Chess Chess was a game in which two players moved their pieces to try to checkmate the opponent ' s king . History . According to the Eleventh Doctor , the Time Lord s invented chess . ( TV : " Nightmare in Silver " ) On Earth , it was known at least by the 13th century . ( TV : " The Singing Sands " ) In the 52nd century , a variant of chess called live chess was favoured . Each piece had an electrical current ; each time a piece was moved , the current became stronger . ( TV : " The Wedding of River Song " ) Known challenges . At a Gobi Desert camp in 1289 , Marco Polo challenged Ian Chesterton to a game of chess . Tegana considered it a " fascinating game of strategy of war " . ( TV : " The Singing Sands " ) Dortmun played a one - player variant of the game . ( TV : " The Dalek Invasion of Earth " ) Cotton and Stubbs used pipes with different ends as pieces in a chess game . ( TV : " The Mutants " ) K9 Mark I played chess with the Fourth Doctor in the TARDIS . Leela had to move K9 ' s pieces for him . The Doctor declared that even one - dimensional chess showed the failings of the mechanical brain , shortly before K9 put him in check . ( TV : " The Sun Makers " ) A match with K9 Mark II saw the Doctor moving K9 ' s pieces . ( TV : " The Androids of Tara " ) In 1889 , in the House of the Dragon , the Fourth Doctor and Magnus Greel played a few moves of chess with the Doctor checkmating his opponent , who scattered the pieces in anger . ( TV : " The Talons of Weng - Chiang " ) Vislor Turlough and Tegan Jovanka played chess in the TARDIS . ( TV : " Enlightenment " ) The Sixth Doctor also played a game of chess against Frobisher , but the game had more than one board and some were stacked to form a cube . ( COMIC : " War - Game " ) Frobisher played chess against a robotic arm . After it beat him , he knocked the set over and claimed the robot cheated . ( COMIC : " Profits of Doom ! " ) Chess was particularly favoured by the Seventh Doctor when battling certain enemies ( in particular Fenric ) . He was accused by Ace and Bernice Summerfield of playing with their lives " as though you would a game of chess " . ( TV : " The Curse of Fenric " ) While battling Lady Peinforte , de Flores and Cybermen , the Seventh Doctor and Ace travelled to 1638 , where the Doctor played chess against an unknown opponent ( thought to be Fenric ) . ( TV : " Silver Nemesis " ) The Seventh Doctor played chess against Anthony Rupert Hemmings while the latter posed as his friend . ( PROSE : " " ) The Seventh Doctor and his companions Ace , Hex , Lysandra , and Sally were transported by Fenric to a pocket universe resembling a chessboard . ( AUDIO : " Gods and Monsters " ) Haresh Chandra taught Luke Smith how to play chess and was subsequently beaten by him six times in a row . ( TV : " The Eternity Trap " ) Darius Pike ( with the help of K9 Mark 2 ) played chess against Starkey ( aided by Jorjie Turner ) . Starkey beat him . The particular chessboard on which they were playing had animals as the chess pieces . ( TV : " The Fall of the House of Gryffen " ) Starkey later lost to K9 . ( TV : " The Cambridge Spy " ) Rory Williams and Oliver Marks played chess in the garden of the Manse . Oliver put Rory in check eleven times . ( PROSE : " The Glamour Chase " ) Adric and Nyssa often played chess . Adric " always " won . ( PROSE : " Hearts of Stone " ) The Eleventh Doctor once played Bobby Fischer and refused to do so again because it went " very wrong . " He also had a habit of playing himself and was disappointed because every time he played chess against himself he lost . ( PROSE : " Dark Horizons " ) The Eleventh Doctor played a game against a Cyber - Planner ( calling himself Mr Clever ) that had attempted to possess him , with the prize being total control over the Doctor ' s mind . However , the game was inconclusive as the Doctor used his turn in control to destroy the Cyber - Planner with a hand pulse . ( TV : " Nightmare in Silver ) " The Eleventh Doctor also cornered Gantok in a game of live chess , though he conceded when the man promised to help him in exchange for the win . ( TV : " The Wedding of River Song " ) Alfie also played a game of chess against a controlled Cyberman , though he quickly lost as he fell into the infamous " fool ' s mate " error . ( TV : " Nightmare in Silver ) " Humphrey , a fictional character created by Annette Billingsley , was taught chess by his grandfather and used his knowledge to beat a minor villain in one of Billingsley ' s " The Troubleseekers " novels . When a Ch ' otterai brought " The Troubleseekers " fictional world to life , the Tenth Doctor encountered the robber and agreed to his challenge of a game of chess . However , the Doctor said it was inevitable that he would win because he had never lost a game of chess except to a metal dog which did not count , so he refused to play the game and claimed victory anyway . ( PROSE : " The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage " ) Other references . Morgaine claimed she could always beat the Doctor at chess . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) K9 Mark II was programmed with all the championship games since 1866 . ( TV : " The Androids of Tara " ) A trap in the Tomb of Rassilon resembled a chess board . Nothing happened until a visitor reached the fifth row ; then the board became a giant death trap . ( TV : " The Five Doctors " ) When being warned that he had only four minutes left to live , the Eighth Doctor retorted by asking " anyone for chess ? " ( TV : " The Night of the Doctor " ) Group Captain Ian Gilmore was not fond of chess , claiming that " wars are fought on battlefields , not chessboards . " ( AUDIO : " Peshka " ) In the 2010s , Coal Hill School included a big floor chessboard for its pupils . ( TV : " The Caretaker " ) When they were captured by , Jo Grant and the Third Doctor played draughts against each other . Jo won and took all the Doctor ' s remaining pieces . The Doctor complained that the trouble with this game was that it was too simple . Furthermore he mentioned that he was more used to playing three dimensional chess . ( TV : " The Mind of Evil " )