Chess
Chess was a tactically and intellectually advanced Human board game played by two opponents, one controlling "white" pieces and the other controlling "black" (though the pieces may be different colors.)

History 
In 2154, Ensign Travis Mayweather and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed played chess aboard the  starship  while inhabited by Organian observers. Lieutenant Reed told Ensign Mayweather that he was the ship's champion and won all the tournaments. According to the observer inhabiting Reed, the total number of possible outcomes in a match of chess was 10123. ()

By 2265, a three-dimensional variant had been devised and was available to the crew of the  . James T. Kirk and Spock frequently enjoyed playing it together. ()

In 2266, during a confrontation with the First Federation vessel Fesarius, while the Enterprise and its crew were apparently helpless against the alien Balok threatening to destroy them, Spock likened the situation to chess in which one is lost when overpowered, suggesting that the Enterprise crew was checkmated and the game was over. However, a comment from McCoy led Kirk to reject Spock's chess analogy playing poker a game in which one can overcome a losing situation by bluffing.()

Another variation of chess was used in Spock's memory test in 2286, which featured the game on a spherical grid. ()

When the computer of the  was affected by nanites, it responded to an inquiry with "Pawn to King Three, Knight to Rook Four, Queen to Bishop Three". ()

According to Captain Jean-Luc Picard, dealing with the Romulans was "always a game of chess". () 

On stardate 44390.1, two chess tournaments took place aboard the USS Enterprise-D. ()

One of the false memories planted into Geordi La Forge's brain after being brainwashed by the Romulans was of making second place in a chess tournament on Risa. () 

Benjamin Sisko and Jadzia Dax played a game of chess in early 2371. ()

A house featured in the holonovel Janeway Lambda One had a chess set on display, its pieces set up. ()

Despite the game's inherent complexity, some individuals have been dismissive of it. When Harry Kim referred to Kal-toh as "Vulcan chess", Tuvok claimed that "Kal-toh is to chess as chess is to Tic-tac-toe". () 

The Doctor claimed that his "cousin" (programming-wise) was a prize-winning chess program, not an electric shaver as Tom Paris had joked. ()

In 2375, Lieutenant Commander Data told the Ba'ku resident Artim that his chess routines were quite advanced. ()

As part of his many enhancements to his program, The Doctor added a subroutine that allowed him to play chess at the level of a grandmaster. It was one of several he agreed to leave behind in order to pare down his program enough to be sent in a compressed data stream to the Alpha Quadrant in attempt to save his creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, from dying. ()

In 2380, Q set a challenge for the bridge crew of the  by dressing them as chess pieces and placing them on a giant chess board with elements of several other sports and games. Q made Captain Carol Freeman the , Dr. T'Ana became a rook, and Commander Jack Ransom and Lieutenant Shaxs both became pawns. ()

In 2382, when the USS Cerritos was being stolen from drydock by Ensign Beckett Mariner, Gary was playing a video game version of Chess on his computer console. When he was informed that the Cerritos was leaving, he sounded the alarm. ()

Sometime during the far future, Craft played chess with Zora during his stay on the . ()

Appendices

See also 
 Benzite chess
 Mordock Strategy

Background information 
In the final draft script of , an ultimately unused line of dialogue referred to the chess pieces used aboard the  as "Antarian metal chess pieces".

In a revised draft script for , a game of chess, played in Captain Kirk's quarters, was featured at the start of the episode's teaser. In a memo to Gene Roddenberry (dated ), Robert Justman suggested omitting the chess game and instead having the entire teaser set on the Enterprises bridge.

An unfilmed line from  suggests that the Mordock Strategy was a strategy in Benzite chess. The script of  described the Cardassian game of Kotra as being "a cross between chess and ".

The chess nomenclature used for the computer's lines in , , has become highly uncommon in the early 21st century, in favor of the far more efficient , which was developed during the early decades of the 20th century.

In the writers' first draft script of , Phlox correctly ascertained that Captain Jonathan Archer had recently been playing chess, a deduction he arrived at after finding that Archer's pet beagle, Porthos, had mistakenly eaten a pawn from the game.

In an ultimately omitted scene from the final draft script of , Malcolm Reed admitted to hating chess.

Three chess sets "like the one featured in the  episode '" were sold during the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, and two three-dimensional chess sets were sold in the Christie's auction 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection.

External links 
 
 
 
cs:Šachy
de:Schach
it:Scacchi
Recreation