If animals knew chess, which one would be the champ?

(plz exclude humans+monkeys)

There are 3 animals that come to mind.

Tasmanian Devils - they are ferocious! They lock onto their prey and follow them for miles until the perfect time to strike.

Ravens - contrary to popular belief, they are among the most intelligent animals in the animal kingdom. Ravens are the largest song birds capable of singing a host of distinctly different songs. Why do you think Noah chose a raven before a dove?

Box Jellyfish - the sting from one of these is nearly 100% deadly. If the poison doesn't kill you, then the pain from the sting will.

Probably would be a dolphin chat globally team as they seem very versatile.

it would be a horse, they have home court advantage.

Chickens can be trained to play tic-tac-toe.

http://www.casinochicken.com/

pigs.

I'm with you on the raven, but how does deadly venom translate into intelligence?

Unless you mean that they'd be likely to win on time while you writhe in pain on the floor.... 

The smartest animal would have to be a species of squirrel named chipmunk. You can observe their smart behaviour in the documentary series named "Chip 'n Dale".

The winner should be a spider no?  It's perhaps the only animal with " built in thinking ahead qualities".  It understands that if it is to survive, it needs to trap, and to trap it needs to create the web.  So I go with the spider!

( my other choice is the anglerfish)

Oooh, spider!  good choice!  Ok, I vote spiders and pigs. Let's have the match.

Hamsters

The smartest animal is the dolphin. He doesn't have pockets so he doesn't have to carry things around. He doesn't have hands, so he doesn't have to work. He lives in the water, so he doesn't need a house. Nothing to do but swim, play, eat, and mate. Playing and mating: sounds like chess to me.

Ok the spider's opponent is the elephant.  They have good memory, and so they can use that for memorizing book openings, and chess mistakes they previously made, to try avoid making them again...

pigs are way smarter than elephants. ten times more clever. plus with elephants one klutzy move and they'd crush the board.  pffff.