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Unusual But Amazing Gift Ideas For Chess Enthusiast

chess gifts

Are you thinking of giving an unusual chess gifts you can give to your chess enthusiast friends?   I know the most common chess gifts you can give to them is chess boards or books, but that won't be interesting to them…

If you want to surprise a chess enthusiast then you should be thinking out of the box, you should be asking yourself what can be useful for them but not the usual gifts we usually see them receive all the time.

There are three interesting types of gift ideas you can give them; you can buy them interesting chess movies, an online chess platform subscription and an online course, not just any online chess course of course.

I have listed the three interesting gift ideas below… 🙂

3 Unusual gift ideas for a chess enthusiast's collection

Number 1. Chess Movies gift ideas

Watching movies is a part of our life nowadays…   Movies can also be an outlet for us to feel something different, to feel happy, inspired and films can help us build a desire to be great at something.

There are certain movies people do not like to watch and some movies that an enthusiast would not want to miss watching… there are some movies that a chess enthusiast would love to watch.   This chess movie, especially some of the most excellent chess movies can be an awesome gift for them – this movie can inspire them, make them feel happy and feel something different that will fuel their desire to become great with chess.

Here are some chess movies I recommend you can rent out online, or buy them a copy.

Searching for Bobby Fischer

I've watched this movie several times; I like Searching for Bobby Fischer. This movie can inspire someone to learn chess and become good at it.   This movie is based and inspired by actual events of Joshua Waitzkin story.

Joshua Waitzkin was considered a chess prodigy together with another child chess prodigy at that time named Jonathon Poe on that movie but later found out it was Jeff Sarwer.

I certainly was inspired to play better chess when I saw this movie, and I would undoubtedly love to gift this to my child or even for an adult.   I recommend watching this with the whole family or with a group of friends who are into chess. Check Searching For Bobby Fischer price on Amazon

Queen of Katwe

The movie about Searching for Bobby Fischer I've seen it when I was in primary, but the movie Queen of Katwe is the one I've watched together with my daughter.

It's the story of Phiona Mutesi; they live in a poverty-stricken place in Uganda where she and her brother help their mother sell maize on the street. It's a beautiful true story where Phiona developed an interest in learning chess because of his younger brother and through a coach mentoring them how to play chess.

This can be another inspiring story about how a young unknowing protagonist becomes a chess champion and gives hope to her family. I also would recommend you buying this movie and at the same time watching this movie together with your family. Check Queen of Katwe on Amazon

Life of a King

This is another true story (I like to watch true story films) about an ex-convict who made it his goal to keep teens and children away from illegal activities.   How he did that?   The only way he thought of helping was to teach kids chess to avoid getting into gangs, drugs and all those illegal stuff.

I like his story too, and his advocacy of helping parents and kids live a better life – he started a chess club, and if you try and Google Eugene Brown, you will see the website of the chess club named Big Chair Chess Club.

You can also show your support to that website by donating any amount by clicking the link “How You Can Help?” in the bigchairchessclub.org menu. Check Life of a King on Amazon

Magnus

This is the story of Magnus Carlsen's rise to becoming a World Chess Champion, defeating Viswanathan Anand.

Any chess enthusiast would like to learn the beginning or how a great Grandmaster like Magnus Carlsen started.   The whole documentary was ok, and I was expecting more from this. But it was enough to get someone inspired and maybe give them a boost to start their kids' chess journey as young as six years old.

I wished I started as early as six years old, and never stopped… 🙂

If you have kids and want to get them inspired by Magnus Carlsen's chess success story, then get this one for them. Check Magnus on Amazon

Bobby Fischer Against the World

I've watched this excellent documentary of one of the greatest American chess player Bobby Fischer.

I like the storyline and the build-up of the suspense game between the USA and Russian chess player. For a big fan of Bobby Fischer, this should be on their list of chess movies to watch.   The documentary depicts Bobby Fischer's love for chess at a young age, and somehow it also shows how chess affected his personal life and eventually lead him to self-destruct.

I felt the movie taught me something special and it was a good experience for me, especially the psychological tactics he was “trying” to implement with Spassky during the World Chess Championship.

