Chess takes five minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. It is an exercise is strategically thinking ahead, anticipating your opponent's moves, and focusing on the ultimate goal instead of short-term gains. It's a metaphor for almost any conflict, and is sometimes used masterfully to reflect a movie plot right inside that movie. Or, if you want too look at the simple side, it's a way to explain how one character is smarter than another. Check out some films that used chess to further the exposition or plot in a video list at TVOM.
Another is the chess match in 2001: A Space Odyssey, where HAL won against Frank Poole. Famously HAL also made two mistakes, and it's believed that this is foreshadowing by Kubrick.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)