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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Bishops move diagonally. That's why they often turn up where the kings don't expect them to be.''
|''[[Small Gods]]''}}
As [[Chess]] is one of the oldest and simplest, as well as ''the'' deepest [[Turn-Based Strategy]] game in the Western world, games of chess are often used symbolically in media in order to represent war, battles of wits, and similar events. Sometimes this is done directly by the author; other times by the characters themselves (by, e.g., having a conversation about a war over a chess match, using chess as an example).
A very simple such analogy is the [[Mooks|Pawn]]—the [[Red Shirt|expendable]], [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|powerless]], [[Nominal Importance|nameless]] foot soldier who may, if his actions are brave and his heart is true, [[Took a Level
A frequent variant is for the author or a character to explain how the situation is ''not'' analogous to chess, but rather to some other game such as poker, Battleship, or [[Calvin Ball]].
Compare [[Chess with Death]], [[The Chessmaster]] (especially the first section of examples for [[The Chessmaster]], most of which could go here as well), and [[Smart People Play Chess]]. See also [[Talking Through Technique]], which can turn a motif into a message. An [[Astral Checkerboard Decor]] is a checkered pattern representing otherworldness.
{{examples}}
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Code Geass]]'': actually pretty much all of it. Rather tellingly, the King and Queen pieces in the show's chess set were explicitly modeled on [[Magnificent Bastard|Lelouch]] and [[Mysterious Waif|C.C.]] respectively.
** Lelouch specifically identifies as the Black King, symbolizing his acceptance of corruption and evil in order to bring good.
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* Crashers in ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' are codenamed after chess pieces: Knight, Bishop, Rook, and Pawn. King is their boss, and Queen is [[The Handler]].
* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', Beatrice and Battler are involved in a very elaborate game of chess, with the pieces being the other Ushiromiyas, various witches, and the demons they summon. The [[Umineko no Naku Koro ni/WMG|WMG page]] has some speculation about which pieces are which.
* ''[[Black Butler]]'' uses quite a few chess motifs. Ciel is a [[Chessmaster]] who refers to himself as the King and Sebastian as his Knight. Not to mention that the series has chess-based imagery throughout it such as [https://web.archive.org/web/20190713081701/http://www.kuroshitsujimanga.com/13/31/ this] page and [https://web.archive.org/web/20190713081715/http://www.kuroshitsujimanga.com/13/36/ this] page from the manga. The anime has more of this later in the series, including some in the new opening animation with Sebastian kneeling on a large chess board before a black King piece that turns to dust to reveal Ciel.
* ''[[Vampire Knight]]'' plays off this motif often. Kaname is figuratively shown as the "[[Chessmaster]]", while {{spoiler|Kiryu Zero}} is the "knight" (or pawn, depending on your point of view).
* The bad guys of ''[[MAR|MÄR]]'' are called The Chess, and their ranks are named for chess pieces.
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* This is how the master-servant devil relationships work in ''[[High School DxD]]''. The protagonist, Issei, is the [[Almighty Janitor|Pawn]],<ref>All eight of them.</ref> Rias is [[Crutch Character|the King]], Akeno is the Queen, Kiba is the Knight, Asia is the Bishop, and Koneko is the Rook. Other characters then join Rias later on to become the other pieces.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
== Comics ==▼
* The spy organization Checkmate in [[The DCU]], which classifies their agents by chess pieces and uses the White and Black sides to counteract each other.
* In ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club has chess piece-based titles for its members (such as Sebastian Shaw, the Black King, and Emma Frost, the former White Queen). See below for [[The Movie]].
* A one-off villain in ''[[Astro City]]'', the Red Queen, had chess-themed minions as part of her ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' motif. That said, they were based on designs stolen from the Chessmen of Astro City.▼
* A ''[[Dilbert]]'' strip has the [[Pointy-Haired Boss]] giving chess pieces to his underlings, symbolizing that they're "all on the same team". Unfortunately, he gives them all ''pawns''. He later quips, "I'm saving the rooks for bonus day."▼
** Another comic had Dilbert complain to his boss about being moved to a different cubicle with 'I bet another manager wants that cubicle. I bet we are all just pawn in your game.' It ended with the boss doing it anyway, and enforcing a new dresscode: Pawn-costumes. The dialogue at the end suggest that the PHB and another manager were playing an actual game of chess, using the cubicles as fields, and moving the employees as chesspieces by assigning them to new cubicles.▼
* Obadiah Stane was a big fan of these during his arc in ''[[Iron Man]]'', naming his mooks the Chessmen. An expensive chess set appears on his desk in the movie as a callback to this.
* It shows up from time to time in early ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur]]''.▼
▲* A one-off villain in [[Astro City]], the Red Queen, had chess-themed minions as part of her ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' motif. That said, they were based on designs stolen from the Chessmen of Astro City.
