Top Chess is a YouTube channel, which makes videos focusing on Chess battles where the pieces are sapient, talking beings. The original videos were simply various chess scenarios, but as the series continued, the events became more and more interconnected, along with some of the pieces receiving character development and an overarching plot beginning to take shape.

"Troper, before you start reading, join Top Chess Gang or Top Chess Army. Top Chess Gang is free by the way. I gotta go now bye. -Ad Bishop:

• And I Must Scream: The ultimate fate of the "discarded" pieces in the weird matches, left in place forever. In Episode 195 though, we learn that the Ad Bishop occasionally goes to the discarded matches when he's running low in pieces, and the lucky ones will be taken to his education universe.
• Anyone Can Die: Every chess piece has died at least once in the series, always coming back the next episode, and it's not unusual for the games to end with the losing King being the last of his army left, and the winning King only having a few of his pieces. Taken to the extreme in Episode 51, where the kings are the only ones left.
• Apocalypse How: At least a Class 3a, which befell mankind in an alternate universe in 1969.
• Bad Boss:
  • The kings are almost always willing to throw away any of their pieces if it means they'll get closer to achieving victory (especially those who earn their ire), belittle their minions, and memory wipe them on the regular. Downplayed with the fact the pieces are usually willing and that, particularly in the White King's case, they hate losing their horses, queens, and later on, rooks.
  • The queens, whenever they take control, are even more willing to sacrifice pieces, usually being the ones to throw away rooks and knights in later episodes. Even the bishops, their simps, aren't safe.
• Bolivian Army Ending: As typical with chess, the matches end right before the King gets captured/killed, occasionally even having it go black right as a gunshot is heard.
• Brain Uploading: What the chess pieces actually are, being people from an alternate timeline where humanity went extinct uploaded into chess pieces.
• Catchphrase: Many.
  • "Yee haw", by the Knights, usually on their first move.
  • "Checky checky check check", usually by the Knights or the Queen.
  • "Pinnity ponnity pin" by the Bishops when they pin an opposing piece.
  • "Checkmate" and "It's a checkmate", usually by the piece delivering the checkmate, most often the Queen or Rooks. Sometimes combined with the Knight/Queen's quote above, creating "Checky checky mate mate".
  • "WAKANDA FOREVER!" and "EBOMBAY!" whenever a piece is ready to die. The latter is more commonly used by Pawns.
  • "Battery battery bitch" by the Rooks, when they form a battery with each other or with the Queen.
  • "Save this check first" by the Knight.
  • "Wanna trade?" by the Queen, when offering to sacrifice herself to capture the enemy Queen.
• Christmas Episode: Episode 56.
• Death by Adaptation: In the original chess, pieces are usually described as "captured" and if one were to describe them as being killed, they might enjoy some ridicule from experienced players for describing it in such crude terms. In the Top Chess universe on the other hands, pieces are very specifically "killed" and sometimes even are shown ascending to heaven. This is of little consequence in the main universe, as the pieces will always be brought back to life in the next episode. On the other hand, pieces that die in the weird matches are left with an unknown fate, and during Episode 196, the Ad Bishop claims that in his educational universe, they die permanently.
• Death Is Cheap: All the pieces return back to life with zero problems. It's revealed the Kings and the creator of the videos bring them back after each game and brainwash them.
• Early Instalment Weirdness: The editing for the first few episodes is... all over the place. It's not until Episode 39 that the editing starts to be more consistent, with an increasing emphasis on the chess pieces explaining strategies or why they did (or should perform) a particular move.
• Forever War: The chess pieces are stuck fighting forever, without end.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: The queens are usually authoritative, loud, and controlling of everyone around them, even the kings. Justified, as she is the most powerful piece and the kings frequently do stupid things.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Perhaps best describes the conflict between the two most powerful teams of pieces on the board beyond the white and black armies. The Ad Bishop may, at face value, seem to be a completely evil character who has very much commited atrocities against the chess universe, but he does raise a point; the members of his enemies, the Ultimate Pawn and her council of ultimate pieces, are far from paragons of virtue either.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Just as in the real game, the kings often demand their pieces to sacrifice themselves for some material advantage. Sometimes it doesn't go as planned.
  King: Okay, now that he played d5, we are going to attack his pawn with our e pawn. Pawn e4?
  e4 pawn: Pushity push! Wait, what the fu*k, king? He can just kill me and attack the horse.
  King: Yeah, that's the idea. Sorry, little guy.
• Hopeless Suitor: The bishops apparently simp for the Queen, but it amounts to nothing.
