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"As we've learned from all films ever made, whenever you have a special skill, it will eventually save your life, regardless of how impossibly stupid it is."

— Seanbaby

Training in any kind of skill, ability, or knowledge that will likely later come in handy. Much like Chekhov's Gun, Chekhov's Skill covers instances where a character takes time in-story to become proficient at something.

If the hero takes time to teach his sweetie a self-defense Judo throw during the beginning, expect this Distressed Damsel to throw the Mook holding her into a Shark Pool during the climax.

This is a counterpoint to Suddenly Always Knew That, as proficiencies are gained and learned rather than mentioned or pulled out of thin air. Taken to extremes, Chekhov's Skill can be used to justify Implausible Fencing Powers or turn the Farm Boy into a gun toting Bad Ass. In frustrating cases, it might go the way of Forgotten Phlebotinum and never see use again. Used well, it can lead to some satisfying heroics from unexpected places.

Chekhov's Skill can also be used as a catalyst for other plot elements by having one character teach another, and getting some good Character Development out of it as well. Or even drive a plot as the seeker looks for a mentor to teach them Chekhov's Skill. If the skill is too complicated to be perfected so quickly, see Instant Expert.

If it is not a skill taught or otherwise demonstrated to the individual in question, then it is a Chekhov's Hobby. In the hobby, the skill is mentioned through dialogue and never takes up more plot than that. In the skill, even if the character hasn't perfected the Dangerous Forbidden Technique it still shows them training for it.

Example subpages:

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Real Life

In an interesting real life example, Astronaut Jim Lovell, during his flight on Apollo 8, remarked that he could use a portion of the Earth as a reference point to control his spacecraft's attitude should his guidance computer fail. During his Apollo 13 flight, an explosion forced the crew to shut down their guidance computers to conserve power. When he had to fire his engine to correct his craft's trajectory, he used the very same technique he came up with a year and a half earlier.
- Another NASA example: When Apollo 12 was struck by lightning during launch, it looked like they were going to have to abort because no one knew how to get the fried guidance computer back online. No except John Aaron, who had happened to have seen the same error during a test a year earlier and tracked it down in his spare time, and knew the simple but incredibly obscure procedure that would restore telemetry.
Flight, try SCE to 'Aux'.
Steve Jobs took a course in calligraphy at college. It later proved invaluable in Apple pioneering the Graphical User interface. Now think of how far CGI has gone ahead since that development.
Air Canada Flight 143, known as the "Gimli Glider", ran out of fuel mid-flight due to to a combination of technical failures and ground crews making errors converting from imperial to metric units when refueling the plane. The loss of both engines effectively turned the plane into a glider. The captain,Bob Pearson, happened to be an experienced glider pilot. He managed to land the plane safely at Gimli, an abandoned air force base turned into a drag strip.