The story seems to evolve in Bobby Fischer's obsession to solve every problem he encounters both in chess and in his own life. Check Bobby Fischer Against The World on Amazon

Pawn Sacrifice

This movie almost tells the same story as the “Bobby Fischer Against the World” documentary.   There are some good and bad reviews about the movie, but for chess enthusiasts and fans of Bobby Fischer, this movie will satisfy their desire to learn more about the life of the great Bobby Fischer.

This movie will be an excellent addition to a chess enthusiasts collection of chess movies.   So, there you go this is some of the interesting chess movies that you can gift to a friend or family who is into chess. Check Pawn Sacrifice on Amazon

Also read: 25 Interesting Chess Birthday Gift Ideas You Need To See

Number 2. Online Chess Platform Gift Ideas

Almost all the time I purchased gifts online, and I believe all of us have purchased products online as a gift to our friends or families.

Mostly it's a physical product, and sometimes we can't find the right physical product as a gift.   If you are having a hard time choosing the right product or purchasing physical products.Then I have another suggestion for you, gift chess enthusiasts a subscription to an online chess platform.

What? A subscription? Yes…   You don't have to pay forever, of course, it's a gift…It can be a year of chess online subscription, a six months subscription or even for just a month.

The person you gifted the online chess subscription can continue it or not, it's up to them.   Would they like an online chess subscription as a gift? I would…:)

Any chess enthusiast would love to subscribe to an online chess platform, to learn and play more chess.   Here are some of the online chess platform that you can check out.

Chess.com

Considered to be one of the largest sites that serve different levels of chess players.   This online chess platform has a forum, social networking features and a lot of other features which I haven't personally look into.   But mainly I use this to play chess online and learn other tactics from chess masters…

Yes, this platform is complete with tutorials, practice games, puzzles, it can even show you the analysis of your games. I believe you can find a lot of chess related stuff inside chess.com's platform and I think it's worth it.

I recommend this online chess platform as a useful resource for learning and playing chess online, and you can offer this as a gift as well for your friend or family that loves chess.

The monthly plans don't cost that much either, if you are running out of an idea to give as a gift to a chess enthusiast then look no further- chess.com can be a valuable gift… 🙂

Chesskid.com

This is basically for kids; it's an online chess platform that helps kids to learn chess.   Since chess players and some of the greatest chess players started when they were just a kid, this chess online platform chesskid.com is perfect for them.

I registered my daughter in chesskid.com and she loves playing with a live opponent, or the chess robot can play with them as well.   It's free to register, but if you want to use all the features and make learning fun for your kids…

You can gift a membership plan for a month or even a year…   A chess enthusiast, especially someone who is just learning will benefit from having a membership plan.   Have a look at this online chess platform and decide if this is an excellent gift. 🙂

Learningchess.net

This is one is another full package of chess learning, and I have seen a lot of development and also tons of training.   This can be useful both for a beginner chess player, student chess player and even for people like me who wants to teach their child chess.

Learningchess.net have carefully separated which topics are best for different chess learners, and for a chess enthusiast, this is perfect.   You don't need to get confused, or you don't have to look for different menu sections…

Because once you click the get started, then you will be redirected to a page where you can choose which lessons to learn (showing you the links that you should click).

This is an excellent chess online gift for a meager yearly price. Go ahead and check it out for yourself.   Those are some of the best chess online platforms that I found, that is modern looking and do not look outdated in both the design and the learnings.

Just remember that whenever you sign up or purchase a plan, make sure to have an email address ready to be transferred to the person you are gifting the membership to…

Or if you haven't transferred the detail signups yet it will still work, either way, is ok…It's an interesting chess gift after all… 🙂

You may also want to check out an article about cool chess sets!

Number 3. Online Chess Courses Gift Ideas taught by ChessMasters

The best thing about being enthusiastic about something is that we appreciate anything and everything about that passion or hobby.

For a chess enthusiast, we can always surprise them with something special; most of the time different but beneficial online chess courses…   Gift them with something that will excite them, not only physical chess products, not any online chess platform to play but something that they can use and get a lot of learning from real and experienced chess masters.

