World Champions
This world champion is the only American to win the World Chess Championship.
Who is Bobby Fischer?
This wealthy businessman once nearly beat Magnus Carlsen in an odds game on television.
Who is Bill Gates?
This opening gets its name from when members of the Paris team in 1834 defeated the London team by putting this opening to good use.
This 2001 film depicts a magical version of chess, and in the final chess game, Harry could have been sacrificed to win the game faster.
What is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone?
This player famously, or notoriously, stated "Chess speaks for itself."
Who is Hans Niemann?
This world champion lost a match against IBM's Deep Blue, marking the beginning of computer dominance in chess.
Who is Gary Kasparov?
This basketball player who played 20 seasons and won the NBA most valuable player award is also an avid chess player.
Who is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?
This variation of the Vienna game gets its name from two classics of horror stories.
What is the Frankenstein-Dracula variation?
This 1942 black-and-white classic has a scene of Humphrey Bogart playing in the diner his character owned.
What is Casablanca?
This streamer has said many times that he "literally doesn't care."
Who is Hikaru Nakamura?
This world champion was known as the "chess machine" going eight years without a single tournament defeat.
Who is José Raúl Capablanca?
This writer of the Game of Thrones series credits chess with making his breakthrough come faster and directed chess tournaments on the weekends.
Who is George R.R. Martin?
This opening gets its name from the Spanish priest who first analyzed the opening in the 16th-century.
What is the Ruy Lopez?
This 1983 Sci-Fi classic staring Mathew Broderick ends with a government computer asking, "How about a nice game of chess?"
What is WarGames?
This streamer during the 2022 World Chess Championship asked Magnus Carlsen, "How does the knight move?"
Who is Alexandra Botez?
This world champion once quipped "there are two types of sacrifices: correct ones, and mine."
Who is Mikhail Tal?
This celebrity once got a draw against Garry Kasparov which may have inspired him to run for governor of California.
Who is Arnold Schwarzenegger?
This opening gets its name from when Tartakower visited the Bronx Zoo to get inspiration on what to play in his next game.
What is the Organgutan Opening?
This 1968 film predicted the superiority of computers in chess when HAL 9000 defeated one of the members of the crew.
What is 2001: A Space Odyssey?
This not-founding father wrote a book The Morals of Chess and said, "The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready on all occasions. "
Who is Benjamin Franklin?
This world champion had the longest reign of an officially recognized world champion of 27 years from 1894-1921.
Who is Emanual Lasker?
This American film director, often considered one of the greatest film directors of all time, often incorporated chess into his movies as a visual metaphor for the events in the film.
Who is Stanley Kubrick?
This variation of the Caro-Kann defense gets its name from unsophisticated country folk and was played by a young Magnus Carlsen on occasion.
What is the Hillbilly Attack?
This Swedish film from 1957 shows a Knight playing a game of chess against Death for his life.
What is The Seventh Seal?
This French player from the 18th century was the first to identify that, "Pawns; they are the soul of chess."
Who is François-André Danican Philidor?