▲* It shows up from time to time in early Excalibur.
* In Jim Steranko's memorable run on ''[[Nick Fury|Nick Fury Agent Of SHIELD]]'', SHIELD faced the [[Yellow Peril|Yellow Claw]] and his forces. The end of the arc revealed that [[Doctor Doom]] manipulated SHIELD and the Claw in an intricate game against an alien chess-playing computer called the Prime Mover.
** More recently{{when}}, Doom used the Prime Mover against the [[Fantastic Four]] in Grant Morrison's ''Fantastic Four: 1234'', manipulating their histories and relationships to tear them apart from within. [[Reed Richards Is Useless|Going against trope]], Reed realized what Doom was up to and developed machines to counter Doom's moves. He realized that Doom's moves were rigid and inflexible, and in order to defeat him, he used his stretching powers to temporarily create new structures in his own brain, thus expanding his already prodigious intellect.
* In ''[[Windows
▲== Fan Fiction ==
▲* In Windows Of The Soul, Shizuru once describes herself as a rook, and recounting the incident in which {{spoiler|Yukino}}, a pawn, tried and failed to stand in her way to protect {{spoiler|Haruka}} despite her lack of combat abilities, as almost essentially suicidal but somewhat courageous.
* In ''Vanguard'', the Paladins are all modeled after chess pieces, in appearance, attributes and role. Notably, the Paladins' individual armor vary in color.
** Solustro is the ''Grey'' King, simultaneously symbolizing his [[Anti-Villain]] status and [[Gray and Grey Morality|balancing]] his methods/motives out. Typical for a chess king, Solustro rarely involves himself personally, but is renowned for his strategic and tactical skill.
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* The ''[[Elemental Chess Trilogy]]'' takes the [[Chess Motif]] originally present in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' and turns it [[Up to Eleven]]. The second story in the series, "Brilliancy," uses actual chess terms for the story title and all chapter titles; the third story, "The Game of Three Generals," does the same thing with terms from shogi (Japanese chess). The members of Mustang's unit still use the chess nicknames he gave them in the canon, and often make references to Riza's position as their queen, even dubbing themselves "all the queen's men" when they are officially made her personal security detail in the third story.
▲== Film ==
* Lawrence III in ''[[Pokémon: The Movie 2000|Pokémon 2000]]'' movie had his map set up like a chessboard. The plot was indeed quite chess-like in that he captured the three Legendary Birds to bring out the bigger prize, Lugia...or so he thought. In reality, the "Beast of the Sea" was an underwater current that had been causing the storm.
* The 2002 movie version of ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo (film)|The Count of Monte Cristo]]''. Edmond and Fernand have a chess king that they trade back and forth when the other has a victory, recognizing the other as "King of the Moment". Edmond explains this to Napoleon Bonaparte, who observes that "In life, we are all either Kings or Pawns."
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* In ''[[Dragonheart]]'', Queen Aislinn is playing chess by herself in a scene where Einon and his men are having a rowdy feast. In the novelization, she spent a lot more time playing it, and only Bowen had seen any value in the game, realizing that it taught strategy.
* In "Liberty's Crusade", a ''[[
▲== Literature ==
▲* In "Liberty's Crusade", a ''[[Starcraft]]'' novel, Mengsk discusses over a Chess match how he prefers Chess to real war- in Chess both sides are equal at the start, and you don't have to worry about [[Zerg Rush|a massive wave of green pieces coming in from the side to suddenly wipe everyone out]].
* ''[[Alice in Wonderland|Through the Looking-Glass]]'' takes this rather farther than most, to the point of having all the events represented by actual chess moves. It also has an interesting variant, in that the two sides are called White and Red. It's not merely that the pieces are white and red (which is not unknown); by convention, the two sides in chess are referred to as White and Black even if the physical pieces used are other colors.
** The Red Queen from this book is often confused with the Queen of Hearts from the first ''Alice'' book. They are, in fact, wholly different characters, though [[Composite Character|they get merged in some adaptations]]. This results in an [[Egregious]] mixed metaphor in the 2010 film version: the White Queen's army of chess pieces fights the Red Queen (of Hearts)'s army of playing cards.
* [[Discworld]]:
** There are several mentions of the gods playing a chess-like game with the fates of men (as well as at least one claim that gods actually prefer games like Monopoly and Snakes and Ladders to chess). In actuality the game is closer to [[Dungeons
** Many mortal characters with the game Thud. Obviously, ''[[
** In ''[[
** ''[[
** Death, on the other hand, doesn't like chess much, in subversion of [[Chess with Death|expectation]]. He can never remember how the little horse-shaped ones move. In fact, Death seems to have trouble with games in general.<ref>This
** In ''[[The Light Fantastic]]'', Twoflower is shown to have only limited success teaching the Four Horsemen how to play Contract Bridge.
