On July 17, 2013, two players got in an argument over a chess game in Bellevue Washington. One of the men invited his neighbor over for a game of chess, but they got in an argument about the game. The man then pulled a gun on his opponent (perhaps they were playing bullet chess). The opponent fled the house and called the police. This led to an 8-hour standoff until a salvo of “flash bang” stun bombs and gas grenades were thrown into the house. The man then surrendered.

In July 2012, Jessie Leeth and Charles Cox were playing a game of chess in Morgan County, Alabama, when Cox started winning. Leeth got upset that Cox was winning and they got into a fight. Leeth then stabbed Cox in the side with a knife. Leeth was charged with assault.

In January 2012, K. Mohan stabbed a cabby, Ngoh Chin Boon, in the neck in Singapore after the victim ticked him off for disturbing his chess game. Mohan was talking loudly and shouting vulgarities while using a phone. Boon told Mohan to not talk so loudly because he was concentrating on a game of chess with a friend. A fight broke out and Mohan left, only to return with a knife. Mohan attacked Boon with the knife until he was pulled away by Boon’s chess partner.

On August 11, 2011, two people were stabbed at Chuy’s restaurant in Phoenix after police say a person got mad over a game of chess. Officers at the scene said two people were playing a game, but when one person won the game the other person got mad and stabbed the winner twice. The victim’s friend jumped in and tried to help, but he was also stabbed.

On August 15, 2010, someone fired a shot at The Chess Club in Syracuse, New York. Damani Prince, a 16-year old boy received a gunshot wound to the foot. The shooting occurred shortly before midnight after a fight broke up a party at the Chess Club.

On September 1 2010, a chess game between inmates at the Indian River County Jail in Florida led to a fight. Christopher Brown was playing chess with another inmate in the cell block when Christopher O’Neal, 22, who was watching the game, commented about the game on the other inmate’s behalf. Brown told O’Neal to shut up, but O’Neal ignored him and continued to discuss the ongoing chess game. The two then got into a fight. It took several detention deputies to break up the flight.

In January 2009, a heated argument erupted at a Dubai chess tournament between an Iranian chess master and his Asian opponent. The two then got into a fight after the Asian opponent said he was good in karate.

On February 3, 2009, a man killed a friend with a sword after a chess game in Alameda, California. An argument broke out during their game, and the two started wrestling. Joseph Groom retreated to his bedroom and returned with a sword, which he used to stab Kelly Kjersem once. Kjersem later died.

In January 2008, Zachary Lucov was playing chess with Dennis Klien in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, when a scuffle broke out. Luco pulled out a gun and Klein was shot in the elbow. Lucov was arrested for aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.

In October 2008, David Christian of Iowa City got in a fight with Michael Steward while playing a game of chess at the rooming house where they both lived. He was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter. Christian choked Steward to death.

In October 2007, two players, Richard E. Brooks and “Joe the ex-Marine,” got into an argument at the Village Chess Shop in New York during a chess game. Richard was using his piece to knock off the other player’s piece rather than using the hands to remove a captured piece. Joe then picked up the wooden board and hit the other player in the face, which drew blood. The police were called. The player that was hit was pressing criminal charges and vowed to sue.

On July 26, 2006, Jessie Gilbert, a rising British female chess star, fell through a window in her room at the Hotel Labe in Pardubice in the Czech Republic. She won the Women’s World Amateur Championship when she was 11. Police believe she may have been sleepwalking.

In 2006, during the Turin chess Olympiad, UK grandmaster Daniel Gormally punched Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian to the ground at a nightclub. The two got in a jealous dispute over 19-year-old chess playing beauty Arianne Caoili. Caoili’s energetic dancing with Aronian provoked Gormally to fight.

In December 2006, the mother of Jessie Gilbert, a chess prodigy who plunged to her death in July 2006 from the 8th floor of her hotel, was arrested for threatening to kill her ex-husband. She blamed him for Jessie’s death.

In March 2005, International Master Simon Webb was stabbed to death in the family kitchen by his 25-year-old son after an argument. Simon returned to his home at 1 a.m. after playing in a local chess match. He was then stabbed 20 times with a kitchen knife by his drug-crazed son. His son then tried to kill himself by ramming his car at high speed into a bus shelter. He survived with just a broken nose.

On April 15, 2005, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov was attacked by a man posing as a chess fan who wanted his wooden chess board signed. Instead, he hit Kasparov in the head very hard with the chess board.

