Critical Thinking Best Movie Quotes – ‘Chess is the great equalizer.’

Starring: John Leguizamo, Michael K. Williams, Rachel Bay Jones, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Angel Bismark Curiel, Will Hochman, Corwin Tuggles, Jeffry Batista, Zora Casebere, Ramses Jimenez

OUR RATING: ★★★½

Story:

Bio-drama directed by John Leguizamo. Based on a true story which follows determined high school teacher, Mario Martinez (John Leguizamo), whose unwavering belief in his students sets in motion the rise of the Miami Jackson chess team from the city streets of 1998 Miami, to the spotlight as national champions.

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Our Favorite Quotes:

'I do not know how or when, but from a street I was summoned.' - Mario Martinez (Critical Thinking) Share on X 'The universe is like one huge street, full of things we can never explain. One day you're walking down, thinking the s**t you're in is never going to pass. And the next, it does.' - Sedrick Roundtree (Critical Thinking) Share on X 'We are born into things that we don't have to become.' - Sedrick Roundtree (Critical Thinking) Share on X

Best Quotes

Mario Martinez: Now, people, this is going to be very basic for some of you, but for the fish, or the newbies, as I like to call you, this is going to be eye opening, because what you’ve got is sixty-four squares, thirty-two pieces. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are, what Ivy League school you may go or you may not go to, what prison you hopefully never set foot in, because chess is the great equalizer.

[explaining chess to the students]
Mario Martinez: Okay, now in the opening, white always moves first. Now, I wonder what old white guy thought of that rule, right? I know you hear me. So, white has multiple openings, depending on his opponent’s strength. Then black is going to counter with a choice of defenses, and then you’re off to the races, my friends.

Mario Martinez: My class is not detention, Miss Kestel.
Principal Kestel: No?
Mario Martinez: No. No, I’m running a legitimate elective here, okay? These kids have real potential.

Principal Kestel: As long as their ranking, and our GR goes up, you can have them playing marbles for all I care. And I got you this elective. So, if I need a babysitter because some kid is messing with another kid’s chances of actually graduating, I expect you’ll accommodate me.
Mario Martinez: I do. I do. I got your back. I do.

Principal Kestel: And as attendance has been your one area of true greatness, I’d suggest you focus more on the fact that it’s dipped this past month.
Mario Martinez: Well, a student was deported. I’m sorry, but Immigration has a way of messing with attendance numbers.
Principal Kestel: Just keep the bodies in the seats.
Mario Martinez: Well, look, if you hired me just to fill up bilingual quota, you’re underestimating me, okay? And more importantly, them.
[Kestel turns and starts walking away]
Principal Kestel: Just keep the bodies in the seats.
Mario Martinez: You know, I’m a good teacher. I am a good teacher.

Mario Martinez: You’re going to start a fight, you’re going to put a beat down on your classmate because he won’t pick up your queen? Come on, Ito, man. Come on, think it through, buddy. Think it through, okay? Best case scenario, he picks it up for you. Worst case scenario, he gets a black eye, and he picks a vendetta against you for the rest of your life, man. And the rest is consequences, okay? Like chess, a game of consequences. How about that, huh? Come on, Ito, Overtown is not a place you want to bring out consequences, buddy. You’re a smart kid.

[after one of his students was shot]
Principal Kestel: It’s like a war out there.
Mario Martinez: Yeah. Except this was a kid just walking home from school.
Principal Kestel: We’ll have counselling available for your students if requested.
Mario Martinez: Well, thank you. Thank you for that.
Principal Kestel: I will say, well, unfortunately, it’s not a total shock anymore.

Mario Martinez: Hey, do you guys know about Pablo Neruda?
Cornelia: Um, from Family Matters?
Mario Martinez: No. No, no. That’s Urkel. And how I know that’s what you meant is beyond me.

Mario Martinez: Every time a young person is killed around here, it makes me think of the words of Mr. Neruda, who wrote, “I do not know how or when, but from a street, I was summoned.” And, I don’t know. I think the poem is about, you know, being liberated, and just breaking loose, and finding that thing, you know. And now, there’s so many times I think about it with its relation to the violence around here. I don’t know, but it helps me.

Mario Martinez: Alright, people, listen up. Listen up. We got a tournament coming up in a couple of days. We need four players to qualify. So we need to start really considering if we’re serious about what we’re doing here or not.
Sedrick Roundtree: We’re serious, Mr. T.
Mario Martinez: Then we start by showing up.

