ESPN’s Max Kellerman Underscores Racism in Chess: Go Figure, ‘The Black Pieces…Always Go Second’

During a TV segment breaking down the San Francisco 49ers quarterback battle, ESPN host Max Kellerman used a unique analogy as an opportunity to highlight what he considers a racial bias in the game of chess.

“If you play chess and you’re the black pieces – which always go second. Go figure, right?” Kellerman observed during Monday’s First Take. “If you just do, theoretically the strongest move every time, you’re always a step behind the white pieces who start first.”

The analogy stemmed from a discussion around whether the 49ers should transcend NFL standards and rotate their two capable quarterbacks, Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance. Garoppolo is White and Lance is of mixed race, but that’s not where Kellerman’s chess thought came into play.

Kellerman’s football point infers NFL teams need to be innovative when they lack the pieces to succeed in a traditional way. In chess, the person with black pieces is at a disadvantage by going second, therefore they need to play more innovatively. But his chess observation about the “black pieces, which always go second,” clearly pointed to a racial bias existing in the centuries-old board game.

Chess is believed to be at least 1500 years old, but it was not until the 1800s when it became customary for the person with white pieces to go first and the player with black pieces to go second.

Kellerman is currently wrapping up his five-year tenure on First Take, with ESPN recently announcing he will be moved off the show by Sept. 7. In the new format, First Take will be further centered around its superstar Stephen A. Smith, who has yet to address Kellerman’s departure.

Watch above via ESPN.