An insider has revealed that the decades-old practice of showing chess games in movies with the board set up the wrong way round is a deliberate ploy designed to wind up nerds in the audience.
The source said: “Everybody knows that when you set up a chess board you make sure the corner square to your right is a white square. Do you really think that when film makers get it wrong that it’s by accident? They’re doing it on purpose, mate!
“Ha ha … mate … geddit?
“It was Ingmar Bergman who started the whole thing off in 1957 with The Seventh Seal. Apparently one of the cameramen put him up to it; the whole crew were giggling like school kids during the filming of that scene on the beach, even some of the actors. Max von Sydow found it really hard to keep a straight face, and there are loads of out-takes where he keeps bursting into laughter at points that were supposed to be serious. They’re probably on YouTube.
“In the sixties and seventies, other directors started to do it too. At first it was done as an homage to Bergman, in the hope that film critics would take their movies more seriously. A few people didn’t spot the reference though, and complained. After that, film-makers just started doing it to wind those people up.
In response to our question if the recent spate of stock photos online is also deliberate, the insider said: “Nah, those guys are just morons.”
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