I love watching the old Westerns. Saw an episode where Palladin (Richard Boone) has to look for a stolen chess set and money. His Chinese friend tells him if he finds the chess set he can keep it. Of course he finds it. Then at the end, he’s playing his friend a game, and gets checkmated.
And Palladin’s business card had a knight image imprinted in the center.
I recall the start of some episode where he was one of several people in a simultaneous exhibition. The master was making remarks like “Ah! I take your bishop” and “Your king isn’t long for this world” as he came to other boards. Upon reaching Palladin’s board he pulled up a chair and went into a deep think while someone talked to Palladin about a problem which would end up being the plot for the rest of the show.
The first chess club I was a part of kept its sets at the YMCA (where I saw my first real chess game, click the globe on the right) and they lost a herd of horses while “Have Gun, Will Travel” was popular and had to buy new knights for the sets more than once. When I started going regularly a combination lock kept the sets secured.
Wow! Thanks for the memory. “Have Gun - Will Travel” is from my childhood, and I, too, enjoy watching old westerns. I am a clockmaker by trade and enjoy spying the clocks in the various scenes, as well as finding chess references. Man, I’m gettin’ old.