Stories or characters with a chess motif?

[VibrantFox]

So while it's not something I'd know how to implement in my own works (mainly coz I don't think it quite suits anything I have right now) I'm curious if anyone has seen characters, story elements or otherwise with some reference or another to the wonderful game of chess

I feel like I've come across direct references in things like alice in wonderland or a certain episode of Rupert but in more recent media I'm not sure if it's something that's turned up so if there's anyone whose put it to use or knows of something that's implemented it please share

[Katzalcoatl]

Do you mean like Black Butler, No game No Life, highschool dxd (ecchi), K-Project, etc.?

Chess is a fairly popular game that inspires story plots, characters, and other things. Even Sherlock Holmes has great references to chess.

[VibrantFox]

oml i honestly kinda forgot about those especially NGNL and Black Butler tho i guess it's more a matter of passage of time from their initial release for me ;;=<=

I definitely remember seeing it with Sherlock Holmes but I'll have to go back for some of the others you mentioned

[Katzalcoatl]

If you still need more examples there's Hanibal Lecter, Batman (brilliant strategist plus some enemies have literal inspiration on chess pieces), Death Note (the whole fight of L and Light Yagami), not exactly chess but there's also shogi (could be considered japanese chess) anime like shion no Ou, and March comes in like a lion.

[darthmongoose]

Code Geass has a very strong chess theme. That one immediately comes to mind.

Then of course there's one of the most famous examples, "Alice Through the Looking Glass", elements of which got folded into the Disney movie of Alice in Wonderland, but in the books, it's Through the Looking Glass (the sequel book) that has all the chess stuff like the red queen as the antagonist, and a lot more too, because the whole story is Alice trying to cross a chess board to become a queen.

There's a musical called Chess... I don't know how chess themed it is, I just remember my older sister and her drama kid friends being obsessed with it and singing the songs a lot when I was in school

[Kelheor]

The musical is, unfortunately, mostly relationship drama, barely any chess idea going on there xD went to watch it just a year ago

[darthmongoose]

Well that's disappointing! It could have been a musical about really intense competitive chess playing! Like The Queen's gambit, but with singing!

Oh, actually, I just thought of another thing with a chess theme though: Deltarune.

[VibrantFox]

I'm actually in the middle of a deltarune replay but i'd definitely like to go back and read alice and through the looking glass

[river121693]

I thought this video and the comment section is a really really interesting analysis of the chess match in the 2nd Sherlock Holmes movie-- the chess game itself cleverly symbolizes the moves that the characters made throughout the movie.

[harlan]

There is the 1965 novel Squares of the City by John Brunner in which the plot follows the moves of an actual famous chess game.

[NickRowler]

Free Fall by David Wiesner is a children’s picture book about a surreal dream a little boy has. Chess does play a part in it. The book is unique because there is no text, only pictures.

[MaxFF]

The TV show Lexx had a single episode about two characters playing a game of chess, and the chess pieces resembled the major characters in the show but wearing goofy hats to show which piece they were supposed to be.

[powerplantanimations]

Iron Man had this cool arc where Tony Stark was up against the Chessmen. LOVED how they utilized the chess gimmicks. The Rook and the Queen were my favorites. Tony and his friends were staying at a castle and it turns out the entire building was the rook. The Queen took me by surprise. Like of COURSE it was the chick Tony was sleeping with.