Chess in TV commercials

by Albert Silver
1/27/2014 – Chess is commonly used in print advertising, most often linking its image of intelligence and class with the advertiser's product or service. However, it also has been used many times in TV commercials either directly or indirectly to promote anything from luxury cars, to cell phones, the military, soft drinks, or sports. Here is a list of TV commercials with chess.

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Pepsi - "Kasparov vs Machine"

A classic commercial by Pepsi with Garry Kasparov. It is obviously not his voice though,
presumably too Russian for the company's taste.

Meetup.com

Chess and cats, what's not to like?

Coming Home - Chess (Hindi) | AirTel

An ad in which a young man plays chess with a relative (my Hindi is rusty) and
thanks to the wonders of phones, pursues it.... by voice.

AltaVista - Kasparov

 

AltaVista was the king of search engines in the 90s and chose Kasparov to advertise the
power of its search results

Geico.com - Chess

 

Although meant as a joke, the ad has a very realistic portrayal of the difficulty
of chess on TV for the general public

TBWA - Chess commercial

 

This commercial by Brio Animation is part of a campaign for world-renown advertising
giant TBWA that included four thematically related television commercials for a large
insurance company.

Milk - Korchnoi vs the Cow

 

In this funny ad preaching the virtues of milk, Viktor Korchnoi is defeated by a cow

Reebok

 

A tribute to individuality for Reebok

NHL Chess commercial with Wayne Gretzky

 

The thinking side of hockey is illustrated through chess

Vittel mineral water

 

This was a commercial for Vittel mineral water

Tacori jewelry

 

The chess pieces are used to promote the sales of wedding rings

Big Brother, Big Sister

 

Chess is used as the bond between generations

BBC Comedy

 

BBC Three creates a very creative comedy chess ad

NBA chess

 

A high quality commercial likening all aspects of basketball to a game of competitive chess

US Marines

 

This 1990 ad for the US Marines is centered around chess (with a dash of Star Wars and Excalibur)

Motorola mobile phones

 

The tag line says: "Life is not just black and white. Moto color - Motorola's new
colored cell phone. Motorola - one step ahead"

Rzeczpospolita - leading Polish newspaper

 

A TV commercial produced for a leading Polish newspaper

Ronzoni pasta

 

A short but very strange commercial by a pasta brand based on chess

Mercedes Benz - Singapore

 

Mercedes Benz comes out with a classy ad on chess and its line of luxury cars

7-Up (soft drink)

 

A humorous ad combining correspondence chess and the soft drink

Horizon plumbing and services

 

Even local businesses freely use the image of chess


Born in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.

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