Here's Christopher Reeve, born September 25, 1952, as photographed by Eva Sereny in 1978.

RIP Claudia Cardinale, seen here with her son Patrick.

Don Porter, born September 24, 1912, looks like he might have literally broken his brain playing chess on Gidget.

Henry Silva, born September 23, 1926, played chess in disguise in The Return of Mr. Moto (1965).

Happy birthday to Jonny Harris, who played some high-stakes chess on a 2018 episode of Murdoch Mysteries.

September 21 is H.G. Wells' birthday, a good day to read his tongue-in-cheek takedown of chess and chess players. It's available at Project Gutenberg: bit.ly/4gta1kZ

Happy birthday to Bill Amend. I hope House of Staunton sent him something nice when he published this cartoon.

Happy birthday to Shawn Doyle, crime-solving chess master in the 2011 TV series Endgame.In a scene from Endgame, Shawn Doyle sits behind a wooden chess set and looks up with a serious expression.

Fred Willard, born September 18, 1933, played chess with puppet Yasser Arafat on D.C. Follies in 1988.

@scottmccloud.bsky.social I thought you might enjoy this (free) post about an epic chess match that took place in our home recently! :) www.patreon.com/posts/kitche...

O.P. Heggie, born September 17, 1877, looked pretty smug about his fancy chess set in Devotion (1931). Heggie would go on to play the blind hermit in Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Bonar Law, British Prime Minister and chess superfan, was born September 16, 1858. See Edward Winter's Chess Notes for details: www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra...

Margaret Lockwood, born September 15, 1916, played a stuffy game of chess with Basil Sydney in Jassy (1947).

Michel Auclair, born September 14, 1922, consoled himself with chess while creditors repossessed everything around him in La Belle et la Bête (1946).

[Chess Players] https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/267247

Ray Charles playing chess on his tour bus in 1966. Ray Charles, who became blind by age seven, used a specially designed chess set. This chess set, invented in 1848 by William Wood, allowed visually impaired players to distinguish pieces and squares by touch. 📸 by Bill Ray

Fifty years ago this month, U.S. champ Walter Browne stared into your soul from the cover of Chess Life & Review.

Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky Originally published in two parts in Astounding (1941), it a tale (perhaps the first) of a generation ship, generations after becoming lost (orphaned) in space. All the residents know is 'the ship'. Two primitive societies have formed, each cruel and barberous.

Happy birthday to Emmy Rossum, who posted this pic to Instagram when she was in California for Coachella in 2014.

Herbert Lom, born September 11, 1917, played chess in the warden's office in the women-in-prison potboiler 99 Women (1969).

Love the genuine camaraderie and joy in this London scene. A7RV FE24-70GMII 38mm 1/1000s f4.5 ISO4000 #sony #sonyalpha #photography #streetphotography #photographer #london #uk

Chess Variant xkcd.com/3139/

Happy birthday to Alex Horne, who seemed to be having a hard time against Greg Davies when they took this promotional photo for Taskmaster.

Happy birthday to Hugh Grant, who played some chess with Timothée Chalamet during a photo shoot for a Japanese magazine when they were promoting Wonka (2023).

Happy birthday to Mario Ardorf, world chess champion in Schachnovelle, the 1960 adaptation of Stefan Zweig's novella.

Happy birthday to Julie Kavner, who helped Homer hone his skills on the chess episode of The Simpsons.

Happy birthday to Idris Elba!🎂 I don't know where this photo originated; I saw it on Chess Forum's Facebook page.

Record-breaker: Leonard Barden’s chess column celebrates 70 years and a place in history

Raquel Welch, seen here killing time with Tom Jones in 1970, was born September 5, 1940.

Dinsdale Landen, born September 4, 1932, played some chess with Ray Smith in a 1976 episode of The Glittering Prizes.

Happy birthday to Shaun White, who wore this epic Halloween costume in 2021.

Happy birthday to Lennox Lewis, best in the world at one sport but not embarrassed to lose to a 13-year-old at another.

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born September 1, 1875. Technically, the characters in Chessmen of Mars were playing "jetan," not chess, but I consider it close enough.

Chess Review's resident cartoonist sticks it to bishops in the February, 1952 issue.

Fred MacMurray, born August 30, 1908, does some chess-related spy business with Joan Crawford in Above Suspicion (1943).

On this day in 1919, Robert H. Bertram trounced his fellow members of the National Vaudeville Artists' Club in New York. From American Chess Bulletin, September 1919.

Charles Boyer, Humphrey Bogart's opponent in this star-studded photo, was born August 28, 1899.

Happy birthday to Tuesday Weld, who hung out with Orson Welles over chess in A Safe Place (1971).

Happy birthday to John Mulaney, who had an intense chess game with Tyler Bourke in John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch (2019).

✨ Anniversary of Arpad Elo – the rating system that changed chess world! 122 years ago, Arpad Emmerich Elo – physicist, chess master, and pioneer of the rating system – was born. A native of the Kingdom of Hungary, he moved with his parents to the United States in 1913, later

Khigh Dhiegh, born August 25, 1916, enjoyed some chess when he wasn't plotting against the U.S. government on Hawaii Five-O.

My son and I made this to stave off boredom for one more week before school begins:

Happy birthday to Elizabeth Debicki, who didn't take chess too seriously in the pages of People magazine.

Gene Kelly, born August 23, 1912, wishes you luck in your chess endeavors.

Sylvia Koscina, seen here offering some sportsmanship to Paul Newman, was born August 22, 1933.

Count Basie, born August 21, 1904, answers Dizzy Gillespie's e4 with d5.

Happy birthday to Jonathan Frakes, for whom chess was a mysterious metaphor in Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.

Happy birthday to Robert Redford, seen here hatching a plan in The Last Castle (2001). That's not how the game works, bro.

Anthony Valentine, born August 17, 1939, poses with his chess set in 1974. My verdict: excellent taste in chess literature, questionable taste in home decor.

Mae Clarke, born August 16, 1910, plays a glamorous game with Capablanca.