In 2005, junior champion David Howell of England (now a grandmaster) punched the organizer of the European Union Chess Championship when it turned out that Howell would not win a prize. It turned out that titled players were not eligible for junior prizes.

In 2005, Canadian grandmaster Pascal Charbonneau and his chess-playing friends were mugged at gunpoint at the World Open in Philadelphia.

In 2004, the FIDE vice president, Zurab Azmaiparashvili, was arrested by a group of security agents during the final ceremonies of the 36th Chess Olympiad in Calvia, Spain. He was approaching the stage to get the attention of FIDE President Ilyumzhinov about some awards that had not been given out when the security people stepped in front of him. The Calvia police said that he hit them, so they arrested him.

In 2003, Simon Andrews of Falls Township, Pennsylvania, stabbed to death Jerry Kowalski during a chess game. Authorities said that Andrews was disturbed by Kowalski’s constant talking during their chess games. Andrews then pulled a knife from under a sofa-bed mattress and stabbed Kowalski in the neck. Andrews was sentenced from 15 to 30 years in state prison.

In 2003, grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric, age 79, was attacked by burglars at 3 a.m. in his Belgrade home. The robbers beat and tied him up, then robbed him of his money, wife’s jewelry, chess trophies, silver chess sets, and other valuables. Gligoric suffered a black eye.

In 2002, two players got into a fight at the World Open in Philadelphia when one of the players threw a basketball at another player between rounds.

In 2001, Christopher Newton murdered his cellmate, Jason Brewer, over a game of chess in a Ohio prison. Brewer would resign his chess game against Newton every time a pawn was lost or the position looked bad. Newton tried to tell him not to give up and play the game out, but Brewer refused. After a month of playing chess and Brewer always resigning early without playing out the game, Newton finally had enough and strangled Brewer.

In 2000, Laurence Douglas of Puoghkeepsie, New York, stabbed Craig Williams to death over a chess game. Williams had just beaten Douglas in a chess game that had a $5 wager. Williams took a$5 bill from Douglas after the game. Douglas then pulled out a knife and stabbed Williams 16 times.

On May 30, 1999, Isa William Gray stabbed Vernon Miller to death over a games of chess while in the Federal Correctional Institution at Ray Brook, New York. Gray had lost a chess game, and it was agreed that the loser would pay the winner by doing pushups. Gray refused and an argument broke out. Gray then stabbed Miller in the chess with a crudely made knife.

In 1997, Grandmaster Alvis Vitolins (1938-1997) committed suicide by jumping from a tall building.

In 1995, International Master Gilles Andruet, a former French champion, was murdered in Paris over gambling debts. He was found dead in a plastic bag.

In 1994, Martin Wirth of Fort Collins, Colorado, shot to death Vernie Cox after the two argued over a chess game. Cox died of two gunshot wounds to the chest. Witnesses said that Wirth had lost a chess game with Cox, knocked over the chess board and some furniture, then began to argue with his opponent. Wirth went across the street to his home and returned with a gun and shot Cox to death.

In 1994, grandmaster Igor Platonov returned home to his apartment in Kiev when two thieves ambushed him and murdered him. The killers were never caught.

At the 1994 chess Olympiad in Moscow, the Macedonian team captain was beaten into unconsciousness and robbed twice. The first time, he was robbed of $7,000 inside a bank that was across the street from the playing center. A U.S. player was mugged, and robbers threatened his life if he did not come back the next day with more money. Other chess players reported that thugs pounded on their hotel doors in the middle of the night and threatened them.

In 1993, a person was shot and killed while playing chess in Bosnia, the first to die from sniper file while playing chess.

In 1992, Grandmaster Artur Yusupov returned to his Moscow apartment to discover several burglars in his apartment. A struggle broke out and Yusupov was shot and was in critical condition, but survived.

In 1992, Robert Bryan of England shot Matthew Hay over a chess game. Bryan had ‘had enough’ after losing to Hay and was jailed for 10 years after admitting attempting to murder Mr. Hay by shooting him in the neck with a shotgun.

From 1992 to 2006, Alexander Pichushkin (1974- ) went on a killing spree in Moscow. Pichushkin claimed he killed 63 people (48 confirmed) and his aim was to kill 64 people, one for each square on a chessboard.

