By Prologue: by Ace
We open with a tense chess match at the World Junior Chess Championship in Moscow (2015). Ace The camera moves between two identical twins seated at the board — Arjun and Aarav Verma. The timer ticks down as Aarav, the younger twin by five minutes, makes a critical mistake. The game ends. A shadowy figure whispers something to Aarav. That night, he’s found dead… or so it seemed.
Smash cut to the present: Arjun wakes up from a nightmare, drenched in sweat, staring at a board still set in the same position as that fatal game.
Act 1 – Opening Gambit
Arjun now teaches at a government school in Mumbai. He lives in isolation, keeping his mind distracted with equations and old chess puzzles. His students adore him, unaware of his past. He never plays the game anymore.
The peace is broken when a fellow teacher is killed in an “accident.” Arjun finds a chess piece on his desk the next day — a black knight — and a move: “c5.” Later that evening, the news reports a politician’s murder at a chess café — with the pieces arranged in a textbook Sicilian Defense.
ACP Mira Rao, who lost her husband to an unsolved case tied to international gambling, suspects something more sinister. Surveillance footage shows a hooded figure playing games with real people’s lives. She approaches Arjun for insight. He refuses at first… until his old coach is killed — sacrificed like a pawn.
Act 2 – Midgame Mayhem
As Arjun joins the investigation, the killer seems to always stay one move ahead. Murders mirror historic chess sacrifices — The Greek Gift, The Poisoned Pawn, Smothered Mate. Victims are often left in poses mimicking pieces — a bishop in robes, a queen in red, a knight in armor. Symbolism intensifies.
With every move, Arjun is psychologically dragged deeper into his past. He starts hallucinating conversations with Aarav, questioning his own sanity. We flash back to their childhood — growing up in Hyderabad, trained by a strict father and Master Raghavan, always under pressure to win.
Through Mira’s investigation, they uncover The Syndicate, an underground criminal ring that fixes matches, launders money through chess betting, and even eliminates players who refuse to comply. Aarav had tried to expose them — and Arjun did nothing. That guilt, that silence, still haunts him.
Mira confides in Arjun: her husband was an undercover agent tracking the Syndicate. His last communication was about “The Ace Protocol” — a secret plan tied to chess analytics and AI used to predict crimes before they happen. But he died mysteriously.
As Mira and Arjun grow closer, they decode the killer’s message: he’s not just copying old matches — he’s replaying Aarav’s last tournament in real-time. The final sequence points toward Endgame Syndrome — where players simulate their own defeat as an act of self-destruction.
Act 3 – The Endgame
The final murders are devastating — a chess prodigy poisoned during a livestream, a rival player found hanged with a “rook” carved into his chest. Panic spreads.
Then, Mira is taken.
The final note to Arjun reads:
“No draws. Only checkmate. Come alone — where it all began.”
Arjun returns to the abandoned Raghavan Chess Academy, which is rigged with pressure plates, fire traps, and electric tiles — a deadly, life-sized chessboard. Standing at the far end: the masked killer — The Grandmaster.
He removes the mask: Aarav.
But Aarav is not the villain. He explains everything — how he survived the attack, faked his death with the help of a rogue Syndicate member, and spent years plotting vengeance not just on the system, but on Arjun for staying silent. His trauma turned into obsession.
He’s created a final test: Arjun must play a game with him — every wrong move will endanger Mira. Each piece removed triggers a life-threatening trap. Aarav believes this game will finally settle who the real “Ace” is.
Climax:
The game unfolds with cinematic intensity. Arjun starts out shaky but regains form, realizing Aarav has left him a subtle out — a chess puzzle buried in their childhood notebooks. Using a quiet move and a brilliant underpromotion to a knight, Arjun turns the game.
Mira is freed. Aarav, sobbing, begs Arjun to end it. But Arjun refuses. He embraces Aarav.
Police arrive. Aarav is taken into custody, but instead of resistance, he says:
“It’s your move now, brother.”
Logline:
An ex-chess prodigy turned reclusive math teacher is drawn into a deadly game of strategy and survival when a mysterious criminal mastermind starts leaving behind puzzles and murders based on grandmaster-level chess moves — forcing him to play or perish.
Plot Summary :
Act 1 – The Opening Gambit
In the bustling metropolis of Mumbai, Arjun Verma, once hailed as India’s youngest international chess master, now leads a quiet, unassuming life as a high school mathematics teacher. Arjun walked away from the world of competitive chess a decade ago following the mysterious death of his twin brother, Aarav, during an international tournament in Russia — a tragedy that shattered his confidence and spirit.
