Emory Tate

Internet bogeyman Andrew Tate, recently detained in Romania on trafficking and rape charges, is a chess fan. Disciples who visit his ‘The Real World’ website in search of the influencer’s insight will encounter a logo featuring a cobra entwined with a chess knight. ‘King Cobra’, as he was known during his days as a professional kickboxer, is a competent chess player, as he showed during a recent interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored. Their verbal sparring concluded with a game of chess, in which Morgan left his queen hanging and Tate didn’t hesitate to capitalise.

Afterwards, Tate praised chess as a game which fosters absolute self-reliance, a lesson he learned from his father. ‘His father was a chess master’ – all Tate’s bios seem to drop that in, the better to portray his idiosyncrasy, perhaps. That father, Emory Tate, spoke several languages and served in the US Air Force, winning the Armed Forces championship five times in the 1980s.