In the 1989, a Russian scientist killed another colleague with an axe after losing a chess game at the Vostok Research Station in the Antarctic.

In 1989, Grandmaster Karen Grigorian (1947-1989) committed suicide by jumping off a building.

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union banned cosmonauts from playing chess in space with each other after a fist fight once broke out between cosmonauts over a chess game.

In 1981, future grandmaster John Fedorowicz and grandmaster András Adorján got into a fistfight at the Edward Lasker Memorial on New York. Fedorowicz was upset that Adorján beat him when Adorján was drawing all his earlier games. Most of the blows landed not on each other, but on the tournament director, Eric Schiller, who was trying to break up the fight.

In January 1979, Patrick McKenna, a prisoner in Nevada, strangled his Las Vegas cellmate, Jack J. Nobles, after an argument over a chess game. McKenna has been on death row in Nevada since 1979.

In one of the US Opens of the early 1970s, a chess player had just lost his game and, by himself, set up the pieces to analyze his game. A player sitting next to him told him to leave the playing area, that this was not a skittles room. Ignoring the player, the other person quietly replayed his lost game. The player again told him to leave. The lone kibitzer replied, “Who died and made you king?” The player then swept all the pieces off the other guy’s board with his hand. The kibitzer responded with a right hook that knocked the player off his seat. A fight then started, which had to be broken up by the tournament director.

In 1971, when Tigran Petrosian lost his match with Bobby Fischer, Petrosian’s wife, Rona, put the blame on his trainer, Alexey Suetin, and slapped him.

In 1966, Mikhail Tal was beaten up and hit on the head with a beer bottle during the 1966 Olympiad in Havana. He was drinking and had been flirting with a woman in a bar when her jealous boyfriend got in a fight with Tal. He missed the first five rounds of the Havana Chess Olympiad because of his injuries.

In 1964, chess master Raymond Weinstein was arrested for murder after he killed an 83-year old man in a nursing home. He was judged mentally ill and was confined to Ward’s Island for the mentally ill.

In 1962, Theodore Smith was arrested for murder after stabbing to death chess master Abe Turner at the office of Chess Review magazine. Turner was stabbed 9 times and his 280 pound body was stuffed inside a large wall safe. Turner told the police that the Secret Service told him to kill Turner.

In May 1962, during the Candidates Tournament in Curacao, Bobby Fischer and Pal Benko got into a fight after Fischer asked Arthur Bisguier to assist him during an adjournment. But Benko also wanted Bisguier to help with his own adjournment with Tigran Petrosian. Fischer supposedly insulted Benko and made fun of his accent. Benko responded by slapping Fischer.

In 1960, a U.S. sailor was arrested in New York for murder after he got in a fight with a spectator who criticized his chess game. The sailor struck the spectator with a broken beer bottle, which struck his jugular vein. The sailor was eventually acquitted of murder and was charged with accidental death instead.

In 1954, the Argentine Chess Federation called off the national chess tournament after a player punched a referee.

In 1950, Walter Bjornson, a chess player in Vancouver, British Columbia, was arrested for assault after cutting his chess opponent in the arm with a knife after he lost a chess game.

In 1948, grandmaster David Bronstein (1924-2006) survived an assassination attack during the first chess Interzonal in Saltsjobaden, Sweden. On the last day, Bronstein was playing Tartakower when, suddenly, a Lithuanian made a lunge at Bronstein to kill him. Several spectators grabbed the would-be assassin. The attempted killer wanted to murder a Russian because he claimed the Russians were responsible for sending his sister to Siberia and murdering her.

On April 17, 1945, Klaus Jung, a German officer, was killed in action at Welle, Germany. As a lieutenant, he refused to surrender and was killed by Allied troops in the battle of Welle on the Luneburg Heath, close to Hamburg, three weeks before World War II ended

In 1940, former New England chess champion Harold Morton (1906-1940), died in a car crash in Iowa when he hit a truck. His passenger, chess master I.A. Horowitz, survived. The two were giving simultaneous chess exhibitions throughout the country.

In July 1938, Nikolai Krylenko , who headed the Soviet chess association, was executed in Stalin’s purges. His trial lasted 20 minutes, he was then found guilty and immediately shot.

In 1924, Curt von Bardeleben was depressed and threw himself out the window of his boarding house, killing himself.

