Endgame

Plot Summary

• Endgame is an original drama series centering on brilliant chess master, Arkady Balagan. Traumatized by the murder of his fiancée, Balagan has become a prisoner in his luxury Vancouver hotel, terrified to step outside. To pay his bill, Balagan starts solving mysteries using an unlikely band of hotel employees and chess fanatics to do his legwork. Arrogant, brilliant and charismatic, the Russian-born Balagan uses the skills that made him chess champion of the world to solve the crimes that mystify others. He imagines events, interviews the living and the dead, and runs conflicting scenarios all in his head. And we get to watch right along with him as he solves crimes that baffle the police. In Endgame, we see genius at work.

Storyline

• "Endgame" is an original drama series centering on brilliant chess master Arkady Balagan. Traumatized by the murder of his fiancée, Balagan has become a prisoner in his luxury Vancouver hotel, terrified to step outside. To pay his bill, Balagan starts to solve mysteries, using an unlikely band of hotel employees and chess fanatics to do his legwork. Arrogant, brilliant, and charismatic, the Russian-born Balagan uses the skills that made him chess champion of the world to solve the crimes that mystify others. He imagines events, interviews the living and the dead, and runs conflicting scenarios--all in his head. Genius is at work as he solves crimes that baffle the police. — Avrum Jacobson Russian Arkady Balagan is a world-champion chess master and a brilliant but arrogant man. Witnessing his Canadian fiancée Rosemary Venturi's murder in Vancouver outside the Huxley Hotel where he was residing and competing in chess matches at the time, has upended his life. He is now unwilling or even unable to leave the hotel's comfort and safety. He is also unable to pay the mounting hotel bills he unabashedly racks up. He starts to use his sharp analytical skills to solve police cases for a fee to help pay those bills. But his newly-developed agoraphobia means that he needs to enlist the help of anyone around him, mostly groupies--and hotel staff, including those who are trying to get him to pay up or they will kick him out of the hotel, to do the actual legwork. Despite the urging of Rosemary's sister Pippa Venturi, the case that Arkady is unwilling to get involved in is Rosemary's death, either because he would rather wallow in self-pity, or he is just a self-absorbed narcissist. — Huggo