Millions of fans have been too excited to sleep for ages. On the thirteenth of July 2011 the absolute last Harry Potter movie will be released in cinemas. After that it will be over. Fortunately we will always have the books, DVD’s and the magic chess game to relive Harry’s adventures.
Gigantic magic chess pieces in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
It is the year 1990. The Manchester-London King’s Cross train is delayed for hours. Joanne Rowling decides to make use of the time and starts working on her idea for a book about a young magician student. She uses lots of elements from her own youth: she lived on the same street as Harry, he gets the surname of her old neighbors, Harry’s friend Hermione is a lot like Joanne herself and she also has her birthday on the 31st of July. In the years to follow, Rowling elaborates the story in seven volumes: one book for every year that Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The best of times, the worst of times
Life isn’t easy for Rowling. Her marriage to a Portuguese journalist ends and she moves back to England together with her daughter. Living in Edinburgh, her life as a single mother is hard for her. She relives the poverty of her childhood. On top of that, all the publishers return her manuscripts. She never gives up though, and eventually Bloomsbury Publishers is willing to take a chance on her fantasy novels. Her first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, is published in 1997 and the second and third parts follow in the years after that. By 1999, the novels are so popular that they make up the entire bestseller top 3 in Great Britain as well as the United States.
Films will soon follow up the books when Rowling sells the rights to Warner Bros. In 2001 the first part is released to cinemas and the movie is a huge hit. There is a total Harry Potter hype. All sorts of merchandise appear to satisfy the hunger for everything Harry Potter related. Warner Bros make millions and Rowling? In 2010, American Forbes Magazine estimates her wealth at one billion dollars. Not only does that make her twice as wealthy as the British Queen Elizabeth II, she is also England’s richest woman. Not bad for a poor girl with lots of imagination.
Harry beats the Magic chess game
Rowling’s great imagination is an important cause of the success of the Harry Potter novels. In these novels, a poor boy is raised in the loveless home of his uncle and aunt. His parents, both magicians, were murdered by their arch enemy, the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort. Harry doesn’t remember anything of this but on his eleventh birthday everything changes. He is invited to take classes at Hogwarts and there everything is explained to him. At the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry Harry meets his future best friends Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. In the seven years they go to school together they have the most exciting and terrifying adventures. In the first volume, chess is one of them…Harry and Ron do like a nice game of chess and this is very convenient when they have to play a life-and-death game of life size Magic chess. Luckily this adventure has a happy ending.
Harry Potter chess set
The king cries
There are various replicas of the movie’s Magic chess game on display at the museum. Every piece has a special talent. The rook can be moved with a so-called magic stick, the knight’s horse whinnies when moved and the bishop gets angry if he falls over. The king and queen are the most spectacular pieces. The queen will light up when you lift her and the king cries in case of checkmate. Who wants to take a shot?
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