Sedrick Roundtree: Listen, I was thinking maybe I could go talk to Gil about coming back to the class.
Mario Martinez: You mean the guy who quit when you punched him in the face after he stepped on your brand new sneakers. You mean that guy?
Sedrick Roundtree: Yeah. I was still going to ask him anyway.
Mario Martinez: Go give it a shot, Mr. Roundtree. Good luck with that.
Sedrick Roundtree: I’ll let you know how it goes. Later, hater.

[after Sedrick apologizes to Gil, referring to his sneakers]
Gil Luna: It’s not like they were Jordans.
Sedrick Roundtree: [chuckles] Yoh, Nike Air’s moving up tempo and s**t. Watch.

Sedrick Roundtree: Look, we need you back. I’m serious, man. Look, me, you, Ro, Ito, we can be something special. All four of us, that’s a team.
Gil Luna: Alright. But can you not punch me, please?
Sedrick Roundtree: Promise. It won’t happen again.

[after Gil wins his chess game he starts rapping]
Gil Luna: Man, I’m back on the scene, if you know what I mean. And I can show you how to mate with just a king and a queen.

Mario Martinez: Alright, class. Today, we’re going to look at the most beautiful game in chess history, and it is called the opera game. Authored by Paul Morphy. Now, Morphy was an American, born in New Orleans in the 1800s, who once said…
[he puts on a wig and points to the picture of Morphy]
Mario Martinez: Hey, we’re twins. We’re twins. Who said, “If the chess board superseded the poker table, then all Americans morals would change like that.” And Paul Morphy played this game in 1858 in a real opera, watching a real opera, against two opponents, a duke and a count.

[referring to the Philidor Defense]
Sedrick Roundtree: Who the hell is that?
Mario Martinez: “Who the hell is that?”
Sedrick Roundtree: Yeah. Who the hell is that?
Mario Martinez: Only one of the greatest French creators of modern chess, who said, “I like the pawn because the pawn is the soul of chess.”

[as he’s explaining Morphy’s opera game]
Ito Paniagua: That was a killer move, no doubt, but I just feel like Morphy was more of like a finesse player. You feel me?
Mario Martinez: That’s right. That’s right. Man, that’s right. Because he was an artist. Morphy was an artist, not a butcher. He was more interested in development than he was in material gain.

Mario Martinez: So, you see, Morphy sacrificed all his pieces, and still won against a whole entire army, because material advantage is not everything, people, and certainly not in chess.

Mario Martinez: This is that whole thing I keep telling you guys about history. That thing in history, man.
Sedrick Roundtree: Written by winners.
Mario Martinez: Or the people with the means.
Rodelay Medina: Oh, snap. Mr. T about to drop some vitamin K, huh?
Mario Martinez: Oh, you best believe. Because, you know, there was this great Latin chess player, Raul Capablanca, known to be the greatest chess player by all chess players. And yet, how come we don’t know about him? How come we know that chess was invented in India, perfected in Persia, but not know that it was modernized by a Spanish guy named Maura?

Mario Martinez: But I’m going to ask you. I’m going to ask you that whenever you don’t see a familiar image that you feel like you can relate to, and whatever it is that you’re moved by, that you dig deeper than your dusty, old Britannica Encyclopedia.
Sedrick Roundtree: Word, Mr. T. For real.
Mario Martinez: Because we, people of color, have been everywhere since time immemorial. And if you pick up one of these bad boys, and you open it up, and you don’t recognize yourself, I hope you realize that this was their oversight, that this was their mistake to paint you out.

Principal Kestel: The board’s rejected our bid to pay for the Regionals.
Mario Martinez: Our bid?
Principal Kestel: Your bid.
Mario Martinez: So the board is fine spending four hundred dollars on footballs, but not with sending kids on a road trip to improve their minds? Right? It’s not a question. I just wanted to hear it out loud, that’s all.

Mario Martinez: I mean, kids like this, from places like Dade County, don’t ever make it to team Regionals.
Principal Kestel: Then it shouldn’t be too hard for them to swallow.
Mario Martinez: Really? Really? What the f***’s the matter with you, huh? You know, one of these days something’s going to happen that’s going to make me feel like maybe I don’t need this bulls**t job. And you know what? That day is going to really suck for you, okay?
Principal Kestel: Is that a threat, Mario?
Mario Martinez: No. No, it’s not.