Here is some online chess course that can ignite your enthusiastic friend's interest by merely learning from chess grandmasters.

Masterclass with Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov Teaches Chess

The Masterclass is just like any other online course platform, except the instructors are famous actors, singers, athletes, and in other popular fields.   The one that caught my attention is they have an online course for chess, and the instructor is none other than Garry Kasparov.

Now, who wouldn't want to learn from one of the greatest chess players of all time?   A chess enthusiast would love to get a hold of this online course, only because Grandmaster Garry Kasparov is teaching it.

This can be an excellent gift you can give to your friends or family who knows Garry Kasparov.   Go to Masterclass.com

Chessbase Online Chess Courses by the greatest chess players

If you want to gift an online course where they can learn and watch the most important game from the oldest and newest chess game…   Chessbase is the site you can explore, this site has a wide variety of chess related information and sells online chess courses that explain chess games of the greatest Chessmasters.

The only downside is you cannot just sign up and access the website immediately. I tried a few times but have no success.   But that did not give me any reason not to recommend this as an interesting chess gift for chess enthusiasts… 🙂

Just got to Chessbase.com and have a look of the chess-related offers that you can purchase as a gift.   Go to chessbase.com

Chess-teacher teaches the psychology of chess

Want to surprise a chess enthusiast about psychology to the game of chess?   Sounds interesting? It can be interesting for a chess enthusiast when they hear about this “psychology learning” of chess…   Especially if they have been playing chess for quite a while, they will be interested in learning from a Grandmaster with a Master's degree in Psychology.

There are different online courses that you can gift a chess enthusiast on this website, and almost all of the online courses are quite promising.

Give this one a shot and purchase the online course from chess-teacher.com as a gift.   Go to chess-teacher.com

Chessmasterschool the professional services

This website gives you the feeling of more professional chess learning services…   Chessmasterschool doesn't need to introduce themselves as a chess learning website, but actually, they tell you upfront that they have some courses to sell you.

They include monthly payment and full 13-month course, I went and had a look at their free sample courses, and I do like that it's on a text format – which we can just easily print and read it when we have time.

As a gift to a chess enthusiast, this will still be a handy resource and can help them improve their chess game by going through the text format type of lessons.

Disclaimer: I have not gone through the whole program, but the website does seem to carry a lot of authority in chess.   This can be valuable as a gift to a chess enthusiast.   Go to chessmasterschool.com

iChess.net massive collections of historical chess plays

Maybe one of the most popular chess websites is iChess.net…   There are a lot of courses on this site, and I do consider the site more of an e-commerce site for online chess courses.   But we are here to find interesting chess gifts…

I'm giving you chess gift ideas for online chess courses that are being taught by the chess masters.   iChess.net has a lot of interesting and valuable chess online courses…(sorry cannot go through all of them) and I am sure that chess masters are teaching the online courses.

You can browse through the products they are selling and pick the one that you can afford( courses are bit costly compared to other sites), and you think will be most useful for the person you are giving it…   Go to iChess.net

Click this link to check out more about the best chess birthday gift ideas to buy!

Wrapping Up

There you have it…   You don't have to choose one only one to give as a gift, but you can buy for each categories and bundle them together. 🙂   If you want to give them a collection of chess movies as a gift, then grab all the mentioned movies above and pack them nicely, and you have an exciting gift your chess enthusiast's friend would appreciate.

As for online courses, that can be more of a surprise since they will access it online or via their desktop or laptops…same with the subscription model gift… 🙂

If you are looking for an unusual gift yourself or your kids or any member of the family then browse over the list and pick one or three items from the list – I'm sure they will appreciate any of the things you'll give them.

I hope this idea helped you and maybe the list just inspired you to think of more interesting gift ideas for a chess enthusiast!   Enjoy! 🙂

Check out my chess recommendations here.

"Discover The Solution On How To Improve Your Game Faster" (Even If You're Just Starting Out And You Don't Know Where To Find The Answer!)

Also Get Your FREE “Chess Fundamentals Cheat Sheets” to help you SPEED UP Your Learning and more!

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