Tropescilloscope: The Chessmaster

A character who is exceptionally skilled at manipulating events to their advantage using gambits that rely on subtlety and misdirection (much like in Chess). (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Unwitting Instigator of Doom Shower Scene Video Credits Ghost Fiction Dutch Angle Crapsack World Historical-Domain Character The Stinger Jerkass Has a Point Actually Pretty Funny Drill Sergeant Nasty Femme Fatale Serial Killer '80s Hair Frame-Up Death of a Child Overly Long Gag Rule of Symbolism Department of Redundancy Department Title Drop Bland-Name Product "Awesome McCool" Name Television Movie Index A Father to His Men Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Mind Screw I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Dogged Nice Guy And Starring Ship Tease Important Haircut Based on a True Story Spell My Name with an "S" Alliterative Name Scare Chord Pragmatic Villainy It Will Never Catch On Vomit Indiscretion Shot Aluminum Christmas Trees Reality Ensues All Men Are Perverts Evil-Detecting Dog Action Survivor Back from the Dead Dies Wide Open Shipper on Deck The Alcoholic Car Fu Riddle for the Ages Amusing Injuries Ax-Crazy Guns Akimbo Disney Death I Have Your Wife Would Hit a Girl Age Lift Wicked Cultured Babies Ever After Bring My Brown Pants Red Herring Unspoken Plan Guarantee Chiaroscuro What the Hell, Hero? I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Punny Name Cool Guns Genre Savvy Only Known by Their Nickname Early-Bird Cameo Developing Doomed Characters Russian Films Crazy Jealous Guy Villain with Good Publicity Stealth Hi/Bye Adapted Out The Smart Guy The Ghost Genre Shift Stock Footage Male Gaze Eyepatch of Power Silent Movie Not So Above It All Not Even Bothering with the Accent Slashed Throat As Himself For Want of a Nail Darkest Hour Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Manipulative Bastard Badass Normal Love Triangle Killed Mid-Sentence Badass Longcoat Hell Is That Noise Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Defrosting Ice Queen Call-Forward Arch-Enemy Red Oni, Blue Oni The Mafia Did Not Get the Girl Villain Song Funny Foreigner The '50s Fourth Date Marriage Well-Intentioned Extremist Sassy Black Woman Together in Death Bloody Hilarious Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Credits Gag Kill 'em All Hollywood Law Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Off-into-the-Distance Ending Knife Nut Big Eater Documentary Historical Villain Upgrade Mooks Small Name, Big Ego Training Montage Made of Explodium Fanservice Extra The Place Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Shut Up, Hannibal! Unresolved Sexual Tension Wham Shot NO INDOOR VOICE Truth in Television Dirty Cop Fatal Family Photo Those Two Bad Guys And I Must Scream The Film of the Book Heel Realization Meaningful Name Overprotective Dad Very Loosely Based on a True Story Does Not Like Shoes The Ditz Animal Motifs Domestic Abuse The '60s Drives Like Crazy Running Gag Cool Old Guy Mercy Kill German Films Grievous Bottley Harm Heroic BSoD Hooker with a Heart of Gold After the End Bittersweet Ending Roaring Rampage of Revenge Jerk with a Heart of Gold Kick the Son of a Bitch Distracted by the Sexy Death by Adaptation Intrepid Reporter Adorkable Evil Counterpart Bottomless Magazines I'm a Humanitarian Depraved Bisexual Black Best Friend Chekhov's Gun Karmic Death Broken Bird Names to Run Away from Really Fast Last-Name Basis Neck Snap One-Man Army Sealed Evil in a Can Defiant to the End Recycled IN SPACE! Adaptational Heroism Good Is Not Nice I Did What I Had to Do My God, What Have I Done? Fingore Only in It for the Money Deliberate Values Dissonance Parental Abandonment Beard of Evil Adults Are Useless Evil Sounds Deep You Have Failed Me Straight Gay Aside Glance