In 2002 an hour long science fiction show named Lexx (About a five mile long living insect-ship manned by a crew of four: an idiot captain that orders the ship to find planets populated by loose women, a humanoid female that’s half cluster lizard and half love slave, a dead man who is/was the last of his race – this unstoppable killing machine is occasionally reanimated if times get tough, and an insane disembodied robot head that used to be madly in love with the female but now holds homosexual lust for the dead man.) aired its last episodes, and as a fan of the highly original series I tuned in. To my utter amazement, I saw the GREATEST rendition of chess that’s ever appeared on TV – and almost certainly better than anything that’s even graced the big screen. Here the full hour was devoted to a whole 39 move game, with every move easy to follow and explained by the pieces themselves (human heads of various Lexx characters)!

In this battle between death and a dead man, every capture graphically shows us the piece/head savagely axed or crushed – brains splattering everywhere. But what is even more interesting is that this game’s actually from a match that determined the best player of that time (for a discussion of this legendary 1834 contest, click HERE)! Here is the game in its entirety:

L De Labourdonnais – A McDonnell
London m1 (21), 1834
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Qe2 Nf6 4.d3 Nc6 5.c3 Ne7 6.f4 exf4 7.d4 Bb6 8.Bxf4 d6 9.Bd3 Ng6 10.Be3 0–0 11.h3 Re8 12.Nd2 Qe7 13.0–0–0

The opening hasn’t gone well for Black (who played pretty badly) and White enjoys a clear advantage.

13…c5 14.Kb1 cxd4 15.cxd4 a5 16.Ngf3 Bd7 17.g4 h6 18.Rdg1

The immediate 18.g5 is stronger.

18...a4 19.g5 hxg5 20.Bxg5 a3 21.b3 Bc6 22.Rg4 Ba5 23.h4 Bxd2 24.Nxd2 Ra5 25.h5 Rxg5!

This sacrifice turns things around. Suddenly Black gets a winning attack!

26.Rxg5 Nf4 27.Qf3 Nxd3 28.d5

Or 28.Qxd3 Nxe4! and White is doomed.

28...Nxd5! 29.Rhg1 Nc3+ 30.Ka1 Bxe4?

Botching it. Correct was 30...Nxe4! 31.Rxg7+ Kh8 and Black’s attack will triumph.

31.Rxg7+ Kh8 32.Qg3 Bg6 33.hxg6 Qe1+ 34.Rxe1?

White makes the final mistake. He could have won with 34.Nb1! Kxg7 35.gxf7+ Qxg3 36.fxe8=N+! Kf8 37.Rxg3.

34...Rxe1+ 35.Qxe1 Nxe1

The picturesque …Nc2 mate can’t be stopped!

36.Rh7+ Kg8 37.gxf7+ Kxh7 38.f8=N+ Kh6 39.Nb1 Nc2 mate. 0-1.

The players would never have guessed that this same game would be repeated on a dead world in an alternate universe far in the future.

For a FANTASTIC pictorial guide to this episode, click on this link: http://doktorsdiary.crosswinds.net/Lexx/ep4-18del.htm

I would like to express my thanks to drdel for giving me permission to share it with www.jeremysilman.com viewers.