#0038: Demonstration of chess game data featured in Cowboy Bebop anime

Preamble

I have been playing a fair bit of chess recently. I even went so far as to buy and start reading books on the subject. (gasp I know, first “buy”, then “read”. Must be one of those mundane everyday miracles I keep hearing about.) Anyway, as I did: it reminded me of a particular episode of an anime that I absolutely loved watching as a teen. Namely: Cowboy bebop.

Created by a Japanese company called Sunrise Inc. Cowboy Bebop is an anime that is generally highly regarded on the internet to this day (2023). Even though it originally aired in Japan in 1998. 25 years ago. Part of the reason for this in my opinion: is the sheer attention to detail, and artistic care of craft displayed within each episode. Something I will hopefully demonstrate here.

As a show: Cowboy Bebop has primarily an episodic structure. Where each individual episode features a self contained story with a start, middle, and end. That then contiguously fits into a larger narrative that runs across the season. With few exceptions such as the odd multi-episode narrative, or recap episode. The focus of this article is episode 14: Bohemian Rhapsody. A chess themed episode where I found the move-set for a full game of chess.

I wish to display that game here for your viewing pleasure. Please note however that I am no chess expert (as I am barely competent), so I will not comment on the game itself. I just want to feature it here because I think it’s really cool; that an anime would have such attention to detail as to feature things such as a complete game of chess. One that briefly scrolls across the screen for less than a handful of seconds no less. [See video extract below.]

Tools

Since this is not a tutorial piece I will be brief here. I just wish to outline the tools used to make the chess game demonstration GIF image and video extracts below for those interested.

• XBoard – to play the game move-set out on, in a Linux based OS
• Native Screenshot application of Linux Mint Cinnamon – to take screenshots of XBoard
• GIMP – to edit images for the GIF animation
• imagemagick – to convert a series of PNG files into a single animated GIF file
• VLC – to play videos
• Flowblade – to edit and export videos in MP4 format

Episode narrative background

Please note: this is primarily from memory, so I may have some of the details askew.

The cartoon villain of the week featured in this episode is a character by the name of “Chess Master Hex”. A child chess prodigy who whilst working for a large corporation as a researcher helped develop the first hyperspace gates. Gates which allowed space ships to move between planets in our solar system significantly faster and safer than previously available. They quickly became ubiquitous due to the savings on time and general logistics.

Now here’s the wrinkle: there is an unspecified fatal flaw in the gates’ system. One that never got addressed due to corporate interests burying it for the sake of profits. Hex who wanted the project paused until research into the flaw and it’s resultant fix was developed – was removed from the project for protesting it’s rushed go ahead. And then fired. (And likely made to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. You know how it is.) Because of this he then spun a decades long plan of vengeance on the corporation that wronged him.

Now fast forward to the present. Our cast of cowboys (space bounty hunters) are tasked with catching him. This is due to the corporation placing a large bounty on the entity that is coordinating a series of cyber-attacks against their hypergates. Cyber-attacks that involved the use of custom hardware that utilises an (until now) unknown latent vulnerability within the gates’ systems: in order to completely drain the bank accounts of any customer who uses a hyperspace gate’s pay point.

In the process of chasing up on the bounty, our cast manage to independently capture several of the low-level criminals that have been physically installing these systems into the hyperspace gates themselves. The odd thing is that all these people had nothing in common; except for the fact that they all had in their possession a digital chess piece. A King piece, that allowed the holder to play an online game of chess with a player who turned out to be Chess Master Hex himself.

The chess game

During the story a digital chess piece is scanned. It’s data is displayed on the scanner’s VDU. The contents of which are two different chess games’ moves-sets. Games played between a player named “Deep Blue” and Hex himself. The actual name “Deep Blue” is a reference to a real world notable chess super computer. That is contemporary to the anime’s time (1998). Note: I assume above that the first game was also played by Deep Blue. However, unfortunately half of the first game’s move-set (and metadata) was cut-off. So really only one and a half games’ data is revealed to us. With only the latter game’s data being revealed in it’s entirety on screen.

Now, being the curious cat that I am: I decided to actually play out the second game. The one I could see the complete move-set for. See below. The interesting thing learned here is that they are in fact real chess moves. Not just some random gobbledygook, as I feared it might be. All the moves depicted a valid game of chess, with none of the pieces making any illegal moves.

