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1. 

   Linguist said, 5 months ago

   Henry VIII, using his chess champion, Edmund Campion, to play head games with Anne Boleyn.
2. 

   Superfrog said, 5 months ago

   Looks like they’re playing for puppies.
3. 

   Nabuquduriuzhur said, 5 months ago

   Dom deLuise in the middle.
4. 

   runar said, 5 months ago

   And they’re off with a Ruy Lopez squaring off against a Queen’s Gambit….
5. 

   Linguist said, 5 months ago

   @runar

   Good way to lose a Knight !
   Good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow…
6. 

   Radish said, 5 months ago

   They are playing for Nixon’s dog Checkers.
7. 

   Dogsniff said, 5 months ago

   Looks like a scene from the back room at the Supreme Court.
8. 

   orinoco womble said, 5 months ago

   @Superfrog

   Playing for Puppies sounds a lot more fun than Dialling for Dollars.
9. 

   pcolli said, 5 months ago

   Who ever checks the others king wins custody of the puppy, two of the kids and the estate near Schwartzwald.
10. 

    Coyoty said, 5 months ago

    The VIII-Games.
11. 

    JohnnyDiego said, 5 months ago

    @Linguist

    Henry VIII, using his chess champion, Edmund Campion, to play head games with Anne Boleyn.
    
    Nope! I believe that’s Herman’s Hermits in the green room before their performance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
12. 

    EarlP2 said, 5 months ago

    Dogs waiting for chess game to finish, so they can get back to poker.
13. 

    mabrndt said, 5 months ago

    Modestly enlarged image can be found here (updated by me), or at the only work by this artist, so far, to appear in Mr. Melcher’s blog.
    
    Duke Albrecht V. of Bavaria and his wife Anna of Austria playing chess (links show his and her Wikipedia pages, her Google translated German Wikipedia page has more) isn’t a painting, as far as I can tell; it’s an illustration in a 1550’s book (detail image shown here), now in the Bavarian State Library.
    
    The Jewel Book of the Duchess Anna of Bavaria is available online (has brief description of the illustration). An interactive enlargement of the illustration is on page 10 — click the Open link in the online page, and then put 10 in the Go to Page box.
    
    If the image exists in an oil on canvas painting, I couldn’t find it. The artist’s German Wikipedia page (Google translated) and collection.
14. 

    finale said, 5 months ago

    Oh, the excitement. You can just see it on their faces.
    .
    Wait, maybe they’re playing “strip chess”. With all of the layers of clothing this could get interesting in a few months.
15. 

    mkahn said, 5 months ago

    Most important question: is there a FANTASY chess league to join?
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