Friday 14 February 2014

An interesting use of Chess

"House of Cards" was a very successful British political drama, that eventually underwent an American remake. I've seen all of the original,  and around the first half of the remake (watched while flying to Europe and back). In the end there are enough differences between the characters in the series, as well as between US and British politics for both to stand on their own, rather than being compared directly together.
The second US series is just about to start and at least one publication is using chess to explain the Machiavellian goings on in the first series. Paste Magazine has a summary of the all the episodes from Series 1 laid on a chess board. Each of the main characters is a piece, and as they get 'removed' by Frank Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey), they get taken off the board. While the board itself is only 6x6, and all the pieces seem to be the same colour, I do give credit for the imaginative attempt at utilising the "politics as chess" metaphor.
If you are a fan of the show, or just want to see the visual representation, the article is here.

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