There are many famous people that have played chess including presidents, actors, celebrities, sport players such as:
- Leonardo di Carpio – Actor
- Ted Danson – Actor
- Julia Roberts – Actor
- Martin Lawrence – Actor
- Mel Brooks – Actor
- Ray Charles – Musician
- Albert Einstein – Everyone knows him
- Peter Thiel – Co Founder of PayPal
- Bill Gates – Microsoft
- Frank Sinatra – Singer, Actor
- Madonna – Singer
- Isaac Newton – Thinker
- Benjamin Franklin
- Fidel Castro – President of Cuba
- William Shakespeare – Writer
- Princess Diana
- David Letterman – TV Talk Host
- Marcel Duchamp – Artist
- Boris Becker – Tennis Player
- John Quincy Adams – US President
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – Basketball Player
- Ossie Ardiles – Soccer Player
- Seve Ballesteros – Master Golf Champion
- Dick Barnett – NY Knicks Basketball Player
- Frank Baum – Writer – Wizard of Oz
- Ludwig Beethoven – Music – German Coposer
- Kobe Bryant – NBA Basketball Player
- Jimmy Carter – US President
- Rosalyn Carter – Wife of Jimmy Carter
- Michael Chang – Tennis Player
- Frederic Chopin – Music – Pianist
- Grover Cleveland – US President
- Bill Cosby – Actor
- Salvador Dali – Artist
- Abraham De Moivere – Thinker – Mathematician
- Fred Hoyle – Astronomer
- Bobby Jones – Golfer
- Steve Martin – Actor
- Mike Marshall – Baseball Player for the Los Angeles Dodgers
- Nicolas Cage – Actor
- Arnold Schwarzenegger – You know him
- Dustin Diamond – Actor
- Brooke Shields – Actor
- Jessica Simpson – Actor
- Danny DeVito – Actor
- Robin Williams – Actor
- Matt Damon – Actor
- Barbara Streisand – Actor
- Ben Affleck – Actor
- Stephen Fry – Actor
- Abraham Lincoln – US President
- John Lennon – Music – Beatles
- Chris Rock – Actor
- Teddy Roosevelt – US President
- Will Smith, in an interview
“It is cool to play chess. My father taught me how to play chess at seven and introduced beautiful concepts that I try to pass on to my kids. The elements and concepts of life are so perfectly illustrated on a chess board. The ability to accurately assess your position is the key to chess, which I also think is the key to life.” He pauses, searching for an example. “Everything you do in your life is a move. You wake up in the morning, you strap on a gun, and you walk out on the street – that’s a move. You’ve made a move and the universe is going to respond with its move. Whatever move you’re going to make in your life to be successful, you have to accurately access the next couple of moves – like what’s going to happen if you do this? Because once you’ve made your move, you can’t take it back. The universe is going to respond.”