Memory Alpha
Register
Advertisement
Memory Alpha
File:Spock McCoy 3D chess.jpg

Spock, McCoy, and 3D chess

Malcolm and Travis play chess

Travis Mayweather and Malcolm Reed play chess

Chess, globe-memory test

Spherical chess during Spock's memory test

Chess is a board game played by two opponents, one controlling white pieces and the other controlling black.

In 2154, Ensign Travis Mayweather and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed played chess while inhabited by Organians. Lieutenant Reed told Ensign Mayweather that he was the best player of chess aboard the NX class starship Enterprise. (ENT: "Observer Effect")

Whether or not this indicates an Organian partiality to the game remains unknown.

By 2264, a three-dimensional variant had been devised and was available to the crew of the Constitution class USS Enterprise. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")

Another variation of chess was used in Spock's memory test, which featured the game on a spherical grid. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)

When the computer of the USS Enterprise-D was affected by nanites, it responded with "Pawn to King Three, Knight to Rook Four, Queen to Bishop Three" to an inquiry. (TNG: "Evolution")

Note that this chess nomenclature (English Descriptive Notation) is uncommon in the 21st century, it being much more common to use algebraic notation to describe chess games. As for the moves themselves, the description could be claimed to show evidence of the hypermodern chess school surviving into at least the 24th century.

According to Captain Jean-Luc Picard, dealing with the Romulans "is always like a chess game". (TNG: "The Defector")

On stardate 44390.1, two chess tournaments took place aboard the USS Enterprise-D. (TNG: "Data's Day")

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. (TNG: "The Mind's Eye")

Benjamin Sisko and Jadzia Dax played a game in early 2371. (DS9: "Equilibrium")

When Harry Kim referred to Kal-toh as "Vulcan chess", Tuvok commented that, "Kal-toh is to chess as chess is to tic-tac-toe" (VOY: "Alter Ego").

Tuvok does a disservice to chess here by implying its triviality: the total number of possible chess games is described by the Shannon number, which is approximately 10120, or a billion billion googol, which makes chess a game of stupendous complexity with more variations than the total number of atoms in the universe. It is possible, however, that Tuvok's comment was based on a personal preference, for the spatial-order problems inherent in kal-toh instead of the tactical and strategic situations inherent in chess.

Types

Background Information

The script of "Empok Nor" described the Cardassian game of Kotra as being "a cross between chess and Stratego".

See also:

Advertisement