History Main / XanatosSpeedchess

* ''[[WebVideo/LifeSMP Double Life SMP]]'': At the start of the season, Grian is able to nab the only pieces of sugarcane on the map, which are incredibly important due to the server's modded recipe for TNT requiring four paper. Foreseeing the way that other teams would tear up his base to get some sugarcane of their own and inevitably break his monopoly, he quickly steals all of the ''sand'' on the server -- a much easier task thanks to the map's lack of a desert -- and only leaving behind enough pieces of sand for one or two pieces of TNT, thereby creating a second monopoly on explosives, this time with a non-renewable resource.

* ''Film/{{Fargo}}'': Jerry Lundegaard finds himself in a game of this, and is not very good at it, but never gives up.

** Arguably, the entirety of the final Allied and Epsilon missions are one big game of XanatosSpeedChess.[[spoiler:The Allies destroy all the Mental Dynamos shielding the Mental Omega Device on the surface, only to find that Yuri was CrazyPrepared and hid one underground. Their attempts to destroy the last Dynamo only buy time for the Epsilon to drive back the Allies. The Epsilon manage to prep the Mental Omega Device to begin mind controlling the whole earth, only for the activation to be aborted by the Allies activating a [[TimeStandsStill Time Freeze]]. In response, the Epsilon sneak Infiltrators on board the Paradox Engine to disable its weapons. While the Time Freeze still works, the Engine has no weapons to push past the Epsilon defense. In a last ditch effort, the Allies decide to try and freeze the Device in time, only for Libra to successfully damage the Engine. Finally, (though its not clear if this was an intentional response or not), the Engine rams into the Device and manages to damage it, but not enough to render it inoperable.]]

* ''[[Franchise/MonsterVerse Godzilla: Aftershock]]'': Ex-[[UsefulNotes/SecretIntelligenceService MI6]] EcoTerrorist [[Characters/MonsterVerseAlanJonah Alan Jonah]] is very good at thinking on his feet when he needs to. He escapes from detainment on [[UsefulNotes/{{Guam}} Guam]] amid the havoc caused by Jinshin-Mushi's attack. He manages to covertly hijack Emma Russell and Miles Anderson's private jet in an attempt to take them hostage and force them to fly him off the island covertly, but once Jonah ends up in a Mexican standoff with Tarkan, he escapes by tackling Tarkan, then firing his gun into the air outside the jet to create confusion and bewilderment whilst he disappears again before he can be re-apprehended. Not only does Jonah continue to evade capture, but he still finds another way off the island afterwards.

** [[spoiler: Belos himself is quite adept at this. When his initial plan to destroy the people of the Boiling Isles with the Draining Spell fails and he’s nearly killed by [[RealityWarper The Collector]], he spends some time on Earth regaining his strength until he can find a way back to The Demon Realm. Weakened, but still alive, he attempts to [[GrandTheftMe possess]] The Collector to steal their power. But when that proves to not be an option, he instead manipulates The Collector into distracting Luz and her friends from following him while he then [[BodySurf Body Surfs]] to [[GeniusLoci The Titan]] that makes up the Isles itself, [[OneWingedAngel transforming]] himself into a massive monstrosity that can destroy the Demon Realm personally.]]

** [[spoiler: Belos himself is quite adept at this. When his initial plan to destroy the people of the Boiling Isles with the Draining Spell fails and he’s nearly killed by [[RealityWarper The Collector]], he spends some time on Earth regaining his strength until he can find a way back to The Demon Realm. Weakened, but still alive, he attempts to [[GrandTheftMe possess]] The Collector to steal their power. But when that proves to not be an option, he instead manipulates The Collector into distracting Luz and her friends from following him while he then BodySurfs to [[GeniusLoci The Titan]] that makes up the Isles itself, [[OneWingedAngel transforming]] himself into a massive monstrosity that can destroy the Demon Realm personally.]]

* ''Series/TalesOfTheTinkerdee'': Taminella's plans keep going awry, and her stint in the castle is basically a continuous streak of adjusting her plans of the fly with disguise after disguise. Though at times even she gets them mixed up, and her clumsy dunce of an ogre minion isn't always up to speed on her plan, particularly while he's ordered to club the very princess that Taminella had disguised herself as...