Of course with such a high murder rate, you would think there wouldn't be anyone left, but you would think wrong. Having disposed of artists, church bell ringers, and miniature wargamers in previous episodes, the writers of Midsommer Murders have know taken to killing chess players. In the episode titled "The Sicilian Defence" the President of the local chess club got bumped off, soon to be followed by the club arbiter. Interestingly this happened in the middle of the Club championships, which for some reason continued as if these events were of little importance.
As a fan of the series I actually thought the episode was a little weak (too many unhinged suspects seemed a bit of lazy writing), but the chess aspects were generally OK. They got most of the terminology correct (eg no fake "The Kizapatserov Gambit" openings) although the history of chess was changed (for plot related reasons). The tournament must have been quite popular as the boards seem quite cramped, and my wife was surprised at the number of female players taking part.
I won't give away the identity of the murderer, but I will reveal the identity of the game that was left as a clue by the killer. Sensibly the writers avoided a really well known game (think the chess scene in Blade Runner), but still chose a high quality one. The game in question was Unzicker v Fischer from the 1962 Chess Olympiad, which Fischer won as Black. Fischer (whose birthday was yesterday btw) no doubt liked the game himself, as it appears as game no. 42 in "My 60 Memorable Games"
Unzicker,Wolfgang - Fischer,Robert James [B92]
Varna ol (Men) Varna (7), 1962
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. O-O Nbd7 9. f4 Qc7 10. f5 Bc4 11. a4 Be7 12. Be3 O-O 13. a5 b5 14. axb6 Nxb6 15. Bxb6 Qxb6+ 16. Kh1 Bb5 17. Bxb5 axb5 18. Nd5 Nxd5 19. Qxd5 Ra4 20. c3 Qa6 21. h3 Rc8 22. Rfe1 h6 23. Kh2 Bg5 24. g3 Qa7 25. Kg2 Ra2 26. Kf1 Rxc3 0-1
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