Klay Thompson, The Chess Playing Basketball Star

Any sports fan has heard of the Golden State Warriors. They have won the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship the last two years. Everybody expects them to win this year also. It has been rumored that their are quite a few chess players on that team.

The Warriors invited Magnus Carlsen to a Western Conference Finals game. One of the Warrior's star players, Klay Thompson, introduced himself as the best chess player on the Warriors. How good really is Klay? Is he a tournament player, or does he just play it for fun?

Klay Thompson, a basketball star and a chess fanatic. wsj.com

Klay Thompson first gained interest in 7th grade, according to Wall Street Journal. He took a chess elective, as "a way to waste time" he said. He later elaborated and said "it ended up being the best class I've ever taken. Wouldn't it be great if all middle schools had a chess elective? 

The 6 foot 7 inches chess playing basketball star is now 28 years old. This means he's been playing for 15 years. And, according to him, he plays chess almost every day. About as much as he plays basketball.

Thompson said that he has noticed similarities between chess and  basketball. The biggest being the way momentum can shift with one mistake. In chess, the whole game changes if a piece is blundered.  In basketball, a huge dunk like this can completely swing momentum.

A dunk like this get's the whole team excited, and leaves the opponent feeling humiliated.

When Thompson got to meet Magnus Carlsen, he got a lesson on his openings. After the lesson, he stated "That guy's smart." After that, he said "And smart is an understatement." Despite those hours of practicing on the team's plane, at home, in the locker room, and everywhere else. Klay Thompson, is clearly not as good as Carlsen. Not even close.

The inverse is also true. Carlsen plays sports like soccer (football for him) and tennis all the time, but he is not nearly as athletic as Klay. I guess Carlsen was made for chess, and Klay Thompson was made for basketball in the end.