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The Most Dangerous Match is the seventh episode of the second season of Columbo and the sixteenth episode overall. It first aired on March 4, 1973 and was directed by Edward M. Abroms. In addition to Peter Falk as Columbo, the episode stars Laurence Harvey, Jack Kruschen and Lloyd Bochner.

In The Most Dangerous Match, a champion chess player panics and decides to kill his opponent on the eve of a high-profile game. The fact that his would-be victim survives the attempt on his life puts a wrinkle in his plans, and the grandmaster must now find a way to silence his now-comatose rival before he can wake up.

Cast[]

  • Laurence Harvey as Emmet Clayton, a partially deaf British Chess Grandmaster who's mental instability prompts him to murder his would-be opponent to save face after losing an impromptu warm-up game.
  • Jack Kruschen as Tomlin Dudek, Clayton's opponent in an upcoming match; he is an Eastern European chess champion (strongly implied to be Russian) and is an amiable, warm man. After he beats Clayton the night before the big game, Clayton pushes him into a recycling machine, only for the recycling machine to automatically shut off. Dudek survives but remains comatose until Clayton makes a second attempt on his life.
  • Lloyd Bochner as Mazoor Berozski, Dudek's accompanying coach.
  • Heidi Brühl as Linda Robinson, Clayton's former fianceé who now works with Dudek, like her mother did before her.
  • Paul Jenkins as Sergeant Douglas.
  • Michael Fox as Dr. Benson, Stuart Nisbet as Dr. Sullivan and Abigail Shelton as a nurse.
  • Michael Reitz as Anton, Dudek's physician.
  • Oscar Beregi as the propreitor of the restaurant where Clayton and Dudek have their impromptu chess match.
  • Richard Drout Miller, Manuel DePina, Mickey Golden and Hans Moebus all appear as reporters.
  • Regular Columbo contributor John Finnegan appears as the first worker doing maintenace on the recycling machine that Dudek fell into.
Columbo (season 2)
1."Étude in Black" 2."The Greenhouse Jungle" 3."The Most Crucial Game" 4."Dagger of the Mind" 5."Requiem for a Falling Star" 6."A Stitch in Crime" 7."The Most Dangerous Match" 8."Double Shock"
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