History Main / SmartPeoplePlayChess

* UsefulNotes/AlvaroDeBazan, a 16th century Spanish admiral that should easily make top 10 of the best naval commanders in history, reportedly loved chess, to the point it's claimed this is the reason he used a chessboard-looking family crest.

* In an issue of the '70s version of ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'', Timber Wolf (the team's feral member) is seen playing a game of chess. He loses, and he complains he was just about to use his secret tactic: ''kicking over the table!''

** In a related vein, one issue of ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers Mighty Avengers]]'' shows Herc's TeenGenius ally Amadeus Cho -- described as the 7th smartest person in the world (Herc fans suspect Cho might deserve a higher ranking) -- defeating [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot The Vision]] at chess.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' fanfic ''FanFic/LongRoadToFriendship'' features two chess matches between Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, the two smartest girls in their class. The first time, Twilight [[KnowWhenToFoldEm knows she's beaten]] and concedes, which enrages Sunset, who wanted to soundly beat Twilight. The second time, Twilight wins, though that's only because Flash Sentry is distracting Sunset.

* In Fanfic/TomRiddlesSchooldays, Tom establishes his intellectual dominance on the train to Hogwarts by winning a chess match against Archibald Aardwolf with a SurpriseCheckMate.

* ''FanFic/ThisBites'': Zig-zagged. Vice Admiral Jonathan and Robin both play chess and play well, but Cross admits to being a beginner at best. [[ConfusionFu There's too many rules for him]].

* ''Series/TeenWolf'': Stiles, the pack's resident [[{{TheSmartGuy}} researcher and strategist]], plays chess with his Dad and even uses it as a metaphor to explain the supernatural world. [[spoiler:When he's possessed by the nogitsune - a Japanese Fox Spirit - it's revealed the spirit keeps him trapped in his own mind by keeping him playing an endless game of ''TabletopGame/{{Go}}''.]]

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' episode "[[Recap/CheersS5E15 Spellbound]]". Frasier the egghead plays resident numbskull Woody at chess, and Woody beats him every time. Frasier suggests that he is an ''idiot savant'' (although Woody does not know what that means).

* Non-chess example in ''Series/OnePiece2023''. Vice-Admiral Garp, whose ditziness in the manga is framed as him being BrilliantButLazy, enjoys playing ''TabletopGame/{{Go}}'', but he's not very good at it.

* In ''Film/{{Napoleon}}'', the title character and Hoche--both military strategists--play a game at the Victims' Ball. Napoleon wins.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'', Bandit spends the episode "Chest" trying to teach Bluey to play chess [[InvokedTrope for precisely this reason]]. Unfortunately for him, Bluey and Bingo are still too young to really grasp the rules and instead turn the lesson into another one of their make-believe games, being easily distracted by the elaborate chess pieces. Chilli eventually takes over the game to teach Bandit how it's more important for them to raise their daughters to be good people rather than just focusing on making them smarter.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', Cyborg and Raven, generally portrayed as the two smartest team members, are shown playing chess with each other.

** ''Literature/MyEnemyMyAlly'', by Creator/DianeDuane, introduces the idea of ''four-dimensional'' chess. The board is cube-shaped (the pieces are controlled by a special transporter system to keep them from falling off) and players can remove a piece entirely to use it later. They may later change when a piece reappears, although every time a player does that, the other player gets to make an extra move. At the beginning of the book, Kirk is about to lose to Spock. Bones takes over for Kirk and beats Spock. Kirk was in a bad way because he tried one of his "scream-and-leap" offensives, which occasionally succeeds in rattling Spock with its sheer bloody-minded enthusiasm, but Spock wasn't falling for it this time. Kirk is smart, but unless he can nab a psychological advantage over Spock early in the game, he'll lose more often than not. But the real crowner here goes to the Romulan Commander Ael t'Rllaillieu, who soundly beats [=McCoy=] at a round of [=4D=] chess. . . ''minutes after learning of the existence of any form of chess''.