Principal Kestel: You could start a drive. I see kids outside the supermarket doing this sort of thing all the time.
Mario Martinez: Wait. Wait. You’re serious? You’re serious? I mean, these kids just had a deported player, another kid murdered this semester, and you’re giving them f***ing chocolates?
Principal Kestel: This is what I have.
Mario Martinez: Well, fine. You know what? Give up on them. Let their parents give up on them. Let the whole system give up on them. But you know what? I sure as s**t ain’t, okay? Aren’t.

Principal Kestel: You’re done?
Mario Martinez: Not with them.
Principal Kestel: Good. Then don’t be. Because once that fire goes out, it never comes back.

Rodelay Medina: I’m sorry, but nobody is going to buy chocolates from a bunch of hood rats.
Mario Martinez: I’d buy it from a hood rat like you. I mean, look at your pathetic little face. I’d buy a ton off of you.

[after they got caught selling chocolate cookies laced with pot]
Mario Martinez: You were dealing drugs. Are you f***ing kidding me? Huh? That’s my boss. She’s not just your principal, but obviously, you don’t care.
Rodelay Medina: We didn’t say that.
Mario Martinez: But that’s exactly what you said when you went out like that.
Sedrick Roundtree: I mean, you know, in fairness, all there was, was some cookies, and your chocolate, and a little bit of pot.

Mario Martinez: Listen to me, okay? There is a rainbow of colors at this table, myself included, that need no help having the police come knocking at our doors. You hear me?
Ito Paniagua: First of all, it was just weed, alright?
Mario Martinez: It’s an illegal substance that could get you a lot of serious jailtime, my friend.
Man at Diner: Yoh! You need to shut the f*** up already.
Mario Martinez: That’s what you want? Is that what you want, guys? You want to end up like that poor sucker that nobody gave a half s**t to set his a** straight? Huh? Tell me. Tell me. Tell me, because I’ll just stop wasting my time on you.
Sedrick Roundtree: We’re sorry. We messed up.

[as he’s driving the boys to the tournament]
Mario Martinez: Guys, I just want you to know, when you play an official tournament, there’s not going to be any communicating with each other. No talking to your coach during the game. So, there’s no verbal, no signals, no nods. Nada. You hear me? Especially no physical contact with your opponent.
Ito Paniagua: Got it. Alright. What about incidental contact?
Mario Martinez: I didn’t say anything about incidental. I don’t even know what that would be. You’re just trying to use big words.
Gil Luna: Yeah, you are. Yeah.
Ito Paniagua: If I was trying to use big words, I would say it was putrescent back here.

Snooty Man: The matches are over there. And the minute that you lose, you leave the tournament area. Tournament policy.
Mario Martinez: Not a problem. And we won’t be losing.
Snooty Man: I can see this is your first time.

[as the boys are about to play in the chess tournament]
Mario Martinez: Look, if you’re feeling uncomfortable, just remember, that your mind can be your weapon.

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[as both Rodeplay and Gil win their games]
Chess Player: And now, we have a team of grafters to deal with.
Gil Luna: Yeah, but how many ghost tournaments did your dad pad your ratings with? Because I looked up those tournaments, and they don’t exist. Let’s hope you don’t get disqualified. Take care.

[holding up their trophy]
Rodelay Medina: Watch out, world, we’re coming for you. Radioactive style.

Sedrick Roundtree: Draw is for people who are too weak to go for it. You got to control your own world, Mr. T.
Mario Martinez: Woh! Where did you hear that from?
Sedrick Roundtree: It’s something my pops would say.
Mario Martinez: Look, I don’t want to contradict your dad, or anything, but I think draws can be underrated. Because, for one thing, they guarantee you don’t lose.

Sedrick Roundtree: I just want you to know I hear you. All your inspirational moments and stuff? Corny as s**t for sure, but I appreciate where you’re coming from.
Mario Martinez: Don’t tell me you’re getting all sensitivo on me now.
Sedrick Roundtree: No. Inspired, maybe. I mean, it’s the dumb s**t you say sometimes.
Mario Martinez: The dumb s**t?

Sedrick Roundtree: When you’re younger, everybody feels bad, even the cops. Eighteen now, people are not sure what to make of you anymore. They forgot you got frozen back there. So, you find something you’re good at, work hard at it, take back your universe, and say, “F*** you, universe.”

