Chess and the show

[EllieVee]

I think Greer's a closet sudoku guy. None of this physical sport; he's all brain food.

[yanna]

Who else thinks that chess will become a significant part of the storytelling for Rush and Young in the future?

The fact that Rush is whittling chess pieces (from what wood, by the way?) gives him something to do for a while--but the slyly delivered "I like chess" from Young is what sold it for me. I'm convinced that they'll be playing games together in the future.

Let's just hope Young isn't a sore loser.

[EllieVee]

Let's just hope Young isn't a sore loser.

Yes, Rush should avoid winning if he wants to live.

[ladypredator]

If Rush can carve pieces, he can carve a board as well.

I think Rush was doing it for himself. My guess would be that he was planning to play on his own - ''against himself."

I would bet that Rush knows he can cream Young at chess. He's be the type of person to have played on Oxford's chess team and maybe even competitively beyond that. He's a genius and a physicist/mathematician among other things - just the type to be a top-level player.

I could seriously see Young asking Rush to play in the mess hall. Greer wanting to bet on the game, and Volker & Brodie taking him up on it because they know full well Young hasn't got a chance in hell, and they take Greer to the cleaners. Rush would be very quietly amused.

Young's utterly out of depth with Rush, it's part of why he keeps screwing up and getting paranoid. He can't keep up intellectually and that scares him because he's a control freak. The military mind - everything has to be just so and predictable; Rush will never be predictable. A good example is Young's confusion when Rush says to go the planet and round people up. Young has missed that Rush only went along with Camile's plan so he could make sure Young didn't screw up by firing weapons at the aliens instead of putting all power into the shields. Young also missed that these are totally different circumstances; Rush is re-evaluating and analyzing based on the situation at hand. They're at bare survival numbers as is. I'm not going to get into the genetics of population bottlenecks, but Rush has a significant point. They can't afford to lose so many people at once, either for survival at the moment or survival long-term. And there are a couple of other things Young's missed there as well. I think that's why Rush just leaves instead of continuing to argue. He realizes it's a waste of his time.

Can't wait to see "Human" - I've thought all along that Young was wrong about Rush and the chair. I think Rush would've given his right arm to sit in that chair from the moment they found it; he just knew that if he did it, no one else would be smart enough to handle things if it went wrong. Which is why he wanted to figure out how to control the systems and limit the download. Franklin screwed that up for him.

[EllieVee]

I hesitate to disagree with LadyP but I will on one thing. I think Young will turn out to be a pretty good chess player, perhaps not as good as Rush but I imagine a different type of player who might give him a good game.

Everything else, I naturally agree with, particularly about the chair. Rush isn't a coward.

[Sami_]

Chess is featuring prominently in smallville too!

I sense a conspiracy or chess is making a revival.

[Gollumpus]

Having Young being able to best Rush at chess right from game one would be a bit too much like the Shepperd/McKay chess scenarios from SGA, there would be no shock or surprise in having the expected underdog winning. My belief is that the writers have a plan to initially have Rush being able to best Young fairly easily, however as the series goes on Young will be able to bring his game up to a point where he can play to around a 50/50 level.

Of course they may just have them play to an interminable number of draws which could be used as a parallel to their actions on the ship...

regards,
G.

[hiro]

Backgammon is the ame of Lost.

SGU has a game of Chess.

The similarities continue.

Stop it ! i'm serious! Not everything is lost related ! Oh in TBBT play 3d chesse so ... !
come on! we have seen many series and movies before where some of the main characters play chess (now i only remember X-men )

Tea'lc is also Black. and Daniel is white.... !!!!

MIB vs Jacob reference?!?

Light/dark?

*gasp*

True !

[garhkal]

Having Young being able to best Rush at chess right from game one would be a bit too much like the Shepperd/McKay chess scenarios from SGA, there would be no shock or surprise in having the expected underdog winning. My belief is that the writers have a plan to initially have Rush being able to best Young fairly easily, however as the series goes on Young will be able to bring his game up to a point where he can play to around a 50/50 level.

True it would make it look like shep and mccay.

[Daro]

Maybe Rush intended to play chess with Chloe, his new BFF? We'll know for sure if she's making all the black chess pieces next episode.

Seriously, it's a possibility. Despite what a lot of fans think, Chloe must have a decent brain. She has that Harvard education, and has shown herself to be a tricky opponent (when arguing against Wray in "Justice," for example.) She also doesn't really have a lot to do around the ship most of the time. I also think Eli would play, just to see if he could beat Rush. It might become a 'thing' on the show, with all the characters trying to win against Rush and none of them being able to (except maybe Young.) It'd be a good source of comedic relief once in a while, if not overdone, and also a good way to foreshadow the way certain Rush conflicts might play out.

[Eternal Density]

Chess is featuring prominently in smallville too!

I sense a conspiracy or chess is making a revival.

Good point! lol

I wonder what Eli thinks of chess. Perhaps he prefers a nice game of global thermonuclear war?
As for the current 'score', surely Rush gets a point for Franklin sitting in the chair (granted, we don't know what will come of it). Actually, Rush gets a point for reaching Destiny in the first place!

[Python]

Still waiting for chess to return in the show. It's like the Furlings now.