* The Literature/{{Deryni}} counterpart is cardounet. Joram [=MacRorie=] and Rhys Thuryn are playing it when the short story "Catalyst" begins, and young Alaric Morgan gets a set as a gift. Both Alaric and Joram excel at such tactical games.
* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': Izaya Orihara is far ''too smart'' to play mere chess. He instead plays [[{{Calvinball}} a game of his own devising]] which uses various game pieces from chess, Go, and several other games.
* Generally subverted in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books. In Wizarding Chess, strategic mastery knowledge of Chess is generally less important than gaining the loyalty of your sentient chess pieces such that they'll actually do what you tell them.
** Ron is noted as being notably skilled at chess despite not being particularly bright otherwise. In the first book he successfully beats a magically powered sentient chess set, set up by one of the Hogwarts professers, in what Dumbledore describes as "the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in years." Outside his chess competence Ron is an average to below average student, despite fans often [[AdaptationalDumbass viewing him as a complete idiot.]]
** Hermione is by far the most intelligent of the group, but is not very good at chess and doesn't like the concept of it.

* Several of Creator/RaymondChandler's Literature/PhilipMarlowe books show Marlowe studying chess problems during his down time. (Although he's never seen playing an actual game because that would presuppose that he had friends to play with.)

* The ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' novel ''Liberty's Crusade'' shows [[MagnificentBastard Arcturus Mengsk]] as an avid chess player, complete with a chess set in his command center. He also gives a comprehensive deconstruction of ChessMotifs in real strategy: chess games consist of two sides with exactly equal forces facing off on a flat field, nothing like any real war, nor does any situation ever crop up where the board is suddenly invaded by green pieces attacking both black and white ''a la'' the current situation where the terrans are [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill under attack by the protoss and zerg]].
* Literature/RamaII: Two of the scientist astronauts, Takagishi and Janos Tabori, blow off steam by playing chess every evening. Tabori is very interested in playing, exclaiming audibly about lessons he learned, and Takagishi, who is a master player, secures himself and advantage at the beginning of every game, then allows Tabori to erode it out of consideration for his friend.

* Lord Loss, from Darren Shan's ''Literature/TheDemonata'' series, is exceptionally intelligent and very manipulative. Chess is his second favourite pastime (after torturing humans)
* The ''Literature/ForrestGump'' book has Forrest learning to play chess rather well, going up against various masters of the game.
* ''Literature/ALongPetalOfTheSea'': Víctor, a refugee from the Spanish Civil War who left for Chile, goes to thank Minister of Health Salvador Allende for his help with his studies in medicine and they end up forming a friendship based upon games of chess. After the 1973 coup and Allende's death, their relationship will result in Víctor [[spoiler:spending eleven months in a concentration camp and then going into exile.]]

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'': Ed is either played straight or a subversion. She is one of the best hackers in the solar system and can play a week-long game of chess against a 96-year-old master (as shown in "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession14BohemianRhapsody Bohemian Rhapsody]]"), but outside of that, she is a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} who can barely stay focused on anything. Ultimately, she seems like a GeniusDitz: master at hacking and chess, terrible (or at least on another thought process) with everything else. The aforementioned chess master comments that Ed is either an [[IdiotSavant idiot or a genius]] so she may just be TheWonka; chess is about being unpredictable and if Ed is one thing, it's unpredictable.

** Reiner and Bertolt are shown to play chess during their downtime. Side material notes they are among the few people capable of providing a challenge to GuileHero Armin, the resident tactical genius of the series. This becomes an important detail later on when [[spoiler: the Survey Corps are preparing to face Reiner and Bertolt in battle]]. Eren points out that Reiner always excelled as a strategist during training, making him a GeniusBruiser.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': A heated match ended in 1 win for Mustang, 97 losses to Grumman, and 15 draws. Grumman and Mustang are both shown to be cunning strategists, with Grumman, in his capacity as {{Chessmaster}}, having a big impact on the final arc. Breda and Falman also have signs of this.

** In the ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' mini-series "1-2-3-4" by Creator/GrantMorrison, Doctor Doom engaged Reed in a form of 4-D chess with an alien computer called the Prime Mover, manipulating the minds and emotions of Reed's teammates in order to destroy them. Reed realized that Doom's gambits were rigid and clumsy and was able to out-think him by being more flexible in his playing. [[spoiler: Literally, as it turns out, as he used his elongation powers to add new structures to his brain.]]