Shout-Out Market-Based Title Rule of Cool Disappeared Dad Anti-Hero Those Two Guys Catapult Nightmare Flashback Big Bad Duumvirate Bait-and-Switch Needs Wiki Magic Love Never My Fault Card-Carrying Villain The Brute Break the Cutie Music Stories Deconstruction Crucified Hero Shot Retcon Mr. Fanservice Not Quite Dead The Vamp Coming-of-Age Story Early Installment Weirdness Spiritual Successor Only Sane Man Attempted Rape Knight Templar All There in the Script Stuff Blowing Up Children Are Innocent Undying Loyalty Logo Joke There Is No Kill Like Overkill Betty and Veronica Bond Villain Stupidity Action Prologue Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Ripped from the Headlines Pay Evil unto Evil Kids Are Cruel Rated M for Manly Sanity Slippage Older Than They Look Our Vampires Are Different Adaptational Attractiveness Diabolus ex Machina Broken Aesop Advertised Extra Didn't Think This Through Posthumous Character Decoy Protagonist No OSHA Compliance Police Brutality Obstructive Bureaucrat Evil Plan Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Historical Hero Upgrade Real Life Immune to Bullets Irony Taking You with Me Handicapped Badass Double Entendre Ms. Fanservice Break the Haughty The '70s Science Fiction Films Disproportionate Retribution Evil Is Hammy Film Series Brother–Sister Incest Redemption Equals Death Meet Cute Precision F-Strike Morality Pet Death Glare Papa Wolf Empathic Environment Belligerent Sexual Tension Batman Gambit Creator Cameo Expy Demoted to Extra Animal Title Index Stealth Pun Epic Fail Playing Gertrude Accidental Murder Becoming the Mask Suspiciously Similar Substitute Tranquil Fury Affectionate Parody Police are Useless Historical In-Joke True Companions Spared by the Adaptation Curse Cut Short Evil Is Petty Cat Scare Deus ex Machina Male Frontal Nudity Totally Radical Instant Death Bullet Corpsing Monumental Damage Mexican Standoff Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Mystery and Detective Films Anti-Villain Super Strength The Cameo Too Dumb to Live Fantastic Racism Villainous Breakdown The Oner Your Head A-Splode All for Nothing In Medias Res Dramedy Man on Fire Take a Third Option Driven to Suicide Humans Are Bastards Shoot the Shaggy Dog Artistic License – Biology Badass Boast No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Motor Mouth Oh, Crap! Ascended Extra Suddenly SHOUTING! Amoral Attorney Expository Hairstyle Change Punch-Clock Villain Gone Horribly Right Freeze-Frame Bonus Hero Antagonist The Ace Arranged Marriage Say My Name The Dreaded Action Girl Off with His Head! Groin Attack The Hero Dies Adaptation Dye-Job Vitriolic Best Buds The Stoner Retired Badass No-Sell Insult Backfire Only One Name Take That! Mythology Gag Non-Indicative Name Ambiguous Disorder Greater-Scope Villain Bavarian Fire Drill Sir Swears-a-Lot Revenge Wrong Genre Savvy Arc Words Reasonable Authority Figure Blood from the Mouth Spanner in the Works Sole Survivor Public Domain Feature Films Narrator May–December Romance Punctuated! For! Emphasis! The Dog Bites Back Black and Gray Morality Dull Surprise All There in the Manual Happily Married Daylight Horror Stepford Smiler Gory Discretion Shot Beauty Is Never Tarnished Outrun the Fireball Noodle Incident Artistic License – Law Star-Crossed Lovers Dual Wielding It Can Think Rasputinian Death Improvised Weapon Cain and Abel Only a Flesh Wound Vacation Films Pre-Mortem One-Liner Almost Kiss Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Peek-a-Boo Corpse Not So Stoic Black Comedy Rape A God Am I Tempting Fate Black Dude Dies First Manly Tears How We Got Here Mr. Exposition Fantasy Films Even Evil Has Loved Ones What Happened to the Mouse? Bare Your Midriff Missing Mom Unreliable Narrator Extreme Doormat Manchild Every Car Is a Pinto Asshole Victim Bloodless Carnage