Check and Mate

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What would a chess board full of AFL players look like?

Chess is a board game that has been played for hundreds of years. The game is enjoyed by people all over the world – including AFL players.

Each of the two players (“white” and “black”) controls 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns.

Have there been enough players in V/AFL history to stand in for these pieces?

Let’s find out.

Kings

There have been 26 players in V/AFL history with the surname “King”, so there are plenty to choose from when it comes to the most important (but not necessarily powerful) piece on the chess board.

While there would be some nice symmetry in picking Ben and Max, the King twins, I’m going to go back a bit further, and pick David (241 games for North Melbourne, 1994-2004) and Jake (107 games for Richmond, 2007-2014).

Queens

Things get much harder when having to pick players to represent the most powerful piece in the game, as to date there have not been any players with “queen” anywhere in their name.

However, there have been three players with the surname “McQueen”, so we can use those instead. I’m picking Phil (two games for Geelong, 1920) and Mark (34 games for Richmond, 1991-1994), with apologies to Max (one game for Hawthorn in 1937) for being the one left out.

Rooks

There are also slim pickings for the two rooks on each side, with Max Rooke (135 games for Geelong, 2002-2010) being the closest match.

But we can take advantage of the fact that rooks are also called towers and castles (the latter is typically used in informal settings), which means we can round out our rook selections with Dean Towers (57 games for Sydney, 2014-2018), Stan Castles (two games for Fitzroy, 1932), and Vic Castles (100 games for South Melbourne, 1942-1947).

Bishops

Two Bishops – Noel (two games for Carlton, 1968) and Matthew (150 games for Melbourne and Port Adelaide, 1998-2006) – have played V/AFL, so their magnets (or pieces?) will definitely appear on the board, but we’re still two players short.

The bishop can end up with a variety of different names when its name in other languages is translated to English, including runner, elephant, shooter, and jester. But for the purposes of this exercise the most useful translation is “hunter”, which allows Ken (147 games for Carlton, 1981-1989) and Lachie (199 games for the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne, 2013-2024) to be a part of the game.

Knights

The piece represented by a horse’s head fares slightly better than the bishops, with Peter (264 games for Hawthorn, 1969-1985), Matthew (279 games for Richmond, 1988-2002), and Chris (102 games for Adelaide and Richmond, 2005-2015) able to be included in this hypothetical game.

And before you get too wound up and start debating about whether Knights are different to Knight, be comforted by the fact there are 11 players with the latter as their surname that you could choose from instead, along with one Forster-Knight and two McKnights. Tasman Knight (four games for South Melbourne in 1930) is the final piece we need here.

Pawns

The cupboard is bare for the most numerous and weakest piece on the chess board, with there being no players with “pawn” anywhere in their name to play at least one game.

But I figure we can take a little more creative licence and substitute the pawns with Jacks, seeing as this is the most common first name in V/AFL history and pawns are the most common pieces in chess. There have been 516 different Jacks who have played our great game, nearly 100 more than the next most common first name (Bill; 419).

So, on one side of the board we have Jack Carroll (two games for Collingwood in 1945), Jack Ginnivan (64 games for Collingwood and Hawthorn, 2021-current), Jack Atkins (four games for Melbourne in 1940), Jack Doubleday (53 games for University and Melbourne, 1912-1915), Jack Quinn (21 games for Geelong, 1897-1898), Jack Baggott (147 games for Richmond and Essendon, 1927-1937), Jack Eichhorn (50 games for South Melbourne, 1948-1954), and Jack Indian (one game for St Kilda in 1994).

And on the other side of the board we have Jack Ziebell (280 games for North Melbourne, 2009-2023), Jack Jobson (seven games for Collingwood and Hawthorn, 1924-1926), Jack Uwins (six games for Richmond, 1937), Jack McCoy (nine games for St Kilda, 1934-1935), Jack Strong (78 games for Melbourne, 1901-1912), Jack Lugg (two games for South Melbourne, 1946), Jack Riewoldt (347 games for Richmond, 2008-2023), and Jack Higgins (122 games for Richmond and St Kilda, 2018-current).

A Special Mention

Finally, it’s worth acknowledging the five players who have played V/AFL history with “chess” in their name:

  • Harry Chesswas (154 games for Collingwood, 1922-1931).
  • Frank Hutchesson (52 games for St Kilda, 1927-1921)
  • Errol Hutchesson (127 games for Collingwood, 1958-1967)
  • Tom Hutchesson (1 game for Greater Western Sydney, 2020)
  • Campbell Chesser (32 games for West Coast, 2023-current)

I find it pleasing that four of these five have played for clubs with black or white in their team colours – clearly West Coast weren’t aware of the history on the line when they drafted Chesser.

The timeframe of this stat is limited based on what data are freely/easily available and/or accessible. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you spot any errors in what I have presented. As always, apologies to anyone who has already looked at this stat!