Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a chequered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world’s most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in parks, clubs, online, by correspondence and in tournaments.

The first official World Chess Championship was held in 1886 and was won by Prague-born
Wilhelm Steinitz. In addition to the World Championship, there are the Women’s World Championship, the Junior World Championship, the World Senior Championship, the Correspondence Chess World Championship, the World Computer Chess Championship, and Blitz and Rapid World Championships. The Chess Olympiad is a popular competition among teams from different nations.

In mid-1921 Stroebeck, Germany issued paper money (chess money) with a chess motif. The city issued three bank notes (25, 50, and 75 pfennigs) which told the history of the village’s chess tradition.

In 1923 the first chess postmark or cancellation (not stamp) was used by the Post Office at Borstendorf to advertise the local manufacture of chess sets. The earliest postmark linked to a chess event was in Kecskemet, Hungary in 1927. The first postage stamp with a chess theme was issued in Bulgaria in 1947. It was one of five issued to commemorate the 1947 Balkan Games, held in Sofia, Bulgaria on November 2-5, 1947. Chess was one of the sports depicted on the commemorative stamps. The other four stamps portrayed bicycle racing, basketball, soccer, and the flags of the participating nations (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia). Hungary won the chess competition. The stamp was issued on September 29, 1947, showing a knight with the inscription Balkan Games 1947 and Republic of Bulgaria. (Scott 580)

Over 140 nations have issued stamps with a chess motif. The United States has not issued any stamp with any chess motif