Spectre: 12 Easter Eggs & James Bond References In The New Trailer

7. The Chess Game Call-Back

Since Spectre appears to be a series of references to SPECTRE's film past, it should be no surprise that one of its best scenes is revisited when Bond finds Mr White, dishevelled and in hiding, and interrogates him about his association with the nefarious organisation over a chess board. Bond of course has already faced off against a SPECTRE associate with a penchant for chess: in From Russia With Love SPECTRE's chief planning officer, Kronsteen (who looks unnervingly like chess fan Vladimir Putin) is introduced in a film about the organisation's quest for revenge. Here, it would seem Bond is the one on that particular path, but the tonal similarities are obvious. It would appear - given the layout of the pieces - that Mendes has steered clear of redoing Kronsteen's game exactly (and thus also the 1960 game that featured the infamous variation of the King's Gambit played by Boris Spassky against David Bronstein at the USSR Championship. Yeah, chess nerdery, what of it?) But the conversation about SPECTRE over a game of chess can hardly be an accidental call-back to From Russia With Love.