< Chess

Chess/Characters


Yes, even the gamepieces of Chess get their own character sheet. Don't you know the game is Serious Business?

Interesting note, the Five-Man Band and Five-Bad Band tropes listed here can often be used to tell which characters of a series will take which position in a themed chess set.

Every character on this page possesses the following tropes:

  • Badass Army: Two of them to varying degrees.
  • Chess Motifs: Somehow.
  • Killed Off for Real: Once captured, they stay off the board for the rest of the game.
    • Exception: If a Pawn makes it to the far side of the board, the Pawn is instantly promoted to any other piece (except a King), making all the pieces (except for the Pawn and the King) a sort of Legacy Character.
  • One-Hit-Point Wonder: No piece has any resistance to capture. At all. Ever. If it's there, take it.


The King

The primary goal of the game is to capture this piece, by any means necessary. He can only move one square in any direction. When he's threatened, it's customary to say "Check", and "Checkmate" in the situation where he cannot escape capture. Typically designed as a tall piece with an elaborate crown.

  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Double subverted; he cowers at the back in the opening and the mid-game, but once the final act rolls in, he's given more freedom to actually live up to his namesake.
  • Big Bad ↔ Big Good: Is automatically the latter when he's on your side, and part of your main objective is to keep him safe. Conversely, the only way to win the game is by taking out the enemy King.
  • Harem Hero: Depending on how many pawns you decide to promote to queens. And yes, you can have more than one.
    • Unless you play with "pawn-crosses-board-get-piece-back" rules.
  • Henpecked Husband
  • The Hero
  • Human Shield: Reversed as when the King is in check he may use his own allies as shields.
  • Keystone Army: If the King goes down, they all go down.
  • MacGuffin Guy
  • Nice Hat: His crown can be pretty cool-looking, depending on how it's designed.
  • Non-Action Guy: If a piece of yours ever actually gets captured by the King, you're either really bad at this or have one hell of a plan.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: As a consequence of only being allowed to fight in the final act of a game.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Double-Subverted, again. Ordinarily, he's simply there to keep your forces from falling apart, and it's only until the endgame where he's allowed a more active role in the board.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In the late-game, he kicks more ass.
  • We Cannot Go on Without You: Same as above.

The Queen

One of the most important pieces in the game and the most powerful, the Queen can move as far as she wants in any clear direction, and capture anything in her path. However, you only get one, so she must be used wisely. Usually slightly shorter than the King, with a smaller crown.

The Knight

The erratic Knights can only move two squares forward and one to the side (visualize their movement grid as the mighty L block from Tetris), and can 'leap over' any units, ally or enemy, that are in their way. Designed as the head of a horse.

  • Badass: While all the pieces, unless they can capture, are blocked by other pieces, this guy can leap over them, which effectively allows him to teleport in every move. Also, when enemy pieces check the King from the distance, he can use friendly pieces as shields to cover from attacks; not so against the Knight, if he checks you, you have to move away or capture the Knight.
  • Cool Horse
  • Face of the Band: Just about anytime chess is referred to, or symbolized, you'll see this guy.
  • Knight in Shining Armour
  • The Lancer ↔ The Dragon: The Knight's movements are comparatively erratic, yet are good for making traps.

The Rook

Also known as the 'Castle', these pieces can move in a straight line along the grid. They are placed on the corners of the board, and appear as castle turrets or keeps. Also note that 'castle' also refers to something you do with a rook (and a king).

The Bishop

Pieces initially placed either side of the King and Queen, these can move any distance diagonally on the grid.

  • Back-to-Back Badasses: While usually a Bishop is only as strong as a Knight due to being restricted to only one color of the board, having the Bishops pair (when the opponent doesn't) gives a great advantage by covering the whole board, as they're stronger than Rook and pawn, can hold their own against a Queen by building a fortress with the help of pawns in some situations, have good coordination to help pawns promote, and can mate the King (two Knights can't do that.)
  • Badass Preacher
  • Church Militant
  • Cultural Translation: Before chess reached Europe, this piece represented a war elephant.
  • Evil Genius ↔ The Smart Guy
  • Nice Hat
  • Took a Level in Badass: Due to a rule change; previously they could only move diagonally exactly two squares at a time.

The Pawn

The lowest-ranking and most common pieces, of which each player gets eight, placed in front of the other pieces. They can only move one square ahead, though they can also jump two squares on their first move, and they can capture any piece on one of the squares in front and to the side of them. If they are lucky enough to cross the board, they can be promoted to any other piece- usually a Queen.

  • Ascended Extra
  • Badass: With their Shapeshifting abilities after reaching the last rank, allowing them to become any non-King piece, they are powerful threats after reaching high ranks, specially if they're "passed" (they don't have any enemy pawn that can block or attack them in their way), so much that more powerful enemy pieces may need to sacrifice themselves to stop them.
  • Badass Normal: They're the weakest guys around, but they still can sometimes force the enemy Queen to retreat.
  • Cannon Fodder ↔ Redshirt Army: Only pawns in the game of..um, well, OK, chess. Mid- to high-level players know better than to abuse this.
  • Death by Origin Story: In several openings (the first moves of the game) the best moves include giving away a pawn or more, usually called a "gambit", where they're not traded for pieces, but instead for mobility and the initiative.
  • Lethal Joke Character: Pawns can move one space forward, are the only pieces bar the knights that can make the first move (starting with Knights is a bad idea if you like setting traps), get two spaces on their first turn, can only break out of the line they started in when taking, and are commonly used as sacrifices or put into stalemates. So, yeah, they suck. Manage to complete the one-square-at-a-time, no-turning-back journey and you can promote it to any piece you like - usually a queen, even a second one if the first one hasn't been captured yet.
  • Magikarp Power
  • Mauve Shirt
  • Mook Promotion
  • Mooks ↔ Red Shirt
  • Samus Is a Girl: A lot of people simply assume the pawns are male, since they're the Redshirt Army. However, if a pawn makes it to the far side of the board, that pawn will be promoted, usually to Queen.
  • Single-Stroke Battle: En passant.
  • Took a Level in Badass: On crossing the board they get to promote to another stronger piece that is not a king (usually a Queen).
  • Unwitting Pawn: Literally, but not figuratively.
  • We Have Reserves: Played straight by inexperienced players. Completely averted at higher levels, where even one ill-considered sacrifice can be enough to lose.
  • Zerg Rush: Pawns can win by sheer numbers. For instance, three connected advanced pawns can beat a Queen as all she can do is capture one of them, leaving the other two to promote.
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