Filmmaker Vikram Jayanti’s documentary about the royal sport of chaturanga is coming to the U.S. Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine covers the famous chess match between Garry Kasparov vs. IBM’s famed supercomputer.

The film hints darkly at human-machine collusion in Deep Blue’s win. The filmmaker expands on his conspiracy theory:

IBM hit the jackpot. Their share value went up and up. And it strikes me that someone in the corporation had a brilliant idea that if they could beat Kasparov, people would think that IBM were in the frontline of computing. IBM was seen as a dinosaur before this match. No one saw them as an innovator. They’re still using Deep Blue in their advertising.

He sees Kasparov as a giant betrayed:

I’ve watched him play inferior players. He just wants to get it over with. I mean, when you’re that good at chess you want a good opponent. And I suspect his fantasy was that a computer would give him that… In terms of walking naively into the lions den, I think he thought there was a chance to make some money and to do something of scientific interest.

Jayanti throws in some puffery about the sport of chess, which apparently is as physically bad-ass as badminton claims to be:

I wanted it to be a combat film. One of the first things Garry said to me was, “Chess is a contact sport.” You know he’s very physically fit. And I asked him why he has to work out so much, and he told me that you had to be very fit in order to play.

Game Over uses a famous hoax robot, The Turk, as a metaphor:

It was the chess computer Deep Blue of its time, a turban-wearing automaton that defeated all comers… Charles Babbage, the godfather of the computer, played two games against the Turk… At performances, Kempelen would open the doors and cubbyholes in the platform underneath the chessboard, revealing a latticework of gears and machinery, then challenge audience members to play the Turk. Almost all were defeated… he took it to royal courts all over Europe… At one point, Maelzel met up with the up-and-coming P.T. Barnum and told him, “I see that you understand the value of the press…”

It wasn’t until 1857 — three years after the Turk had been destroyed in a fire — that the son of the machine’s final owner revealed its secret: an expert chess player hiding in its cleverly adjustable innards.

Reviews of the film are mixed:

Game Over piles on hokey paranoid-thriller trimmings–whispered voice-over, noirishly low camera angles… Kasparov’s case is less than persuasive, but there’s an undeniable poignancy to his wounded conviction…

Jayanti’s previous work includes the Oscar-winning When We Were Kings, a flick about Mohammed Ali and the Rumble in the Jungle; The Man Who Bought Mustique; and Feast of Death.

Check out the trailer.