** Vimes hates Chess:
{{quote|Vimes had never got on with any game much more complex than darts. Chess in particular had always annoyed him. It was the dumb way the pawns went off and slaughtered their fellow pawns while the kings lounged about doing nothing that always got to him; if only the pawns united, maybe talked the rooks round, the whole board could've been a republic in a dozen moves.}}
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* [[Elleston Trevor]] wrote a series of mysteries in which the investigator was Hugo Bishop, each book had a chess piece title (''Knight Sinister'', ''Queen in Danger'', ''Bishop in Check'', ''Pawn in Jeopardy'', and ''Rook's Gambit''), and the chapters were labelled "First Move," "Second Move," etc.
* ''The Defense'' by [[Vladimir Nabokov]] brings this out in full force, even having other stand ins for chess boards and pieces, such as the checked bathroom tiles in the hotels that Luzhin visits. Of course, the book is about a famous chess master going insane as chess takes over his life.
* The Armageddon battle in ''[[Wyrm]]'' is very clearly structured on a chess game: the infantry are pawns, the
** Link to the game: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1104948
* Poul Anderson's ''A Circus of Hells'' has a chapter involving killer robots that defend squares of terrain — an abandoned "live" chess game.
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Parodied in ''[[Slings and Arrows]]'', which has a hysterically awful production of ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' in which all the characters wear chess piece hats:
{{quote|'''[[Those Two Guys|Cyril]]''': It's a chessboard, ducky.
'''[[Those Two Guys|Frank]]''': Why?
'''Cyril''': They're pawns, aren't they? In the game of life.
'''Frank''': Are we pawns?
'''Cyril''': I'm the Friar, so I'm a bishop; you're Capulet, so you're a king.
'''Frank''': I don't move like a king. I don't move at all.
'''Cyril''': I don't think he's taking the metaphor that far, ducky. }}
* "Check Mate", an episode of ''[[The Prisoner]]''.
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* In one episode of ''[[Monk]]'', the killer was a genius grand master chess player. As he's being arrested, he tries to complement Monk on being the better player. Monk reprimands him for treating real human lives as a game, but consents to a victorious "Checkmate."
* In ''[[The Cape (2010 TV series)|The Cape]]'' the manipulative villain Peter Fleming... well he doesn't have a chess motif such as an ''overwhelming obsession'' with it. He compares real world actions to specific chess strategies, wears contact lenses that make his pupils look like chess pieces, and uses a holographic interface hidden under a chessboard that when activated [[Viewer-Friendly Interface|arranges itself into a chessboard layout]]. And of course his supervillain name is ''Chess''.
* In ''[[Have Gun — Will Travel]]'', Paladin's card and the design on his gun holster feature a white knight.
* In the ''Winds of War'' miniseries Captain Henry the American naval atache in Berlin before the US enters WWII is talking shop with Von Roon a German staff officer while playing chess. When the conversation turns to the Lend-lease bill the German asks for an explanation. The American goes into a complicated legal diatribe whereupon Von Roon interrupts him saying, "It's [[
▲== Music ==
* "I've Seen All Good People", by Yes starts out with the section called "Your Move". The song features lyrics like:
{{quote|"Don't surround yourself with yourself. Move me on to any black square."}}
* "White Rabbit" by [[Jefferson Airplane]] contains a few direct references to the Chess Motifs used in ''[[Alice in Wonderland|Through the Looking Glass]].'' It's chess by way of ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?|by way of LSD.]]
* "Only a Pawn in Their Game" by [[Bob Dylan]] applies a chess metaphor to the slaying of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
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* [[Fiona Apple]]'s second album featured [[Long Title|an eight-line poem as its title]]. The first line of the poem reads, "When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king..."
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
▲* A ''[[Dilbert]]'' strip has the [[Pointy-Haired Boss]] giving chess pieces to his underlings, symbolizing that they're "all on the same team". Unfortunately, he gives them all ''pawns''. He later quips, "I'm saving the rooks for bonus day."
▲** Another comic had Dilbert complain to his boss about being moved to a different cubicle with 'I bet another manager wants that cubicle. I bet we are all just pawn in your game.' It ended with the boss doing it anyway, and enforcing a new dresscode: Pawn-costumes. The dialogue at the end suggest that the PHB and another manager were playing an actual game of chess, using the cubicles as fields, and moving the employees as chesspieces by assigning them to new cubicles.
==
* ''[[Dungeons
** Forgotten Realms campaign setting has the deity "Red Knight", whose portfolio is strategy and whose symbol is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|a red knight piece]].
