Abrams Wanted Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in Star Trek XII

[ralph]

Source: TrekWeb

Director J. J. Abrams, is such a fan of chess that he wanted 21 year old Magnus Carlsen to play a future chess champion in Star Trek XII.

Carlsen, a Norwegian Chess grandmaster currently ranked number one in the world, received the request after appearing on 60 minutes; however, due to problems getting a work Visa in time, had to decline.

A future chess champion?
In star trek ongoing Kirk lose at 3-D chess to Spock.
Would Carlsen have some importance to the story or would be just a cameo?

 

[22 Stars]

Yeah read this, sounds very random, I'm sure it would have been a fun cameo for the guy, and for JJ to talk to him but whatever.

 

[M'Sharak]

A future chess champion?
In star trek ongoing Kirk lose at 3-D chess to Spock.
Would Carlsen have some importance to the story or would be just a cameo?

Probably just a cameo - perhaps they would have had him playing a game against Chekov.

(One page labeled "production notes" which I found on the official site included a description of Chekov as "the U.S.S. Enterprise's youngest officer, a Russian child prodigy and chess master". I also remember reading that Yelchin, Cho and Greenwood would play chess on the set between takes on the first movie, and apparently Yelchin regularly wiped the other guys out.)

 

[22 Stars]

^ two dimensions... how quaint...

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'm currently rewatching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Maybe the STXII baddie will be a chess AI run amok!

 

[Captaindemotion]

Chess or 3-D chess?

 

[Set Harth]

4-D.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Smell-o-vision chess.

 

[F. King Daniel]

IIRC, there was actually a 4D chess in the novels. It was the Vulcan's take on human chess, ultra-complicated, holographic with overlapping pieces (or something like that). Kirk preferred the "simpler" 3D version.

 

[Jeyl]

Glad this didn't happen. I don't think the franchise needs more of JJ's self-indulgences.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

He should have wanted ME in ST:XII.

I would have been everything he ever dreamed of in a cameo..

 

[22 Stars]

^ Hello!

 

[thumbtack]

Meh. Nobody plays chess anymore except for Russian wunderkinds and genetically engineered supermen. Still, it would have been nice to see Yelchin play the scene with someone his own age.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

its tripe like this that generates this nerdy persona of trekkies.

Why he is or was even considered I can only presume was to add some credibility to the movie in his warped mentality.

Glad he is not in it.

Whose warped mentality?

 

[UFO]

its tripe like this that generates this nerdy persona of trekkies.

Why he is or was even considered I can only presume was to add some credibility to the movie in his warped mentality.

Glad he is not in it.

Whose warped mentality?

Doesn't "warped mentality" mean "fast thinker" in these parts?

But let's stop pretending to buy into that chess champion business. They wanted Magnus Carlsen because he's a fashion model.

 

[horatio83]

Glad this didn't happen. I don't think the franchise needs more of JJ's self-indulgences.

I am not much of a fan of the new Trek movies or of Abrams' monster, lensflares, Spielberg 2.0 repetitiveness but gee, offering cameos is not self-indulgent but genuinely nice behaviour.
Despite being not good at chess I like the game so I think it would have been fun to have Carlsen in a Trek movie.