Recently, the crime suspense drama "The Chess" ushered in its finale. The audience said that "The Chessman" was not enough because there were no stupid people in this drama, and the high IQ and human nature game between good and evil is unstoppable.

　　"The Chess" opens high and goes high: the beginning is full of black humorous texture - the police arrest a group of credit union robbers who have robbed "practice coupons"; as the plot develops, the "butterfly effect" triggers a geometric fission of fate on everyone. The relationship between the Go teacher Cui Ye, played by Wang Baoqiang, and the policeman Cui Wei, played by Chen Minghao, is full of novelty and tension, which is not only reflected in the entanglement of justice and the narrative of family affection, but also in the deduction of the path of both sides' first step in the game and knowing oneself and the enemy. In the play, the dual mirror of "inside and outside the board" becomes the key metaphor for connecting fiction and reality, individuals and society.

　　The chapter of my hand

　　Deep integration of criminal planning and chess thinking

　　This hand refers to a regular method that conforms to the principles of chess, which is the basis and the bottom line. The narrative foundation of "Chess" follows the genre framework of traditional suspense dramas, which is consistent with the "crime suspense + human nature discussion + realism" techniques adopted in previous series such as "Storm", "Long Season", and "Secret Corner". The drama takes the main line of crime as the skeleton, and satisfies the audience's suspense expectations through classic elements such as credit union robbery, brotherly opposition, and blackening counterattack.

　　The common "black and white confrontation" framework in traditional suspense dramas is continued in "Go Chess" through the brotherly relationship between Go teacher Cui Ye and the criminal police brother Cui Wei. The design of "short suspense" and "long-term foreshadowing" has accelerated the rhythm of the series and improved the audience's stickiness. The visual details buried in the play, such as the image metaphors such as the death of a goldfish symbolizes moral collapse, and the burning of clothes implies a change in identity, are also familiar to the audience, and laying the foundation for the arrival of the subsequent ending.

　　As the core symbol of "The Chessman", Go runs through the narrative, and its chess wisdom of "fiction and reality are created together, offense and defense are easy to move" is filled with it. The series deeply integrates crime planning and chess game thinking. The escape route designed by Cui Ye for the robbers is actually a concrete projection of the layout of the chessboard - the streets and alleys in the downtown city are like chessboards, with hidden "successful" paths hidden in the interweaving of latitudes. They take steps to build a psychological defense line with small ones, and use the principle of "thick momentum" to build a concrete chess score. Cui Ye and Wang Hongyu's game is a typical "abandoned son and strive for the first place", sacrificing the part for initiative, and accurately hit the opponent's human weaknesses. The "flaws" he deliberately left at key nodes are like the "test move" in a chess game - not a real loophole, but a psychological trap for the planner to lure the enemy into deep, leading the opponent into a vague zone of morality and emotion. The structure of "chess game is the heart game" concretes abstract ethical propositions in the black and white game of chess pieces. Beyond victory or defeat, it is the confrontation between good and evil, and the continuous temptation and maneuver of human nature between rules and desires.

　　The Dimension of the Wonderful Hand

　　Deeply delving into survival dilemma and psychological evolution

　　"Miscellaneous Hand" refers to creative moves that break the rules, which often gives the chess game unique vitality and imagination. In addition to presenting the common high-IQ crimes in suspense dramas, the series also uses the narrative technique of "life flow" to deepen the survival dilemma and psychological evolution of the characters. For example, the delicate daily scene portrayal in the drama, the main creators create a real life texture through family dialogues, workplace trivia, the use of natural light and shadow, and the real-life lens scheduling.

　　The "white and black" transformation of the protagonist Cui Ye - from an ordinary Go teacher to a high IQ criminal, his depravity was not a moment. Real pressures such as "the medical burden of a son's serious illness", "the chronic strangulation of workplace dignity", and "the cold alienation of family relationships" are stacked layer by layer, guiding the possibility of "blackening" the character from the perspective of narrative and emotional logic.

　　In family relationships, Cui Ye was always suppressed by the glory of his brother Cui Wei. The elder brother Cui Wei, who has the idea of ​​"the elder brother is a father", is not only the pride of his mother, but also has an impact on the relationship between his younger brother's core family. Cui Wei is the idol in Cui Ye's son's heart and the person he dreams of becoming; he is also the elder brother who Cui Ye's wife wants to discuss with him when encountering problems. The main creator of the series shows the communication barriers and emotional barriers between Cui Ye and his son and wife through delicate capture of daily details, thus laying a solid foundation for the change of this role.

　　Putting aside the psychological stimulation brought by strong plot reversals, "Chess" also creates psychological tension by relying on the "subtraction" design of environmental sound effects and blanking visual language. For example, in some crime scenes, the drama deliberately weakens or even dissolves the soundtrack, and reserves real ambient sounds such as footsteps, breathing sounds, clock ticking sounds, etc., in order to guide the audience to focus on the subtle movements of the characters. As the narrative continues to advance, the sounds in the daily background become symbols of amplifying anxiety, mapping the undercurrents under the calm appearance. In the play, silent empty shots, such as metaphorical visual images such as empty streets and unsuccessful chessboards, are replaced by straight narratives. This "time trap" that extends the silence time is intended to amplify the audience's psychological game process, and transfer the suspense from the event itself to the torment of waiting, to delay satisfaction and amplify anxiety.

　　A lesson for vulgar hands

　　Transform ethical dilemma into spiritual experience

　　The "vulgar" in Go refers to mediocre deviants that seem reasonable but hidden dangers, and often sacrifice long-term interests due to short-sightedness. What is a vulgar player in "Chess"? Cui Ye planned a crime to save his seriously ill son, and wanted to compete with his brother in his heart. On the surface, it was a reasonable choice driven by fatherly love and respect, but in fact it was trapped in the double quagmire of morality and law, just like a vulgar player in Go who lost the overall situation to protect the local situation; or Xia Sheng was imprisoned by his brother's death, his father was hanged, and his girlfriend was unconscious. The flames of revenge continued to rise in his heart, causing him to step by step to an irreversible situation.

　　How do ethical dilemmas turn into perceived spiritual experiences? In episode 13, "The Chess" amplifies the mechanical sound of the money counting machine when Cui Ye borrows usury, which even makes people feel harsh. It forms a sound-pictorial contrast with his complex and entangled psychological tremor. The tearing feeling of choice dilemma thus obtains a concrete transformation at the auditory level. In the critical scene of Xia Sheng being killed in episode 19, the scene switches back and forth between "one ear" in the slow motion of picking up the hammer head and hitting Xia Sheng's skull with Xia Yu lying in the hospital waiting for treatment. What connects this same time and different space is the "Don't Cry, the One I Love the Most" played in Xia Yu's Walkman - "Don't Cry, the One I Love the Most, Tonight I'm Like a Bleeding Bloom, I'm Withering in the Most Beautiful Moment, Your Tears Withering Unable to Rescue..." The audience regretted that the two pure souls could not escape the teasing of fate, and also hoped that they would no longer miss each other in another parallel time and space, thus laying the emotional foundation for Xia Yu, who was crying on the train, who seemed to meet Xia Sheng, the open ending of the passenger police officer.

　　When we are in the same chess game in life, will we play a "good move" or become a prisoner of "vulgar hands"? "The Chess Master" uses Go as a prism to reflect this difficult problem in his life situation. In terms of narrative, "The Chess" uses "original hands" to realize the foundation of solidism, uses "wonderful hands" to break through the genre rude, and uses "vulgar hands" to question the ethical dilemma, and finally completes a paradigm innovation of a suspense drama. (Wang Mingjie)

[Editor in charge: Tang Wei]