Protagonist Title Mama Bear Big "NO!" Product Placement Deal with the Devil Horror Comedy Ass Shove Big Fancy House Central Theme folderlabel Romantic False Lead Butt-Monkey Villain Ball Freudian Excuse World of Ham Slap-Slap-Kiss Deliberately Monochrome Animated Credits Opening Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Enemy Mine Parental Incest Epic Movie Artistic License – Physics Rape as Drama Funny Background Event Let's Get Dangerous! Bound and Gagged A.I. Is a Crapshoot He Who Fights Monsters Gold Digger Up to Eleven Villain Opening Scene The Dragon Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Curb-Stomp Battle Big Brother Instinct MacGuffin The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Took a Level in Jerkass Comically Missing the Point And the Adventure Continues Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Major Injury Underreaction Love at First Sight Token Minority Cloudcuckoolander Berserk Button Pet the Dog Due to the Dead The Atoner Unusual Euphemism No Ending Shown Their Work Dark Reprise Heroic Sacrifice Really Gets Around Match Cut Same Language Dub Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Contrived Coincidence Vampire Fiction Evil Laugh Guile Hero Award-Bait Song Plucky Comic Relief Improbable Aiming Skills Redshirt Army Parental Substitute Interrupted Suicide Thriller Improbable Weapon User Index of Film Westerns Getting Crap Past the Radar The Chessmaster Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane "The Reason You Suck" Speech For the Evulz Grey and Gray Morality Wounded Gazelle Gambit Spiteful Spit Lock and Load Montage Cassandra Truth Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Cluster F-Bomb "Well Done, Son!" Guy Bury Your Gays Insane Troll Logic Evil vs. Evil Naïve Newcomer Costume Porn Author Appeal The Hero It's Personal Does This Remind You of Anything? Flipping the Bird Maybe Ever After Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Suspiciously Specific Denial As the Good Book Says... Mighty Whitey Large Ham The Sociopath She Cleans Up Nicely As You Know Not So Different Refuge in Audacity Fake Shemp Eiffel Tower Effect Chekhov's Skill An Axe to Grind Foreshadowing Badass Grandpa Eye Scream Visual Pun Kick the Dog Fainting Wretched Hive Re-Cut B-Movie Dark Is Not Evil Reckless Gun Usage No Name Given Time Skip Woman in White Beware the Nice Ones Continuity Nod Big-Bad Ensemble Screw the Money, I Have Rules! From Bad to Worse The Casanova Determinator The Big Guy Intergenerational Friendship Gainax Ending Laughing Mad Armor-Piercing Question Whole Plot Reference Fan Disservice Body Horror Pretty Little Headshots Naked People Are Funny Better to Die than Be Killed Ambiguously Gay Obviously Evil Paper-Thin Disguise The Power of Love Dark Action Girl Anachronism Stew In the Back Exact Words Psychological Thriller Moment Killer Earn Your Happy Ending Facial Horror The End... Or Is It? Retirony Even Evil Has Standards Face–Heel Turn Poor Communication Kills Honor Before Reason Green-Eyed Monster La Résistance Nice Hat Parental Neglect Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Malevolent Masked Men Framing Device Hidden Depths Race Against the Clock All Just a Dream Casting Gag Insistent Terminology Camp Gay British Films Homage Woman Scorned Extremely Short Timespan 20 Minutes into the Future Four-Temperament Ensemble Air-Vent Passageway Book-Ends Hair-Trigger Temper Alpha Bitch Fiery Redhead Anachronic Order Destination Defenestration The Stoic Artistic License – Geography Karma Houdini Closed Circle Works Set in World War II Rule of Three Black Comedy Japanese Films Leitmotif Throwing Your Sword Always Works Smug Snake Auto Erotica Hero of Another Story Captain Ersatz Dramatic Irony The Voiceless The '90s Final Girl Danny Peary Cult Movies List Race Lift