TL:DR Nobody at the shoot knew of any chess
I felt this episode was hurried in a way, that I haven't seen earlier from Mr.Robot. What struck me the most was the chess scenes. All of them. Our protagonist has gotten the rep of a 'pretty smart guy' so far, but completely fails to comprehend what signifies a good move in chess. The mistakes they made would be very obvious to a child even. The director may not have thought much of the game and tried to give the illusion of 'real' moves by cutting very fast. And besides that - the idea of stalemate with approx. half the pieces left on the board is ludicrous. Although three stalemates in a row is not.
I felt this episode was hurried in a way, that I haven't seen earlier from Mr.Robot. What struck me the most was the chess scenes. All of them. Our protagonist has gotten the rep of a 'pretty smart guy' so far, but completely fails to comprehend what signifies a good move in chess. The mistakes they made would be very obvious to a child even. The director may not have thought much of the game and tried to give the illusion of 'real' moves by cutting very fast. And besides that - the idea of stalemate with approx. half the pieces left on the board is ludicrous. Although three stalemates in a row is not.