About: Chess with Death   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

A character gets into a contest of some sort with The Grim Reaper, Satan, or some other supernatural entity, usually with some dire consequence if the human loses. This is Older Than Feudalism, with examples dating back to Greek myths of the 5th century BCE - Apollo had at least one musical duel, the Muses had another musical contest, and Athena had a weaving contest with Arachne (the details vary between different versions, but the end result is that Arachne ended up being turned into a spider). Compare Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?. Examples with Chess

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  • Chess with Death
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  • A character gets into a contest of some sort with The Grim Reaper, Satan, or some other supernatural entity, usually with some dire consequence if the human loses. This is Older Than Feudalism, with examples dating back to Greek myths of the 5th century BCE - Apollo had at least one musical duel, the Muses had another musical contest, and Athena had a weaving contest with Arachne (the details vary between different versions, but the end result is that Arachne ended up being turned into a spider). Compare Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?. Examples with Chess
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dbkwik:all-the-tro...iPageUsesTemplate
dbkwik:allthetrope...iPageUsesTemplate
abstract
  • A character gets into a contest of some sort with The Grim Reaper, Satan, or some other supernatural entity, usually with some dire consequence if the human loses. This is Older Than Feudalism, with examples dating back to Greek myths of the 5th century BCE - Apollo had at least one musical duel, the Muses had another musical contest, and Athena had a weaving contest with Arachne (the details vary between different versions, but the end result is that Arachne ended up being turned into a spider). Note that the Greek Gods were prone to throwing tantrums if they were beaten and cursing the mortals for it - having the supernatural entity take a defeat on the chin could have originally been considered a subversion. The most mimicked version is to have a dying man challenge The Grim Reaper to a Chess game in return for a longer life, hence the trope title. See also Enemies with Death and Smart People Play Chess. However, it doesn't have to be chess - if the player is allowed to pick the game, absolutely anything could happen. Compare Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?. Not to be confused with Human Chess where the pieces are humans and captured pieces are sometimes killed. Examples with Chess
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