Animation Summary
A short story following a Knight who dreams of being as succesful as the Queen. He attains his dream but at what cost...
Project Description
Storyboards
The White Queen captures the Black King and sends him flying off the board.
Cut to a party. The White Queen is partying with the other pieces around her. Cut to a horse looking longingly at the Queen in the corner of the party. He turns and weeps while looking at a wall full of the Queen's achievements.
Cut to the next game. The Queen sacrifices herself in the corner of the board and is captured by the Black King.
The Queen dies and the scoreboard is updated. The Knight angrily turns and jumps onto the Black Bishop, squashing him.
The Knight goes on a frenzy in the background while the camera watches the scoreboard update. At the end, the Black King surrenders.
Cut back to the party. The Knight is now on the first place podium. However, he is not happy. Cut to the wall of achievements where the Knight's MVP frame is shown and the Queen's RIP portrait.
Three Frames from Animation
The party at the beginning with the knight longingly looking at the Queen on her first place podium while the other pieces party.
The angry knight in the middle of capturing the black bishop after the white Queen dies.
The post game party where the Knight is on the first place podium, but all of the pieces are sad because the Queen died.
Inspiration
Mikhail Tal
About the Inspiration
Mikhail Tal, a Grandmaster and former World Champion, is my favorite chess player. He was an exciting player who frequently made daring sacrifices and held the nickname "The Magician from Riga". I wanted to tell a story about one of his games where he makes an amazing queen sacrifice allowing a knight to capture the rest of black's pieces.
Here is a short I found that shows the move sequence.