'Computer Chess' Coming to Music Box Sept. 27

Computer Chess is coming to Chicago next week! An official selection of the 2013 South by Southwest and Sundance film festivals, Computer Chess is "an artificially intelligent comedy" (not, repeat not, a documentary) about computer chess programmers, set in an Austin, Texas, hotel over one weekend in the 1980s during a tournament for chess software programmers. It's been rated 86 percent fresh by Rotten Tomatoes and received an A− from AV Club (which is notoriously stingy with its grades).

The movie opens at the Music Box Theater, 3733 N. Southport Ave., Chicago, next Friday, Sept. 27. And on Friday and Saturday of opening weekend, writer-director Andrew Bujalski, local stars Gordon Kindlmann and Anne Dodge, Chicago-born producer Alex Lipschultz and special guests will introduce and conduct post-show discussions. Ray Pride, film editor of Newcity, will facilitate the post-screening Q&As. Showtime is 7:15 PM.

Tickets are $9.25 . . . unless you visit the Chicago Chess Center Facebook page tomorrow and win a pair of free passes, good for any showing of Computer Chess, courtesy of the Music Box and the Chicago Chess Center. (The speedy Todd Freitag nabbed today's pair of passes before I even finished writing this post.)