The Untouchables
The Chess Game
TV Flash files “The Chess Game” as hour 91 of 118 in the TV Flash guide — The Untouchables (1959–1963) on ABC, season 4, episode 3, aired 1962-10-09, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E03: listed hour 91 of 118 in the The Untouchables guide, hour 3 of 30 in season 4. It aired 1962-10-09 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Cooker in the Sky” (S04E02). Next is “The Economist” (S04E04).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Having had major successes in eliminating the illegal trade in champagne, Eliot Ness and the Untouchables suddenly find that the expensive wine is finding its way onto the market again. During one raid, they find that a couple of the bottles are frozen solid and Ness speculates that they may have been shipped in a refrigerated car. They trace the illegal shipment to Ira Bauer, a blind fish and seafood wholesaler. For Bauer, his lack sight is anything but an impediment. He particularly likes to play chess as a way of keeping his mind sharp.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Chess Game sit in the The Untouchables guide?
S04E03 is listed hour 91 of 118 — hour 3 of 30 in season 4, season 4 episode 3.
When did The Untouchables S04E03 air?
The Chess Game aired 1962-10-09 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with Stack's Ness and Winchell's newsreel bark in early Chicago-raid form. The granite stare and the tommy-gun morality are the brief.
In the series
Why this series still plays
The Untouchables is Eliot Ness versus Capone's Chicago: Robert Stack's granite stare, Walter Winchell's newsreel bark, Desilu muscle, machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Watch it in 2026 as violent prestige crime that pushed 1950s network boundaries — raids as spectacle, and a national argument about blood and stereotype.
The work is a raid with newsreel grammar. ABC's *The Untouchables* (1959–1963) makes Robert Stack's granite stare into crime-drama law: 118 episodes, four seasons, Eliot Ness and an incorruptible squad, Walter Winchell's rat-a-tat narration, Desilu production gloss, machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Loosely inspired by Ness's Prohibition-era memoir. Quinn Martin's later crime empire would refine the procedural; this was the loud opening statement. Justice came in fedoras and final shootouts.
Filed against
- Robert Stack as Eliot Ness
Robert Stack’s Eliot Ness granite-stared through The Untouchables — Capone’s Chicago, Walter Winchell’s newsreel bark, machine-gun morality in sharp suits — then put on Unsolved Mysteries’ trench coat until the theme song became a…
- Nicholas Georgiade as Agent Rossi
Nicholas Georgiade’s Agent Rossi rode The Untouchables’ machine-gun morality in a sharp suit — 1950s Eliot Ness versus Capone’s Chicago, Robert Stack’s granite stare, Walter Winchell’s newsreel bark, Desilu muscle. TV Flash files him as…
- Paul Picerni as Agent Youngfellow
Paul Picerni played Agent Youngfellow on The Untouchables, 1950s Eliot Ness versus Capone’s Chicago — Robert Stack’s granite stare, Walter Winchell’s newsreel bark, Desilu muscle, machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Violent prestige…
- Bruce Gordon as Frank Nitti
Bruce Gordon played Frank Nitti on The Untouchables — Capone muscle opposite Robert Stack's granite Eliot Ness, Walter Winchell's newsreel bark, Desilu machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Violent prestige crime that pushed 1950s network…