** In ''[[Dungeons
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'': [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Archfiend Archfiends] have a chess-themed subset. Their most useful support card is arguably 'Checkmate', which allows the rather powerful Terrorking Archfiend to strike the opponent directly rather than wasting time with the foes' array of monsters.
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'': [https://web.archive.org/web/20090504031835/http://ww2.wizards.com/
* Also [[Shaped Like Itself|Chess has a chess motif]]. The queen stands for the queen, the knight is analogous to the knight, the bishop to the bishop, and [[Dissimile|the rook represents the king's file when it contains doubled pawns and one of them is under threat by the enemy king]], etc. It is however subverted in that the game often isn't much like how the traditional metaphors say it should be. Especially with pawns. Players who treat actual chess pawns like metaphorical pawns are likely to find themselves losing [[For Want of a Nail]].
* ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' features the Contracts of The Board, which allow a character who serves as head of a number of forces (such as a general or one of the seasonal Monarchs) to understand the conflict in terms of a game of chess, allowing him to transmit strategies and direct forces by manipulation of the board itself. Granted, the game in question doesn't ''have'' to be Chess. A general could just as easily direct his forces via the intentional play of the game Candyland.
* [[GURPS]] has an optional "cinematic" rule that skill in chess can substitute for the Strategy skill used to plan actual battles.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* The 80s rock musical ''[[Chess (theatre)|Chess]]'' is pretty much all about this.
** In particular, ''Prologue (The Story of Chess)'' has what it describes as a "vague report"—and then goes into detail about a prince whose advisers had no clue about how a mother's mind works.
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* In ''[[Man of La Mancha]]'', Cervantes, repositioning Antonia, the Housekeeper and the Padre to the corners of the stage, calls them the queen, the castle and the bishop, respectively. "And now--the problem of the knight!"
▲== Video Games ==
* It's been proposed that all the personalities in ''Killer7'' correspond to different chess pieces. Kun Lan and Harman are definitely playing a literal chess game, and possibly a figurative one as well. [http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/file/562551/38193 Read this] for more details.
* Used in the opening of ''[[Age of Empires II]]''. Two kings are playing a game of chess, and the pieces fade in and out from "real" military events, each represented by different pieces till it all comes into a big castle siege. And then the last soldier standing (or kneeling, rather), drops a chess piece - a king - out of his hands.
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* Cortana from halo's first words in her life were "The king and the pawn go in the same box" in french.
▲== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Mark Shallow does this in ''[[Antihero for Hire]]''.
** Parodied [
* Averted in ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'': the doctor specifically refers to a fight as a game of battleship and not chess.
** Chess is a little too "Rooky, Pawny" for his tastes.
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'''Raz''': "Ha! You're a queen."
'''Akira''': "Now you're a queen." }}
== [[Web Original]] ==
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* ''[[D8]]'' ''is'' this. The entire story is pretty much one big Chess Motif.
▲== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' has this exchange:
{{quote|'''Bart''': Hey Lisa, what do you call those guys in chess that don't matter?
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'''Homer:''' In my chess set, the pawns are all Hamburglars. }}
* In ''[[Gargoyles]]'', Xanatos and Fox play both a literal and figurative game of chess with the clan (pieces belong to Fox) and a group of bad guys known as the pack (played by Xanatos) because they can (their inclusion in the story serves very little to the plot). The figurative and literal games seem to take a turn favoring Xanotos, when Fox informs him not to be so certain. Cue a public service announcement sponsored by Fox that, through clever drops of the right words, leads the clan to the location of a captured Goliath, Hudson, and Bronx thus defeating the pack. Off screen, Fox makes a move that places Xanatos in checkmate.
* In Disney's ''[[Hercules (
* In ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', The Brain and one of his [[Elite Mooks]] play a game of chess. The mook represents the Titans, The Brain represents... well, himself. The game is frighteningly accurate as to how everything goes down.
* Repeatedly parodied in ''[[Futurama]]''.
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** "[[Mixed Metaphor|We hit that bullseye, and the rest of the dominoes fall like a house of cards.]] ''[[Mixed Metaphor|Checkmate.]]''"
** The episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" has: "We're just pawns in his diabolical game of checkers!"
* The ''[[Fillmore!]]'' episode "Of Slain Kings on Checkered Fields" centers around chess-playing Bad Boy Check Matey receiving death threats.
* In a ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' episode, the Riddler trapped Batman in a [[Cyberspace|virtual reality]] simulator. At one point, Riddler had Batman chase him across a giant chessboard, only to have the squares slowly disappear beneath Batman's feet. Robin deduced that Riddler was playing with Batman's nickname [[Superhero Sobriquets|The Dark Knight]], and that in order to avoid disappearing squares, Batman had to move like a knight; two forward, one to the side.
== [[Real Life]] ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Older Than Print]]
[[Category:Motifs]]
▲[[Category:Board Games]]
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