Chess - The super villain who wears contact lenses with chess pieces on them!

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

British actor James Frain as 'Chess' with knights in his eyes.

Hello Everyone,

This is cute and crazy - A super villain called 'Chess'. The billionaire by day, psychotic killer by night wears contact lenses that have chess pieces on them. The new NBC series premieres on Sunday and is called 'The Cape'. British actor James Frain says, "It’s a sophisticated idea of someone who doesn’t have superpowers but has a very focused strategy. Chess, who is a master strategist and manipulator and, like a grandmaster, is continually searching for his next great opponent."

Frain’s character and his machinations are the starting point of the show’s new superhero mythology — it’s Chess who plots to frame police detective Vince Faraday (played by Aussie actor David Lyons) as a murderer, leading to the cop’s disgrace, “death” and decision to become the mysterious vigilante known as the Cape. The Cape has (you guessed it) a memorable and multi-functional cape while Chess wears a body-suit costume as well as some creepy contact lenses with pupils shaped like chess pieces. Frain got a kick out of the reaction his look got from cast and crew on the set.

“It looks reptilian and people kind of freak out,” Frain said with amusement. “And that gave me a sense, something to play off; because [Chess] is a manipulator, he gets his information from how people respond to him. I learned that from the costume, basically.

We have sort of been developing it as we go along. It’s sort of an ongoing process, finding what works, finding what is interesting to form this character.”

You can read more about the series and other aspects here.

Two videos to watch. Catch the 'chess' contact lens!





From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com