Ballers on the Board

Howdy! It’s The Chess Friends!

It’s the Legend Vivaan here! Did you know Peshka is an amazing athlete? We're going to show you why! Today we’re going to talk about why a bunch of professional athletes play chess. They do it to keep their mental game sharp and to lock in before games. In chess, you must be laser focused and calculate plans and tactics very quickly. This is the same in sports. Quick decision making is everything on the basketball court. Fun fact: basketball is my favorite sport besides chess, and I will be entering my second season in May. When we visited and competed at the famous Mechanics Chess Club in San Francisco, the oldest in the USA, we met and competed alongside Golden State Warriors Center Quinten Post! Here’s a selfie of me, my brother the Myth Sarang, and my Dad, along with Quinten! Note QP is over 7 feet tall! Of course, we had our Warriors swag on and went to a Dubs game while there!

As a chess player I am very aggressive and often sacrifice pieces for strong attacking potential. As a baller, though I’m a big dude for my age and a 5 positionally, I like to think of myself as a facilitator, ball handler, and a “stretch 5” just like QP, meaning I can defend anyone, and shoot great shots from the perimeter and midrange in addition to in the post. On the court, my chess thinking is always helping me. When I’m driving the ball up court, my eyes are scanning for all my teammates and anticipating where the right pass is. When I don’t have the ball, I’m moving to spots where I can get an open shot and give my teammate an easy look to pass me the ball. On D, I am anticipating their plans and aggressively going for steals whenever opportunities arise and blocking shots when the moment is right. Basketball is constantly evaluating and revaluating positions on the court and plans for myself, my teammates, and my opponents, just like I do over the chessboard.

In Las Vegas in 2025, there was a Chesstival designed by Derrick Rose as a part of the Freestyle Chess Tour created by Magnus Carlsen! After an awesome head and hand event (think hand and brain where one player says the piece to move and the other player chooses which specific one to move and where to move it) with an NBA player and a chess pro on each team, Quinten won the blitz event, beating several NBA players, past and present, along the way. Quinten donated all his winnings to Reading Partners, which helps kids read. At that event, QP got to play with Magnus and chat bball and chess. Did you know Magnus is a huge Warriors fan and specifically Steph Curry fan? Me too! QP said this of Magnus: “Modern era, he’s like a Curry or like a LeBron of the chess world.”

You can read a lovely summary of the Chesstival event here: 2025 Chesstival: Williams, Post Win Basketball & Freestyle Chess Crossover Event - Chess.com. My favorite moment in the tournament was a battle between QP and Tony Snell. Using the LiChess board editor for position screenshots.

After move 23, QP had this beautiful position. Note the material is equal but he is completely winning. Do you see the winning idea for white? There are many and QP found a lovely one, which I’ll show you in a sec. The best move here believe it or not is sacrificing THE ROOOOOOOOK! Rxh5!! is crushing and has forced mate… Here’s how it goes. 24. Rxh5 gxh5, 25. Re3 Rfc8, 26. Rh3 Qb7, 27. Rxh5 Qxg2 (inconvenience move haha), 28. Kxg2 b5 or really anything, 29. Rh8#. Woohoo!

That’s not quite what happened in the game though, but QP found a winning plan with very similar vibes. Though his line wasn’t quite as forcing, he got to this lovely position after move 27.

No doubt pleasing streamer Levy Rozman aka Gotham Chess, QP this time around actually does sacrifice THE ROOOOOOOOK! He played Rhxh5+ which is winning but Rgxh5 is even faster! We’ll leave it to you to finish the job from here! The sports world is starting to take serious note of chess and its value to sport. Checkmates and closeouts: Inside the NBA's quiet chess boom - ESPN was published on ESPN last week and will surely motivate even more athletes to join the chess world and vice versa!

Turning it over to my big bro Sarang now to talk football and chess!

It is a sunny morning here in Seattle, where touchdowns and tactics will be combining today in my coverage of American football. The NFL is my favorite sports league to watch and I love stats and fantasy! 

American football and chess might seem like complete opposites at first glance. One is loud, fast and physical; the other is quiet, slow and mental. But if you look closer, the NFL and chess share a surprising number of similarities, especially in decision-making, strategy and mental training under pressure.  

Fundamentally, both football and chess are games of planning. In chess, players spend lots of time studying openings, patterns, endgames, tactics, and anticipating moves from their opponents. Similarly, NFL teams build detailed playbooks and study game film to understand their opponents’ approaches. Here is an example: A quarterback (QB) reading a defense is very similar to a chess player evaluating a position; both are trying to predict what will happen next and choose the best response in every contingency.

Another strong connection between the two is structure. In chess, controlling the center and coordinating pieces is essential for strong attacks and positions. In football, maintaining formation and executing plays correctly is just as important. One player out of position can weaken the entire system in both, whether it’s a knight on the rim in chess or a missed block on the offensive line in football.  

There are many other connections between football and chess, including time management, leadership and adaptability. I will save those connections for another time. Now let’s move on to the BlitzChamps tournament!  

Every June, eight NFL players compete in a blitz chess double-elimination knockout bracket tournament, with a prize pool of $100,000. The winner wins $30,000 to the charity of their choice, while the other $70,000 is split among other competitors. The players in BlitzChamps IV included: 

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert  

Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (now on the Vikings) 

Patriots wide receiver Mack Hollins  

Eagles running back AJ Dillon (now on the Panthers) 

Saints safety Justin Reid  

Chargers offensive tackle Rashawn Slater 

Vikings defensive tackle Harrison Phillips (now on the Jets) 

Retired legendary cornerback Richard Sherman (Seahawks, 49ers, Buccaneers) 

In the end, it was Justin Reid who came out on top for the second time in a row with a roughly 1300 rating at the time, beating out Kyler Murray with a 1200 rating then 2-1 in the grand finals. Here is a GIF of game 1 of the grand final series with a 5+1 time control, where Justin as White launched a huge attack on Kyler’s kingside which was enough to eventually win and give him a 1-0 lead. In the final position where Kyler resigned, Justin had mate in one with 28. Qh8#.  Here's a GIF of the game, created on chess dot com.

Justin donated his winnings to his charity JReid Indeed, helping teens access science, technology, and systems education. Other NFL players who play chess include:  

Retired wide reciever Amari Cooper (Raiders, Cowboys, Browns, Bills) 

Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill 

Ravens cornerback Chidobe Awuzie 

Retired legendary Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald  

Seahawks linebacker Chazz Surratt 

Jaguars defensive end Arik Armstead 

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow 

and many more! 

Some other famous athletes who play chess are Indian cricketer Yuzvendra Chalal, who actually competed in the World Youth Chess Championships and has a FIDE rating of 1974, basketball superstars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Dončić, and Steph Curry, soccer superstars Mo Salah and PogChamp winner Ebere Eze, heavyweight boxing world champ Lennox Lewis, and tennis stars Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Carlos Alcaraz, to name just a few!

At the end of the day, to excel in any sport, getting locked in mentally is critical. Game planning, anticipating, focusing, calculating, studying, structuring, and executing on the court, field, or over the board are vital for success. Professional athletes in all sports are seeing the value of chess to help them with all these things. Maybe you’ll get to meet and play with some at a future tournament, like we did!

Three Cheers, Fellow Future Master Chess Friends!

The Man Benji, The Myth Sarang, The Legend Vivaan