* In the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' fanfic series [[http://archiveofourown.org/series/393550 TIE Fighter]], Thrawn and [[spoiler: his wife]] play a Chiss board game called ''wei-jio'' that seems to be a variation on the game ''Go'' with a piece-capture goal similar to chess. Thrawn being [[TheChessmaster Thrawn]], he's very good at it.

* In Chapter Eight, [[BadassBookworm One]] challenges [[TimeMaster Sougo]] into a game of chess - with giant pieces being used - in order to decide who shall be the true leader of the Intoners and reign over Midgard. [[spoiler: She loses thanks to Sougo managing to pull off a trap featuring his Pawn under her nose.]] The game that is played references [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_Game The Immortal Game]].

* In ''Film/TheThing1982'', R.J. [=MacReady=] is introduced playing chess against the computer. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment When he loses, he responds by pouring his drink into the computer, destroying it.]] Throughout the movie, [=MacReady=] establishes himself as the savviest of the crew and ends up being [[spoiler: ([[TheEndOrIsIt possibly]]) one of the [[FinalGirl Final Guys]]. Also foreshadows the film's climax. . . [=MacReady=] is the kind of man who'd rather burn the board than lose the game.]]

* ''Literature/ALongPetalOfTheSea'': Víctor, a refugee from the Spanish Civil War who left for Chile, goes to thank Minister of Health Salvador Allende for his help with his studies in medicine and they end up forming a friendship based upon games of chess. After the 1973 coup and Allende's death, their relationship will result in Víctor [[spoiler: spending eleven months in a concentration camp and then going into exile.]]

* In a variant, Theo in ''Literature/TheWestingGame'' plays chess with someone who only makes moves when he's out of the room. At first, all we know is that Theo's opponent is sneaky, not necessarily smart. However, an eventual BatmanGambit move by Theo's opponent reveals to Judge Ford that the other player is [[spoiler: the brilliant Sam Westing, who isn't dead after all]] because she's seen that same tactic before. Eventually, [[spoiler: grown-up Turtle]] beats Theo's opponent in a chess game, which makes sense because [[spoiler: she turned out to be the only one smart enough to solve the Westing Game as well]].

*** During the episode, we're introduced to Olivia Livingston, who's The Mark's stepdaughter [[spoiler: and Sterling's birth-daughter: Stering's divorced from her late Mom, who was killed by a car bomb]]. She's guarded at a chess tournament, and her life's endangered by her step-dad's illegal deals. [[spoiler: Sterling's able to regain custody of Olivia while Nate sabotages a nuclear weight in the episode.]]

* ''Series/TeenWolf'': Stiles, the pack's resident [[{{TheSmartGuy}} researcher and strategist]], plays chess with his Dad and even uses it as a metaphor to explain the supernatural world. [[spoiler: When he's possessed by the nogitsune - a Japanese Fox Spirit - it's revealed the spirit keeps him trapped in his own mind by keeping him playing an endless game of ''TabletopGame/{{Go}}''.]]

** And then averted/subverted in a later episode: Artie is [[AIIsACrapShoot trapped in the warehouse by an advanced A.I. program]]. He challenges the A.I. to a game of...Battleship. [[spoiler: Artie wins, by cheating, which ends up being key to figuring out what's going on in the episode.]]

* On an early episode of ''Series/TheWire'', D'Angelo Barksdale finds his lieutenants Poot and Bodie playing checkers with a chess set. He teaches them the rudiments of the proper game and sets it up as a brilliant extended metaphor for the Barksdale drug organization. Bodie recalls it ''three seasons later'', shortly before [[spoiler: he's killed]].

* ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'': ShrinkingViolet Hanako loves chess, and indeed, it seems to be one of the only joys she has left in her otherwise miserable life - as well as the method via which she first opens to Hisao. However, in a slight subversion, the fact that she ''loves'' playing chess doesn't necessarily mean that she's any ''good'' at it (which is understandable, given that for years the only person she had to play against was her best friend Lilly, who is ''blind''). Meanwhile, scheming megalomaniacal genius Shizune would much rather play TabletopGame/{{Risk}}... When she does decide to play chess against Hanako, she easily wipes the floor with her all the while giving her a silent psychological analysis based on her play style. [[spoiler: And her deduction, that Hanako doesn't really like chess so much as she likes her memories that are associated with playing chess, turns out to be perfectly accurate]].