Mario Martinez: I lost my son about five years and two months ago. John Wayne Martinez was his name.
Sedrick Roundtree: “John Wayne”, for real? You’re really on to this American dream.
Mario Martinez: No. No. It was much more than a dream. Well, at least he was anyway.

Mario Martinez: The universe is too big and hard to control sometimes.
Sedrick Roundtree: From a street they were summoned.
Mario Martinez: Look at you. Look at you, quoting poetry and everything.
Sedrick Roundtree: I pay attention.

Mr. Roundtree: So you come in here bragging because you broke even, and what, won a trophy? You know who won the Heisman? Huh? Charlie Ward.
Sedrick Roundtree: Who’s that?
Mr. Roundtree: Exactly. I mean, at least you can hang damp clothes on an old workout bench, right? But a trophy? S**t.

Mr. Roundtree: Boy, don’t come into this house with that goddamn Oprah bulls**t. It’s about intimidation, alright? Play to win. Everything else is bulls**t!
Sedrick Roundtree: Alright. So, let’s play. For all the sodas in the fridge.
Mr. Roundtree: Boy, sit your a** down. And you put no soda in the fridge. I put the damn soda.

[referring to the new students in his class]
Mario Martinez: Look at all the new fish here. I guess you guys like chess, huh? Who would’ve thunk?

[after Martinez tells them the school can’t fund them for the next tournament]
Mario Martinez: Come on, guys. Champions adjust, okay? We don’t give away our power and we move on. We just move on.
Sedrick Roundtree: Now that’s bulls**t, Mr. T.
Mario Martinez: Is it?
Gil Luna: Mr. T, no one cares.
Rodelay Medina: And, you know what, this self-help is getting real tired, and you know it.
Mario Martinez: Okay, alright. You’re right. You’re right. The self-help is done. So, you know what, you take matters into your own hands. Find a way to bridge that gap with the cash, because I am totally out of funds. I’m out. Seriously. So, good luck. Keep it legal, please. And find a way.

[after arguing with his dad, Chanayah finds Sedrick sleeping on the roof]
Sedrick Roundtree: It’s like, when you’re a kid, you want to do something great. And then you’re just hoping for a job just so you can be like everybody else. My mom used to always tell me to be done with this place. Put it behind me. Make something of myself. That’s what I’m going to do.

[being interviewed by a news reporter
Rodelay Medina: We’re here to raise one thousand three hundred dollars to offset our cheap public school system that’s a little broke.
News Reporter: Oh, so you’re funding this yourselves?
Rodelay Medina: Like I said, we were hoping our Principal Kestel, at Miami Jackson…
Mario Martinez: So much for our low profile.
Rodelay Medina: We were hoping she was going to hook us up and get some school funding, but I don’t know. She probably needs like a fresh new pair of rims or something.

[referring to the news reporter]
Mario Martinez: What did you just say?
Rodelay Medina: I told them you’re a great human being.
Mario Martinez: Oh, you’re such a liar.

[referring to Marcel]
Sedrick Roundtree: Mr. Martinez, this is the guy who rode Rodelay’s butt at Domino Park.
Mario Martinez: Looks to me like he got his own buttt whipped.
Sedrick Roundtree: No offence, Ro, but it was a masteration.
Rodelay Medina: Yoh, it’s not a thing, because my game was off.
Mario Martinez: You got masterated.
Gil Luna: I don’t know what that means.
Mario Martinez: Exactly. Nobody does.

[after Marcel beats Martinez, Rodeplay, Sedrick and Gil at chess simultaneously]
Mario Martinez: I’m going to call you Marcel Duchamp, because he was a great painter, and your stroke is genius, little papoo.

[referring to Ito]
Principal Kestel: Those detectives came by to see him yesterday. They said if he’s not in their station house on Saturday, they’d issue a warrant for his arrest.
Mario Martinez: Yeah, but the tournament is Saturday. If he misses it, we’re going to be out. We’ll have to freaking forfeit.
Principal Kestel: That’s why I told them, if they came within a football field of screwing up our tournament, I’d ruin their f***ing lives faster than they could say “Policemen’s Ball”. Pardon my French.

