Harry Potter’s game of chess

Novice chess players can seem spellbound by the power of their own queen, zigzagging hither and thither in desperate search of bounty. You soon learn that on the chessboard strength is weakness and weakness is strength; the queen must flee from any attack while a pawn is, well, only a pawn in your game. Experienced players acquire a more mercantile approach – every piece has its price. In fact, being ready to dispense with an ostensibly valuable piece in service of a higher goal is the mark of a skilful player.

Making great play of this is the chess game from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, presumably one of the most widely viewed chess scenes in cinema history. The American international master Jeremy Silman, who died aged 69 in Los Angeles last week, devised the sequence which begins at the diagram below.

On their quest, Harry, Ron and Hermione become embroiled in a game of wizard’s chess.