Smart People Play Chess: Difference between revisions

* The fact that [[The Chessmaster]] is ''named'' [[The Chessmaster]] is an example.

* [[Chess with Death]] is also an example. It's about trying to out-think Death with a game, but why do we name it after chess? This trope.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* [[Fantastic Four|Mr. Fantastic]] and [[Dr. Doom]] can play a game of chess ''in their heads'', while wandering Doom's castle in Latveria, while having various other deep discussions, with some [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] besides (i.e. Doom launching an attack on the other three with Reed having set some countermeasures in motion).

* In an issue of ''[[Justice League]]'', Mr. Terrific plays two games of chess against Red Arrow and Black Canary... blindfolded!

 

== Fan Works ==

* Related to the ''Justice League'' entry above: ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3648035/1/ The Big Question.]''

 

* During the Matchmaker scene in Disney's ''[[Mulan]]'', the heroine briefly passes by a game of [[wikipedia:Xiangqi|Chinese chess]], then makes a move that clearly benefits one side.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'' features R2-D2 and Chewbacca playing holographic chess ("dejarik") during the trip to Alderaan, suggesting R2's intelligence, Chewbacca's temper, and C3PO's timidity. And an [[Fridge Brilliance|early example]] of Chewbacca's [[Genius Bruiser|high intelligence]]. It's only later that we see him doing starship repair and rebuilding destroyed protocol droids.

* All of the live-action ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' movies prominently feature scenes of chess. The first two feature Professor Xavier and Magneto playing against each other, a tradition started in ''X-Men First Class''. Later, this becomes a metaphor for their struggle over the future of mutantkind

* In the second [[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Sherlock Holmes]] film, Holmes and Moriarty frequently play against each other.

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

 

== Literature ==

* In Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts' ''Empire'' trilogy, characters who are good at chess are inevitably good tacticians, especially the lords of House Anasati, and their utterly unbeatable [[True Neutral]] genius advisor.

* "Stones" (a fictional game that bears a resemblance to the Chinese boardgame Go) fulfils this trope in ''[[Wheel of Time]]''. Morgase Trakan, Pedron Niall, and Thom Merillin are all master Stones players and excellent strategists and politicians, and often make observations about other characters based on their ability at the game. Matrim Cauthon is a strategic whizz and rather a good Stones player, but too impatient to beat the best players. The villainous Moridin is described at a master not just of Stones but of every game of skill he's ever bothered to learn and, [[Chessmaster]] that he is, tends to visualize his entire [[Evil Plan]] as a vast boardgame where he controls all the pieces on both sides.

* One of [[Artemis Fowl]]'s covers was a chess prodigy. The guard, also a chessmaster (not [[The Chessmaster|that kind]]), didn't believe it, and challenged him to a game. Artemis [[Curb Stomp Battle|beat him in six moves]].

* In ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series, Smart Tacticians Play Castles.

* [[One-Shot Character]] Kurt from ''[[The 39 Clues]].''

* A short story, "Check ... and Mate," focused on main character Freddy bonding over chess with his girlfriend's father, who'd regarded the young fellow as an [[Upper Class Twit]] until discovering he was '''very''' good at the game. Freddy, for his part, hadn't much liked chess back when his grandfather taught him, but now his prospective father-in-law was such a excitingly challenging opponent....

 

== Live-Action TV ==

== Tabletop Games ==

* White Wolf's ''[[Exalted]]'' brings us Gateway, a Chess-extract used to teach military strategy and politics to the children of the Scarlet Dynasty. Most members of the Dynasty are Terrestrial Exalts... superhumans with sometimes reflexive mastery over elements, regular skills (each individual with their own 'prodigy' knacks), and lives that often extend up to and beyond three centuries. the 'Hunting Cat' rule variation allows Gateway to serve as a meditative game of solitaire, while monks use the 'Spirit Frog' rule variation as an allegory to teach philosophy and ethics. It might be aptly said that Gateway is what Chess would be, if Chess were designed by people who had gotten bored with Chess.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Saints Row]] The Third'' has the chess matches between Pierce and Oleg.

* ''[[Escape From St. Mary's|Escape From St Marys]]'': This is the game of choice for the "A level" students in the game.

 

== Web Comics ==