[referring to the kids car wash fundraisher which was covered by the local news]
Principal Kestel: I didn’t see it. But an official at a major airline did. They’ve offered to sponsor your flights to Nationals if you win State.
Mario Martinez: Wait, wait. You’re serious? Corporate America actually gives a goddamn about our kids?
Principal Kestel: Apparently so. And I can’t help but be impressed myself.
Mario Martinez: Okay. Thank you.
Principal Kestel: You’re a decent teacher, Mario, is what you are.

Mario Martinez: I just don’t want you throwing away all your potential on that stupid gamble, okay? I know you think I’m corny. I know. But behind this square guy, is somebody who hit rock bottom several times, man. I just want you to know it’s a tough climb, but it can be done. So when you talk to these cops, I hope you do the right thing. Otherwise, you’re going
to be f***ed.
Ito Paniagua: Mr. T, I’m f***ed if I do, and I’m f***ed it I don’t.
Mario Martinez: Oh, no. No. You’re f***ed if you don’t. You understand? You’re Zugzwanged. Stuck between two bad moves.
Ito Paniagua: And there’s always a move, right, Mr. T?
Mario Martinez: Until there’s not.

[referring to the Florida State Championship]
Mario Martinez: This is a marathon. Every half point and point matters. Choices and consequences, man. And when life gives you a s**t sandwich, don’t say, “Why me?” Say, “Try me!”

[after they win the state championship]
Mario Martinez: Hey, guys. Look, I know hugs are kind of lame in the hood. I know. But in the real world, they’re kind of nice. So, come on, what do you say? Can you humor me, please?

[as they’re huddling together]
Mario Martinez: We want to thank our higher power for not only making us the first team from day to rank, but the first team from Miami to ever be State Champions. And, oh, yeah. I almost forgot. We want to thank our higher power for getting us sponsors who are donating six round trip tickets to sunny Los Angeles, California for the Nationals!

Ito Paniagua: [to Sedrick] Yeah, so I’m going to be straight with you, just because of the love I got for you and everybody else. I think this moment right here is the happiest I ever been in my life.

[as Ito decides to go back to work for Andre]
Ito Paniagua: Look, man, I’m just trying to do my King’s Gambit in real life. Get in, get out. Real quick. Just for the temporary, alright?
Sedrick Roundtree: Temporary.
Ito Paniagua: Yeah.
Sedrick Roundtree: Ito, you’re my brother. But this is a mistake. You know it.
Ito Paniagua: Maybe so. But it’s mine to make.

[as arrive at the US National Chess Championship in LA]
Rodelay Medina: Now let me welcome everybody to super Cali swagilistic sexy ella dopeness.

Mario Martinez: So hold your head up high, and take in a deep breath, because you already got the knowledge, and the moves, and the strategy. Now it’s just about that thing. That intangible, that part of you that you bring to the game. Like Roddy, that class clown that’s always covering up that intelligent thoughtful guy, that the teachers and parents always complain about. Gil, that guy that never really fit in, but f***ing he’s here, man. And Duchamp, those impeccable manners, and that handshake, odd as it may seem, I know your daddy instilled it in you. The need to rise above. Then there’s Sedrick. Against all odds, Buster Douglas, February 11, 1990 round m*therf***ing ten, Roundtree. Okay, guys. So just bring you to this game. And I promise you, I promise you these kids are in for something they’ve never seen. Okay? So now we just got to use that thing.

[after they win the national championship]
Sedrick Roundtree: My father was the one who gave me my first chessboard. But I remember, it was my mom who used to say, “The universe is like one huge street, full of things we can never explain. One day you’re walking down thinking the s**t you’re in is never going to pass. And the next, it does.” I remember, she would say, “We are born into things that we don’t have to become.” But I believe this is something, we here, are born to become. From the streets we were summoned.

[mid-credits lines; we se the real life Marcel, Gil, Ito and Martinez]
Marcel Martinez: I know for a fact that in my daily life, I see the impact of chess, one way or another. And sometimes I do earn a lot of money, but then I realize why I did it, and I know that it has to do with that. There’s no doubt.

Gil Luna: It’s a special type of bond. Most of my chess friends have been my friends for life, so.

Ito Paniagua: I think that I showed people in my neighborhood, in the projects, that there’s another way to get out than selling drugs or football. To us, that was the only way to get out. That was it. To me, I showed them a different way to get out.

Mario Martinez: I enjoyed seeing the drive that they all had. So I had to make sure that they all had the tools, things they needed, because I knew what it would take to get them from the level they were at, to the level they needed to go.

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