Anna to kill KGB chief Vasiliev, who has been responsible for the persecution and death of many US agents. A seemingly impossible task for Anna, but she receives support from an unexpected source and is also able to use her chess skills.
In this course, you will learn the foundations and key ideas of the Vienna Game and discover a variety of systems that make you extremely difficult to prepare for.
Tata Steel 2026 with analyses by Bluebaum, Giri, L'Ami, Woodward and many more. Opening videos by Kasimdzhanov, Marin and Zwirs. 10 exciting opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
In this course, Dutch Grandmaster Jan Werle presents a modern and practical repertoire in the French Advance Variation, focusing on the critical line 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3.
One of the major battlegrounds of the Queen’s Gambit Declined is the Catalan, and against it Zwirs chose an ambitious strategy: accept the pawn and hold onto it with …c6 and …b5, aiming for an unbalanced fight from the very start.
In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game.
€39.90
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