* In the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' fanfic ''To live again'', Gideon and Annie regularly play chess, and Annie even manages to beat him sometimes (after years of practice, but still). Gideon is canonically a mastermind and a great profiler and this scene (in the prologue!) shows Annie's intelligence too, foreshadowing the first chapter's events when [[spoiler:she connects the dots and uncovers the Replicator's true identity.]] After that, it's not too surprising when we learn that she's actually capable of profiling a criminal if the situation calls for it despite never ''taught'' to do it - but hey, growing up in the BAU has some effects besides becoming an emotional mess.

* WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy: Brian/Stewie play chess during their cross-country trip with Quagmire.

* Done subtly on ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb.'' MadScientist [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr.]] [[HerrDoktor Doofensmirtz]] seems to be a fan of chess. When he is bored, he suggests that he and Perry use his travel chess set. He even schemes to freeze every evil scientist nemesis and turn them into a live [[HumanChess Animal chess set.]]

-->'''Sheldon:''' Obviously, you're not well-suited for three-dimensional chess. Perhaps three-dimensional Candy Land would be more up your speed.

* Often partially inverted in real-life chess champions -- Kasparov follows some very questionable historical theories, while Bobby Fischer was notoriously self-absorbed and ragingly anti-semitic (despite [[BoomerangBigot being (half) Jewish]] himself[[note]]As far as he knew, he was at least half Jewish on his mother's side, and denied being Jewish even though Jewish identity is usually traced through the maternal line. However, there is also strong evidence that he was a victim of paternity fraud and his biological father was also Jewish.[[/note]]) and early 20th-century chess champion Aleksandr Alekhine was a raving egomaniac with possible Nazi connections. And not just world champions are like this; former New Zealand champion Jonathan Sarfati works for a Young Earth Creationist propaganda organization. See more at CrazyPeoplePlayChess.

* Often partially inverted in real-life chess champions -- Kasparov follows some very questionable historical theories, while Bobby Fischer was notoriously self-absorbed and ragingly anti-semitic (despite [[BoomerangBigot being half-Jewish]]) and early 20th-century chess champion Aleksandr Alekhine was a raving egomaniac with possible Nazi connections. And not just world champions are like this; former New Zealand champion Jonathan Sarfati works for a Young Earth Creationist propaganda organization. See more at CrazyPeoplePlayChess.

* ''Between Silk and Cyanide''. SOE agent Violette Szabo gives Leo Marks a chess set she'd won in a shooting competition, under the wrongful assumption that as a codebreaker he must play chess. Marks later informs Szabo that he's never lost a game on her chess set, not mentioning that he's never used the set at all. After her capture and execution, the chess set becomes a TragicKeepsake.

* Played with in the Creator/FrederickForsyth novel ''The Negotiator''; Quinn, the title character, is an intelligent character capable of strategic thinking, but admits he doesn't play chess very well. However, [[ItMakesSenseInContext a KGB general gives Quinn a book on chess]], advising him to study it and that it will help him to catch the BigBad. It does.

* In Creator/SidneySheldon's book ''If Tomorrow Comes'' the con-woman protagonist outsmarts two rival chess grandmasters by betting (and getting very high odds) that if she plays them both simultaneously she can either beat one of them or force them both to a draw. What she does is repeat each player's previous move so that they are actually playing each other, but they don't realise because they are in different rooms.

* OneShotCharacter Kurt from ''Literature/The39Clues.''

* Averted in ''Market Forces'' by Creator/RichardMorgan, a 2004 sci-fi novel in which CorruptCorporateExecutive types battle for promotion by fighting Film/MadMax-style road duels. The protagonist Chris Faulkner has been manipulated into a fatal road duel with his friend Mike Bryant (a more skilled driver) in order to eliminate them both as potential rivals. In a JustBetweenYouAndMe moment, the antagonist derides Faulkner and Bryant's chess hobby, pointing out that its restricted field and strict rules make the game useless training for real life.

* Lord Loss, from Darren Shan's ''The Demonata'' series, is exceptionally intelligent and very manipulative. Chess is his second favourite pastime (after torturing humans)

* Inverted in ''Bad Company'', in which Chris Rock's character is adept at chess. He's street smart, but not book smart.