Writers (including comic book characters as well as movies, plays, novels etc.) all share insight into tropes (at least the "good writers" are almost always experts at these). I usually describe tropes to others as kind of like the framework for stories - the tropes are shortcuts to describe scenes to fellow writers. I think this picture of Superman playing chess here was probably just a way to indicate that Superman isn't only strong and powerful, but also smart. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SmartPeoplePlayChess
Tropes are themes constantly repeated in stories to the point where writers give these themes names just like how chess players named chess patterns like forks, pins, or skewers. For example: how many times in a story will you hear a character ask another something along the lines of, "I have good news and bad news, so which would you like to hear first?" Often enough that there is a trope name for this https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodNewsBadNews and many variations of this joke based on how the scene plays out.
Superman is part of DC Comics and this company loves to use the trope of "Smart people play chess." In fact, many times I've seen Batman, Superman, Lex Luthor (villain of Superman), The Thinker (villain of The Flash), The Riddler (villain of Batman) and many others play chess at some point. Movies are only so long and comics have only so much space that writers search for quick ways to tell the audience something to develop the characters, so they can cut right into the story action. By having a quick scene (or picture in comics) of a character playing chess - they are quickly showing the audience: "look this character is smart" - even if chess doesn't necessarily make one smart (it is mostly pattern recognition in my opinion), it is an efficient way to develop a character before the plot in the story unfolds.
p.s. I like this picture, thanks for posting it 
I got this picture from googirl searchin show The men of steelE is playing chess with The Flash !