Inside the NBA's Chess Obsession: Wembanyama, Antetokounmpo, Rose, and the Players Who Can't Stop Playing
Chess has turned up in some unusual places over the past few years. Streaming platforms. Film festivals. Arena-sized festivals in Stockholm. But this one might be the most unexpected: NBA locker rooms.
A new ESPN feature reveals just how deeply chess has embedded itself in professional basketball. It's not a handful of players dabbling on their phones. It's a culture shift, with team flights, hotel lobbies, and pre-game routines increasingly built around 64 squares.
Wembanyama in the Rain
In December 2024, Victor Wembanyama walked into Washington Square Park in New York City and invited strangers to play him. It rained. He didn't leave. The San Antonio Spurs forward sat down and played four games against anyone willing to face a 7'4" opponent across the board, finishing 2-2.
Afterward, Wembanyama said what several NBA players have echoed since: "Sometimes you just need to get away... chess is good in that sense."
He wasn't done there. He organized "Hoop Gambit," a combined chess and basketball event in his French hometown. He plays chess during conditioning workouts. And he's publicly called for an NBA players-only chess tournament.
Rose's "Chesstival" Brought in Carlsen
If Wembanyama planted the flag, Derrick Rose built the venue.
In July 2025, Rose organized the "Chesstival" in Las Vegas, a tournament pairing current and former NBA players with grandmasters in a freestyle chess format. Among the grandmasters: Magnus Carlsen. Among the basketball players: Rajon Rondo, Grant Williams, Quinten Post, Brandon Ingram, Onyeka Okongwu, and Tony Snell.
Rose, who was spotted playing chess at a Drake concert, sees direct parallels between the two games: "Seeing two or three plays down the line... having that poise."
He's now planning "Chesstival 2" at Madison Square Garden, this time including kids and women's divisions. Rondo, meanwhile, wants to incorporate chess into his AAU program.
The Locker Room Is a Chess Club
The ESPN piece paints a picture of chess as a near-universal NBA hobby. Among the players mentioned:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo learned at age 10 in Greece and credits chess with his on-court anticipation: "I knew down the stretch that LeBron gets the ball... I was just thinking ahead."
- Rudy Gobert plays frequently against Wembanyama and uses bullet chess for decision-making training during fatigue.
- Grant Williams plays "every two minutes" and uses pre-game matches for mental preparation.
- Quinten Post studies seriously with international master Ladia Jirasek.
- Draymond Green and Klay Thompson are both regular players.
- Brandon Ingram played with UCLA teammates and compares chess positioning to basketball court spacing: "It's no bad nights... I make the final decision."
- Jaime Jaquez Jr. is refreshingly honest about his level: "I cannot... I'm doing the stupidest moves, like bro what am I doing?"
Three players, Luka Doncic, Jaylen Brown, and Jaquez, even have interactive bots on Chess.com that fans can challenge.
Why Chess, Why Now
The NBA chess wave tracks with broader trends. Chess.com surpassed 200 million registered users in 2025. The pandemic chess boom brought millions of new players. Streaming content from creators like GothamChess and Hikaru normalized the game for younger audiences.
But NBA players point to something more specific: the cognitive parallels between chess and basketball are unusually tight. Pattern recognition. Anticipation. Performing under pressure with a clock running. Managing risk when fatigue clouds judgment, a point Gobert made explicitly.
There's also the practical side. Chess travels perfectly. A game takes minutes. It works on a phone, on a team flight, in a hotel room. For athletes with relentless travel schedules and limited entertainment options, that matters.
Where This Goes
Rose's Chesstival concept could grow into something significant. An NBA-backed chess tournament with grandmaster partnerships, broadcast on ESPN, at Madison Square Garden? That's not a niche event. That's mainstream chess exposure on a scale that only events like ChessParty Stockholm have recently matched.
Jaquez has floated the idea of an NBA chess club. Wembanyama wants a players-only tournament. Rondo is building chess into youth basketball development. The connections between professional sports and chess keep tightening.
For chess, the NBA's adoption isn't just flattering. It's functional. When Giannis credits chess with reading LeBron's plays, or when Wembanyama links chess to his conditioning routines, the game gets positioned as a performance tool rather than a hobby. That reframing has historically been how chess reaches new audiences, from schools to the military to corporate training.
The difference now is that the people making the case have a combined 50 million Instagram followers.
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Three NBA stars already have their own Chess.com bots. Create your free account, challenge Doncic or Jaylen Brown's bot, and see how you measure up.Play on Chess.com
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