Well … There is one exception however. On White turn 18, a Rook makes an illegal move from it’s starting position of f1 to e7. (“Rfe7”.) I made the logical inference that it was merely a typo, since it was the only illegal move in the entire move-set up to this point. And since the numbers 1 and 7 typographically look alike: I substituted the legal move of “Rfe1” for it. This amended move resulted in the rest of game, including follow-up moves for that same rook piece being valid. Bravo.

One last little tidbit on this game: when it mentioned Deep Blue I was curious as to whether or not the game featured in the anime itself was famous. I.e. did they copy verbatim one of Deep blue’s games. (ctrl-c ctrl-v style.) And upon a cursory (Wikipedia) search it does not seem to be the case. I compared it to the games that made Deep Blue famous. The notable games where it had won against Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov, and it didn’t match any of the six games that they had together in 1996, as well as the six rematch games of 1997. I compared all the games with a 1-0 result as is here. First the one’s where Kasparov wins 1-0, assuming him to be a substitute for Hex. Then I chose to include the one’s were Deep Blue wins 1-0 just for the sake completeness. To no avail.

Wikipedia summary of games between Deep Blue and Kasparov

Chess data-set compiled screenshots

Original compiled screenshot

Error corrected compiled screenshot

Screenshots of first camera shots of scanner displaying chess data

Video extract of scanner displaying chess data

Chess game demonstration

Chess game demonstration stills

Chess game demonstration animation

Radical Edward and Chess Master Hex playing chess using electronic chessboards

What’s the point of this section? I just think that this is cool is all. It illustrates the use of a holographic electronic chess board with public network access. I also love the aesthetics of retro-futuristic tech in general, as well as scrap-tech; and this touches on both. Now look at the screenshot of Edward (possibly?) holding in the ratty network plug into the electronic chessboard’s socket with her foot. It’s surprisingly relatable. (Or maybe I am just projecting.)

I initially wanted to plot the move-set for this game out as well, and do another animation for it too. Since the pieces look to be in consistent positions between shots. (Operative word: “look”.) However I found the process to be too much work for the payoff. The various dynamic camera shots of the chess boards (“boards” plural!) depicting the moves of their respective pieces quickly became disorientating.

My chronically sleep depraved brain soon threw it’s metaphysical hands up in frustrated surrender. Stuff it! The straw that broke the camel’s back as it were, is the shot (@ 00:49) of Hex placing a white queen, despite playing black! I just wasn’t willing to error correct, in addition to wrestling a coherent game out of those hectic camera shots. Still… I may comeback to it one day, if I fancy the challenge. Unlikely.

Moving on. Now look at the startup animation for Edward’s electronic chessboard. Did you notice the spelling error? Nice little bit of ‘Engurish’ there. It made me smile anyway. I mean the 90’s were a golden age for top-shelf Engurish in general. And thankfully Cowboy Bebop is no exception. Unfortunately the English dub is of such high quality that I have had no need to watch the Japanese original audio version, so I have likely missed out on some peak spoken Engurish as a consequence. What a genuine shame.

Aggregated screenshots of chess game

Video compilation of chess game

Sorry about the audio syncing issues in this vid. All settings are good, yet Flowblade (repeatedly) renders the video with de-synced audio. I am not sure why. :/ I am not going to chase it up right now because it isn’t really important. (And not worth the delay.) The visuals are what I am primarily demoing here.

Closing thoughts

The funny thing is that I don’t even really watch much anime anymore. However like I said earlier: I have had my interest sparked in playing chess as of late. I’ve been playing it at work using smartphone apps (like lichess.org or chess.com) as well as using a physical set against my work colleges. And while I was playing I was suddenly reminded of Cowboy Bebop’s chess episode. Specifically the scene with the junky scanner displaying the chess data lopsided on a monochrome green CRT monitor. And the idea suddenly occurred to me: “I wonder what that game actually looks like”. And that’s how this write-up came to be. I hope it has entertained you if nothing else.

Thank you for reading.

Acronyms used

CRT – Cathode Ray Tube
GIF – Graphics Interchange File
GIMP – GNU Image Manipulation Program
GNU – GNU’s Not Unix! (recursive acronym)
PNG – Portable Network Graphic
VDU – Visual Display Unit

Links, references, and further reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_Bebop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cowboy_Bebop_episodes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_(chess_computer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_versus_Garry_Kasparov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engrish
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_operating_system
https://imagemagick.org/Usage/
https://www.gimp.org/
https://linuxmint.com/
https://jliljebl.github.io/flowblade/
https://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
https://www.lichess.org
https://www.chess.com
https://www.rd.com/article/what-does-gif-stand-for/