Crazy People Play Chess: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do.''|'''[[GKG. K. Chesterton]]'''}}

Many writers view [[Chess (Tabletop Game)|Chess]] players as not just [[Smart People Play Chess|brilliant]], but also mad as a hatter. As a result, this trope shows up in various works featuring chess or similar games such as go. Expect rants about conspiracies against the player, bizarre and borderline-OCD match behavior (such as demanding that spectators be seated in a symmetrical manner around the board, or throwing out people whose watches are ticking a bit too noticeably), and, in some cases, violent rage (culminating in [[Rage Quit|flipping the board]]) or total depression. Expect someone to proclaim at one point that 'It's only a game!', and more often than not, the madman will disagree.

There are a few different reasons for this trope. Some writers may genuinely believe it, or may be alluding to specific [[Real Life]] players who were known for being a bit off. Others may be trying to develop [[An Aesop]] about the dangers of obsessions; the mad player in this case is almost always someone who spends almost all their time in isolation studying the game. There could also be anti-intellectual messages; if [[Smart People Play Chess|smart people play chess]] and chess players are nuts, then smart people in general must be crazy.

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop (Anime)|Cowboy Bebop]]'''s 14th episode, entitled "Bohemian Rhapsody", contains a chess game between an old senile chess master and [[Cloudcuckoolander|Ed]]. The game is played over the internet and lasts for days until the chess master wins, and subsequently dies.

* Mao and Lelouch in ''[[Code Geass (Anime)|Code Geass]]''. Mao is crazy enough that he rigs a bomb to detonate if he wins.

* Ami in [[Sailor Moon (Anime)|Sailor Moon]] plays an opponent who is such a lunatic that he paralyzes different parts of her body as she loses her pieces.

* In the [[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]] live-action movie, Light and L do this.

* ''[[Green Lantern (Filmfilm)|Green Lantern]]'' -- Hector Hammond, soon to be infused with yellow fear energy, is first seen playing chess against a computer.

* ''[[Alice in Wonderland (Literature)|Through the Looking Glass]]'', the sequel to ''[[Alice in Wonderland (Literature)|Alice in Wonderland]]'', features a chess-crazed Wonderland. Wonderland, of course, is populated mostly by those who are as mad as hatters.

* In ''[[The Eight (Literature)|The Eight]]'', one of the minor chess players is like this. When he captures a piece, he demands that a spectator be thrown out so that the room remains 'symmetrical'.

* "Quarantine", a drabble by [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]]. Aliens reach earth, and their computers determine that chess will so utterly derange them that the only solution is to blow up the planet.

* ''[[Literature/Unsound Variations|Unsound Variations]]'', by [[George RRR. R. Martin]]. A guy botches a chess tournament and is scorned by his team. So he invents a time machine to go back in time and ruin their lives.

* ''[[Endgame (TV)|Endgame]]'' is about a chess grandmaster who becomes a [[Hikikomori]] and cannot leave his hotel due to paralyzing fear.

* ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'' used a mentally damaged chess expert as a villain in one episode.

* In one episode of ''[[Leverage (TV)|Leverage]]'', Ford has to play in a speed-chess tournament. His opponents include a guy who sleeps through the whole match and only wakes up in brief spurts to move. He still is trouncing Ford until Sophie intervenes.

* ''[[The Cape (TV series)|The Cape]]'' features a [[Super Villain]] with multiple personalities. One such personality is called Chess, and he's a sociopathic lunatic who speaks in chess metaphors and has contact lenses that make his eyes look like chess pieces.

* ''[[Criminal Minds (TV)|Criminal Minds]]'' had Caleb Rossmore, a chess champion UnSub who copycatted the Zodiac killer.

* One ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' scenario involves a series of mysterious murders. The people behind it are bored, evil chess players who are using henchmen as pawns and killing them off when their corresponding pawn gets captured.

* Freddy Trumper in ''[[Chess (Theatretheatre)|Chess]]''. In some versions of the play, including the official one, his anti-Soviet rantings at a press conference convince the press as well as most of the Russians that Freddy is delusional. In the Broadway version, he gets worse, with Florence angering him to the point where he goes through a drawn-out breakdown while filming a TV interview.