• Hopeless War: What the matches usually are near the end.
• Idiot Ball: Plenty of moments where a chess piece either leave themselves vulnerable to being captured with no tradeoff for the enemy or making a move that leaves another chess piece with no protection to the enemy, often to the detriment of their army.
  • Or pulling off tactics that only end up backfiring, notably in Episode 88, where the black queen offered a rook to be captured by a white bishop so she can capture the opponent's queen that is obstructed by said bishop. The bishop and the white queen don't fall for the "sacrifice" and the latter tells a pawn to move instead to kick the black rook away. Said black rook then moves to a square that not only allows the white bishop to capture it safely, but also do so with check, thus stopping the white queen from being captured and basically making Black's tactic a Senseless Sacrifice.
  • Another example in Episode 169. After deciding against pinning a black knight threatening to kill a white rook to his queen (as it would result in the certain death of the white knight that suggested it), the white queen instead moves to give a "mate threat"... only for the black queen to point out that she was protecting the square the white queen intended to give the threat at (apparently being overlooked by both the black king and white queen). A series of Disaster Dominoes quickly follows for White: the black knight kills the white rook, the black bishop kills the white knight, then the black queen kills the other white rook before delivering checkmate several moves later.
• In-Series Nickname: Practically every chess piece is referred to by a nickname just as much as their normal name.
  • "Horsey" for the knights by the kings. However, the black knights often take offense to the nickname, especially in later episodes.
  • "My simps" for the pawns from the kings and the bishops from the queens.
  • Rooky Boys by the kings to the rooks.
• Insistent Terminology: The black knights are knights, not "horseys" (or anything else for that matter). And they will quickly correct any piece that refers to them by any wrong name, especially the kings.
  • In Episode #194, the white king tried to circumvent this by referring to a black knight as a "height". It didn't work and the knight still corrected him.
  • The Black King exploits this in Season 2 by deliberately calling them "horse things" to hammer home his sudden hatred of them.
• Killed Off for Real: The fate of all those who break the fourth wall to many times, fading away and being replaced.
• Last Stand: Typically how the games end, with the losing King alone and either trying to force a draw or fight to the end in the hope of a victory.
• Malicious Misnaming: In Season 2, the Black King develops a disliking towards his knights; to hammer this point home, he begins intentionally calling them "horse things" in spite of their objections.
• Not Afraid to Die: Both the white knights have embraced this philosophy starting from around Episode 180, with them intentionally sacrificing themselves on their own volition in order to allow their king to win. In fact, their king loving them so much that he constantly goes above and beyond to keep them safe is what turns them to hate him.
• Product Placement: Ad Bishop's role is to plug in sponsorships in the middle of chess games, notably on MMORPGs and mobile games that include War Thunder and, of course, Raid: Shadow Legends. Which the other chess pieces (except for the kings that absolutely loathe the sponsorship plug-ins) join in the advertising with either Ad Bishop taking over the chess piece or just joining in by themselves.
• Status Quo Is God: The board always returns to its original position with everyone alive, because it is made to be so.
• Surprise Checkmate: A common ending to many an episode, with the losing King left baffled by how the opposing pieces put him into checkmate.
• Taking You with Me: The chess pieces often sacrifice themselves, usually shouting "WAKANDA FOREVER!" or "EBOMBAY!".
• The Un-Favorite: Bishops become the most frequently abused pieces after Episode 64, with all the other pieces hating them and often calling them useless. One bishop plugs in sponsorships to piss the Black King off, which results in his banishment and eventual drive to revenge.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 64 has the kings start respecting their rooks, with the latter tossing the role of The Un-Favorite to the bishops.
  • Episode 80 introduces Ad Bishop.
  • Episode 95 features the Black Rook and Knight leaving the board into the dark space beyond and discovering a blurry Ad Bishop advertising yet another MMO, proving Ad Bishop's continued involvement and the existence of other games. The episode ends with the Black King confronting Ad Bishop and saying he will find another way to end his advertisements.
  • Episodes 96 and 97 reveal the Kings brainwash their queens for Breaking the Fourth Wall or running away.
  • Episode 99 has the Ad Bishop returning to exact revenge, and the Queens killing each other to discover the truth.
  • Episode 100 drops several bombshells by revealing the chess pieces are people who were teleported into a computer and forced into videos, that all chess pieces who break the fourth wall to much are banished to fade away and replaced, and that the Ad Bishop killed the creators of the videos after being banished out of the dark space outside the board, beginning his plan for vengeance.