Haunted by guilt and the weight of expectation, Arjun has buried his past, choosing instead to live in quiet obscurity. But everything changes one rainy morning when a strange envelope is slipped under his apartment door. Inside: a vintage chess piece — a black knight — and a cryptic message:
“Welcome back, Ace. First move: c5. Your clock is ticking.”
That same day, news breaks that a local politician has been found dead under suspicious circumstances. At the crime scene? A chessboard arranged in the Sicilian Defense, with the same move: c5.
Arjun dismisses it as coincidence — until the next murder hits even closer to home: his former coach, Master Raghavan, is found dead, with a pawn in his mouth and a note that reads, “Sacrifices are necessary.”
Forced to confront the past he’s been running from, Arjun is approached by ACP Mira Rao, a tough, sharp-witted officer investigating the murders. She believes the killer is orchestrating a twisted game, using grandmaster-level chess strategies to plan each murder. Arjun, reluctant at first, eventually agrees to help when he realizes the killer may be connected to his brother’s death.
Act 2 – Midgame Mayhem
As more bodies drop — each accompanied by classic chess moves — Arjun and Mira begin decoding the pattern. Each victim represents a “piece” being removed from the board. The killer, who now goes by the alias “The Grandmaster”, is always a move ahead, taunting Arjun with riddles and flashbacks.
They discover a deeper connection: every victim had some involvement in the international chess tournament where Aarav died. Slowly, the killer’s motive becomes clearer — this is not just revenge. It’s a rematch. Arjun is being forced to replay the most traumatic tournament of his life — but this time, with real lives on the line.
Mira grows closer to Arjun, impressed by his intellect but worried about his mental health. Arjun begins to unravel under pressure, haunted by memories of his brother, feeling like he’s being watched. The killer’s messages become more personal, referencing childhood secrets and inside jokes only Aarav would know.
A shocking twist arises: Is Aarav really dead?
Arjun digs deeper and discovers evidence that suggests Aarav may have faked his death — or worse, been manipulated into helping the Grandmaster.
Meanwhile, public panic grows as the media starts dubbing the killer the “Chessboard Killer.” The police are under pressure, and Mira is almost suspended after a failed sting operation that results in another officer’s death — marked by the bishop being taken.
Act 3 – The Endgame
Arjun finally cracks the code — the killer’s moves mirror the exact strategy from his final match in Russia, the one Aarav lost moments before his alleged suicide. He realizes the next move targets a “queen” — and deduces that Mira is in danger.
He rushes to her home, only to find her kidnapped. A final note awaits:
“The board is set, Ace. Checkmate in four. Come to the place it all began.”
Arjun races to the now-abandoned chess academy where he and Aarav trained as boys. Inside, he finds a life-sized chessboard, Mira bound and placed on the “queen’s square”, and a masked figure waiting: The Grandmaster.
In a climactic reveal, the mask comes off — and it’s Aarav, very much alive.
Aarav survived, but was disillusioned by the corruption he saw in the international chess world. He was manipulated by a secret society of elite gamblers who rigged matches for profit. When Aarav refused to cooperate, they tried to kill him — but he faked his death and spent the last decade planning revenge on everyone involved, including those who stayed silent — like Arjun.
What started as revenge turned into obsession. Aarav believes that only by defeating Arjun in a final game — both literal and symbolic — can he expose the corruption and find peace.
Arjun pleads with Aarav to stop, but it’s too late. The final game begins.
On the giant chessboard, every move triggers deadly traps. Arjun is forced to think ten steps ahead, recalling his and Aarav’s childhood strategies. The game reaches its climax when Arjun sacrifices his “king” to save Mira, executing a brilliant underpromotion that stuns Aarav.
Emotionally overwhelmed, Aarav breaks down, realizing the game has consumed him.
Sirens wail in the background as Mira, having freed herself, signals the police. Aarav is arrested, but not before whispering to Arjun:
“You were always the real Ace. I just needed you to remember.”
Epilogue:
Months later, Arjun returns to teaching — but this time, also starts a chess academy in Aarav’s name, dedicated to ethical play and mental health in competitive sports. Mira visits occasionally, sharing updates about Aarav, who’s now in psychiatric care and cooperating to expose the global gambling network.
The movie ends with Arjun placing a white knight on a board — symbolic of new beginnings — and a new game beginning with a young student asking:
“Sir, can I beat you someday?”
Arjun smiles.
“If you learn to sacrifice the right pieces… maybe.”
Themes:
The cost of genius
Sibling rivalry and redemption
Mental health in competitive environments
Strategy vs morality
Revenge vs justice
