Chess/YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation: In Shogi (a Japanese chess variant), the "king" has also been viewed as representing the children of that player's color -- the future, if you will.
Designated Hero/Designated Villain: The players.
Ending Fatigue: Some novice games can drag on for quite a while, especially when it's just chasing the king around the board. Professional players would have resigned long ago at this stage. This is the reason why the fifty-move rule was invented (which is still pretty long for an average game).
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Having evolved in India, the Middle East and Southern Europe, modern chess has been dominated by Russians.
Nightmare Fuel: Some of the neuroses, pathological behaviors and/or full-fledged psychoses suffered later in life by many historical masters invites the question of just what impact long-term intense study of the game has on the human psyche.
- Scott McCloud explores this. Also see The Tetris Effect.
Scrappy Mechanic: Explaining castling to a new player can get pretty daunting. Even in intermediate play a lot of confusion can still occur as to what is or isn't a legal castling scenario.