Has Anyone Ever DIED while playing chess?!?

What a way to go.  You get checkmated by the grim reaper himself!!

But has that ever happened??

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Well, yes...sort of.

His name was Michael Steward and evidently he was the victim of chess rage.

In October 2009, his neighbor, David Christian, killed Michael after the two had gotten into a fight over a chess game.

Christian was sentenced to ten years in prison as part of a plea bargain.

And then there was the case of the "ChessBoard Killer".

His name was Alexander Pichushkin, an outstanding Russian chess player.  Unfortunately, he also became an outstanding Russian serial killer.  He claimed that he had wanted to murder 64 people.  His reasoning...it was the same number as squares on a chessboard.

His final death count was thought to be in the 60's.