In 1915, Ajeeb, a chess automaton was set up at Coney Island. One player lost to it and was so angry he took out a gun and shot at the automaton. It killed its hidden operator, which was covered up. In another incident with Ajeeb, a Westerner emptied his six-shooter into the automaton, hitting the operator in the shoulder.

On 1909 Rudolf Swiderski committed suicide in Leipzig. He poisoned himself, then shot himself in the head. There were allegation of perjury in connection with a love affair and he was to face legal proceedings.

In 1901, chess master Johannes Minckwitz killed himself by throwing himself under an electric train in Germany. He lost both arms and died five days later.

In 1867, Wilhelm Steinitz got in a dispute with Henry Blackburne at a City of London Chess Club game. Blackburne made an insulting remark and Steinitz spat towards Blackburne. Blackburne, who was over 6 feet and 250 pounds, then smashed the diminutive Steinitz in the face with his fist. Steinitz wrote,
“…he struck with his full fist into my eye, which he blackened and might have knocked out. And though he is a powerful man of very nearly twice my size, who might have killed me with a few such strokes, I am proud to say that I had the courage of attempting to spit into his face, and only wish I had succeeded.”
Later, at a tournament in Paris in 1878, Blackburne returned to the hotel drunk and got in a quarrel with Steinitz. Steinitz wrote,
“…and after a few words he pounced upon me and hammered at my face and eyes with fullest force about a dozen blows…But at last I had the good fortune to release myself from his drunken grip, and I broke the window pane with his head, which sobered him down a little.”

On 1866, William Henry Russ, one of America’s leading compiler of chess problems, died in a hospital after trying to commit suicide. He adopted an 11-year old girl and proposed to her when she was 21. When he rejected him, he shot her four times in the head. He left her for dead (she survived), then tried to commit suicide by jumping into the river to drown himself. However, the tide was out and the water was not deep enough. He climbed out of the river and shot himself in the head. He died 10 days later in a hospital, lacking a will to live.

In 1485, Pedro Arbues, a Dominican member of the Inquisition, ordered victims of persecutions to stand in as figures in a game of living chess. The game was played by two blind monks. Each time the captured piece was taken, the person representing that piece was killed on the spot.

In 1264, another court case was opened when a man stabbed a woman to death with his sword after a quarrel over a chess game.

In 1251, the first known court case involving chess and violence appeared. It dealt with a chess player who stabbed his opponent to death. A quarrel arose between two players of Essex over a chess match. One of the players who lost was so angered that he stabbed his opponent in the stomach with a knife, from which he died.

Around 1213, Joan (1194-1244), Countess of Flanders and the daughter of Baldwin IX (1172-1205), count of Flanders and first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, beat her husband, Ferdinand (1188-1233), prince of Portugal, in a game of chess. He got so mad that he hit her. In revenge, she left her husband in French captivity from 1214 to 1226, refusing to ransom him.

Around 1120, King Henry I (1068-1135) of England and King Louis VI (1081-1137) of France got into a fistfight over a game of chess in Paris. One story says that Louis threw the chessboard at Henry; another says that Henry hit Louis over the head with the chessboard. Courtiers stepped in to stop the fight. This episode supposedly was the start of events that kept England and France at war for almost 12 years.

Canute (995-1035), king of England, Denmark, Norway, and part of Sweden, was said to have killed an earl over chess. The story is found in The Chronicles of the Kings of Norway called the Saga of Olaf Haraldson. In 1028, the king was playing a game of chess with his brother-in-law, Earl Godwin Ulfnadson , the husband of the king’s sister, when the king made a bad move, which led to a loss of one of the king’s pieces. The king took his move back, replaced his knight, and told the earl to play a different move. The earl got angry over this, overturned the chess board and started walking away. The king said “Runnest thou away, Ulf the coward?” The earl responded, “Thou wouldst have run farther at Helga river if thou hadst come to battle there. Thou didst not call me Ulf the coward when I hastened to thy help while the Swedes were beating thee like a dog.” The earl then left the king’s quarters. The next day, the king ordered the earl to be killed. The earl was stabbed to death at Saint Lucius’ church. In 1035, Canute died at the Abbey in Shaftesbury, Dorset. According to Henry Bird in Chess History and Reminiscences, the king was killed while watching a chess game. Armed soldiers rushed into the building and slew Canute while his friend, Valdemar, who was playing chess, was severely wounded. Valdemar escaped using the chess board as a shield.

– Bill Wall