History Main / CrazyPeoplePlayChess

** Alexander Alekhine, the 4th world champion. A brilliant player who took down Capablanca and who won his championship back from Euwe, himself a genius in his own right. Alekhine was also probably a Nazi, and was eventually interred in a German insane asylum due to madness brought on by alcoholism.

* One ''VampireTheMasquerade'' 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.

* In the DeathNote live-action movie, Light and L do this.

There is such a thing as chess with a round board, and if somebody plays this, expect this effect to be [[BeyondTheImpossible greatly intensified.]]

** Bobby Fischer, the 11th world champion. The man who took down the Soviet chess machine. Also a raving anti-semite (despite being Jewish), conspiracy theorist who thought that the Soviets (and later, the Jews) were trying to assassinate him or at least screw up his games, and all around nutjob.

* Then again, there were also some amatuer players who were just as nuts:

->''No Chess Grandmaster is normal; they only differ in the extent of their madness.''

Many writers view {{chess}} players as not just [[SmartPeoplePlayChess 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 [[RageQuit 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 is such a thing as chess with a round board, and if somebody plays this, expect this effect will be [[BeyondTheImpossible greatly intensified.]]

* Curt von Bardeleben, a lawyer and player who beat Mieses and Lasker and (famously) lost to Steinitz at the 1895 Hastings tournament. Years later, he died when he threw himself from a high window.

* ''ThroughTheLookingGlass'', the sequel to ''AliceInWonderland'', features a chess-crazed Wonderland. Wonderland, of course, is populated mostly by those who are as mad as hatters.

* ''Series/TheCape'' features a supervillain 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.

Many writers view chess players as not just [[SmartPeoplePlayChess 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 [[RageQuit 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.

-->-- '''Viktor Korchnoi''', grandmaster

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop''[='=]s 14th episode, entitled "Bohemian Rhapsody", contains a chess game between an old insane chess master and Ed. The game is played over the internet and lasts for days until the chess master wins, and subsequently dies.

->''Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. ''\\
--GKChesterton

->''It's easy to get obsessed with chess.''\\
--Magnus Carlsen, 2nd highest rated chess player of all time

* CowboyBebop's 14th episode, entitled "Bohemian Rhapsody", contains a chess game between an old insane chess master and Ed. The game is played over the internet and lasts for days until the chess master wins, and subsequently dies.
* Mao and Lelouch in CodeGeass. Mao is crazy enough that he rigs a bomb to detonate if he wins.

* {{Film/Brainwashed}}, based on TheRoyalGame, below.
* GreenLantern -- Hector Hammond, soon to be infused with yellow fear energy, is first seen playing chess against a computer.

* ThroughTheLookingGlass, the sequel to AliceInWonderland, features a chess-crazed Wonderland. Wonderland, of course, is populated mostly by those who are as mad as hatters.
* Famously, in Nabokov's TheDefense, the chess grandmaster is so tormented that his whole life disintegrates. Even when he resolves to abandon chess for the sake of his sanity, he finds that he can't.
* LosVoraces2019 is about a $20,000,000 tournament in the future. A good chunk of the players are... a bit odd. And then there's the serial killer.
* In Zweig's TheRoyalGame, the trope is played with. Chess at first saves the main character's sanity, as all he has to relieve his boredom after being imprisoned is a book of chess games. But once he memorizes the book, he becomes a complete lunatic who has split himself into two personalities, Black and White, in order to play games against himself.
* In TheEight, 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.'
* In TheQueensGambit, the main character is driven so mad by chess that she becomes a pill addict.
* {{Literature/Zugzwang}}, by Ronan Bennett, features a chess master named Rozental who begins the story on the verge of a complete mental breakdown.
* {{ScienceFiction/Quarantine}}, a drabble by Arthur C. Clarke. Aliens reach earth, and their computers determine that chess will so utterly derange them that the only solution is to blow up the planet.
* UnsoundVariations, by George R. 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.

* {{Series/Endgame}} is about a chess grandmaster who becomes a hikikomori and cannot leave his hotel due to paralyzing fear.
* LawAndOrderCriminalIntent used a mentally damaged chess expert as a villain in one episode.
* In one episode of {{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.
* Series/TheCape features a supervillain 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.
* Windom Earle from {{Twin Peaks}} plays chess, when he isn't murdering people and stuffing them in paper-mache pawns.

* One VampireTheMasquerade 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 {{Theatre/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.

* In AmericanMcGeesAlice, the main character, Alice, starts the game in an insane asylum. She also has to play some chess as she moves through the game, even turning into different pieces at some points.

* The Sewer King in HeyArnold.

->''No Chess Grandmaster is normal; they only differ in the extent of their madness''\\
--Viktor Korchnoi, grandmaster

* {{Endgame}} is about a chess grandmaster who becomes a hikikomori and cannot leave his hotel due to paralyzing fear.

* {{Brainwashed}}, based on TheRoyalGame, below.

{{Anime}}

{{Film}}

{{Literature}}

LiveActionTV

TabletopGames

{{Theatre}}

VideoGames

WesternAnimation

RealLife

* In TheQueensGambit, the main character develops an addition to pills (considered to be a mental disease).

* {{Literature/Quarantine}}, a drabble by Arthur C. Clarke. Aliens reach earth, and their computers determine that chess will so utterly derange them that the only solution is to blow up the planet.

* Several famous chess world champions and top players (see here for more information: http://amog.com/entertainment/celebrity/craziest-brilliant-chess-grandmasters-time/):

** Carlos Torre-Repetto, a somewhat obscure player who was still able to beat Emmanual Lasker (2nd world champion). One day, while on a bus, he decided to strip completely naked for no apparent reason. He was institutionalized shortly thereafter.

** Paul Morphy, often considered to be one of the best chess players whose career took place before they began keeping track of World Champions, is often considered to have been at least a little mad. There's no real evidence for this, but it's why they call him 'The Pride and Sorrow of Chess'

(Probably further novels on this list: http://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-related-novels-amp-stories. Didn't have time to check them all).

->''No Chess Grandmaster is normal; they only differ in the extent of their madness''\\

->''Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. ''\\

->''It's easy to get obsessed with chess.''\\