Pirates of the Caribbean – Walt Disney World, Orlando Florida: The Chess Board Stalemate Rumor
Pirates of the Caribbean is a popular attraction in Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The line for this ride has some of the best and most detailed scenery. Part of the line includes a peek-down view into a dungeon cell where two skeletons were playing chess.
Rumor online was that they were at a stalemate in their game of chess – a funny joke that they died unable to finish the game. Story goes that Imagineer Marc Davis intended for the stalemate in the original art and design of the ride.
Marc Davis Pirates of the Caribbean Chess Board Concept Art
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We scoured the net to find out if this rumor were true or not, but with little success. A few sites mentioned the rumor, though each offered totally different placement for the chess pieces and no conclusive photos. So on August 27, 2003 we took a friend’s camera with us to the Magic Kingdom in WDW to find out once and for all.
The original image taken:
Original photo: August 2003
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While Marc Davis may have wanted a stalemate, the fact is, THE PIRATE CHESS BOARD IS NOT IN STALEMATE.
This started a bit of an obsession. Every time we rode the attraction, we tried to get a shot of the board. In the early years, it was more challenging due to digital camera limitations. So there’s a wide variety of quality to these shots. As Florida residents living about an hour away, we have the opportunity to get there more often than most. (I have to admit, I’ve also gotten pretty good at taking this photo. 😉 It used to take several minutes for me to get the shot. Now I can take it almost without stopping! LOL)
While we found out that the pieces do in fact move, they do so randomly. A result of cleaning, dusting and the board being bumped or shifted rather than anything intentional. Sadly though, throughout the entire process, over the course of a dozen years, and through a refurb, the fact remains that the chess board is NOT in stalemate.
2003
September 2003
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(This is an example of how pieces get unintentionally moved around)
June 2004
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In 2006, Pirates of the Caribbean closed for several months for renovation and refurbishment. Captain Jack Sparrow was added to the attraction as well as some scenery and script changes. It was believed that during the renovation, the chess board would be finally, properly set to be a stalemate. Sadly, this proved NOT to be the case.
(Post Refurbishment) August 2006
October 2006
November 2006
(Someone tossed a paper item on the board. Sadly this kind of thing happens often.)
December 2006
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January 2010
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August 2010
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2011
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2012
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2013
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June 2014
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Images and content originally posted on my personal site, GivenEyesToSee.com.
Tags: Pirates of the Caribbean, Walt Disney World, Pirates playing chess, Pirates of the Carribean, Pirates of the Carribbean, Pirates of the Caribbean queue, skeletons, pirate skeletons, pirate skeletons playing chess, Marc Davis, concept art, stalemate, chess stalemate, skeletons playing chess, pirates stalemate, pirates chess, wdw, magic kingdom, Adventureland, Disneyworld, pirates ride, pirates attraction, pics of pirate chess, pics of pirates playing chess, pics of pirate chess concept art, photos of pirates playing chess, photos of pirates queue, pirate dungeon, pirate skeletons in dungeon, rumor, urban legend, fun facts, little known disney facts, disney trivia, disney secrets, hidden disney
Hi! I just came across this “fact” or rumor as you have it, and I have shared it on my blog (along with the original artwork). Thanks for sharing, and I hope you don’t mind that I’ve passed this along! I have it set to publish dec 18!
The official Disney Editions book “The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom” discusses the chessboard on page 49. It says that the game is “trapped in perpetual check. The only available move leads to a never-ending repetition of the same series of moves.”
However, the book also says that the game was disturbed during a rehab and no one could figure out how to put the pieces back correctly, until they found a sketch on the back of one of Marc Davis’s drawings.
Unfortunately they do not acknowledge that the pieces are moved regularly. The book also uses the drawing at the top of this page.
The intention was for it to be in stalemate. But in reality, for the past 7 years that I’ve been checking and photographing it (both before and after the rehab) it has NEVER been in stalemate. So while it was supposed to be, the reality is (as you can clearly see) that it is simply not.
What so saddens me is that the current management doesn’t seem to respect or value the work of Walt, without whom the company would have never been great and who is no longer here to direct the company himself. Indeed, without Walt Disney, most of these managers would at best be managing a McDonalds… or be the person up front saying, “would you like fries with that?” But seriously, they are constantly changing things. And even when the imaginers who had worked with Walt for years objected, they still ignored them. Mark Davis, one of Walt’s nine old men, the animator of Cinderella and the concept artist for Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion and the Country Bears, said, “every time they change it, it’s not as good.” And Xavier Atencio, the author of the songs for Pirates AND the Haunted Mansion, has objected too, but both of these great men were ignored by the current management. It just seems like arrogant management to me… grossly arrogant, not to mention extremely stupid.
It would be nice to have a photo from the opening in the 70s to see if it started out true, as this “fact” was something I read in the days before the World Wide Web existed.
Yeah I’ve never seen early pics from opening of the game, just the Marc Davis drawings that show the intention. I don’t know if it was placed correctly initially or at what point exactly it was disrupted, but it definitely spent a very long time being random.
Thank you for this lore page. I was sitting in the queue today and my son’s pointed the game out to me. After thinking about it some, I think I understand the intent. It is not a stalemate in the classic definition but instead white would perpetually check black forever so it’s a stalemate from the sense that neither pirate will give up losing. White perpetually checking black is the only move for white to not lose since if white does a non checking move, black will promote a pawn to a queen on the next move and lose.
The original drawing shows the true placement where the pieces should go.