Would Hurt a Child Evil Brit Heel–Face Turn Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Chewing the Scenery Pyrrhic Victory She's Got Legs Adaptation Name Change Worthy Opponent Room Full of Crazy Translation Convention Loads and Loads of Characters Death by Irony Eagleland I Need a Freaking Drink Red Right Hand Not Using the "Z" Word Bald of Evil Sequel Escalation Blonde, Brunette, Redhead More Dakka The Alleged Car Dwindling Party My Beloved Smother The Mole Hypocrite Disguised in Drag Fanservice Antagonist Title Be Careful What You Wish For Creepy Child Storming the Castle Never Found the Body Darker and Edgier Married to the Job The Great Depression Faux Affably Evil BFG Hope Spot Silence Is Golden The Starscream Sequel Hook Famous Last Words Drowning My Sorrows Adaptation Expansion Loophole Abuse Cold-Blooded Torture The Reveal Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Here We Go Again! Drugs Are Bad Mood Whiplash Mugging the Monster Twist Ending Not What It Looks Like Author Avatar Leave the Camera Running Rousing Speech Plot Hole Red Eyes, Take Warning Failed a Spot Check Dramatic Gun Cock Everyone Has Standards Light Is Not Good Christmas Movies Index Manic Pixie Dream Girl Leaning on the Fourth Wall Foil The Cavalry Big Applesauce Rule of Funny timeperiod Vomit Discretion Shot Bolivian Army Ending Determinator aka: The Determinator Once More, with Clarity! As Long as It Sounds Foreign Combat Pragmatist Dying Moment of Awesome Conspicuous CG Catch-Phrase The Faceless Jitter Cam Slasher Movie Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Madness Mantra Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Bi the Way Gender Flip Double-Meaning Title Bowdlerise Informed Ability My Greatest Failure Jerkass Camera Abuse An Aesop Bullying a Dragon Calling the Old Man Out Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Serious Business Imagine Spot Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Nothing Is Scarier The Load Scary Black Man Brutal Honesty Ironic Echo Shell-Shocked Veteran Gratuitous English Tap on the Head Canon Foreigner Film Noir Bunny-Ears Lawyer Heterosexual Life-Partners Victoria's Secret Compartment Bond One-Liner Pretty in Mink Smoking Is Cool Fate Worse than Death Sadistic Choice Shirtless Scene A Minor Kidroduction Bad "Bad Acting" Composite Character Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Soft Glass Sexy Discretion Shot Meaningful Background Event Bloodier and Gorier Call-Back Your Cheating Heart Alas, Poor Villain Implacable Man You Killed My Father Daddy's Girl Taking the Bullet Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Idiot Ball Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas The Lost Lenore Dirty Old Man Disney Villain Death Superhero Action Genre Dark and Troubled Past Brick Joke In Name Only Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Cat Fight Eureka Moment Lighter and Softer Annoying Younger Sibling No Antagonist Eldritch Abomination Politically Incorrect Villain The '80s Ambiguous Ending Reality Has No Subtitles Sacrificial Lion Despair Event Horizon Hollywood Darkness Properly Paranoid Abusive Parents Celebrity Paradox One Steve Limit Zombie Stories Hypocritical Humor Artistic License – Military The Musical Make It Look Like an Accident Accidental Misnaming Artistic License – History Our Zombies Are Different Fire-Forged Friends Nice Guy Toplessness from the Back Creative Closing Credits Corrupt Corporate Executive Dissonant Serenity Stylistic Suck Bitch in Sheep's Clothing War Is Hell Reality Is Unrealistic Humiliation Conga Genre Throwback Australian Movies The Lancer Never Trust a Trailer Military and Warfare Films It's All About Me Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism "Shaggy Dog" Story Cool Shades Hong Kong Films Yandere Novelization Awesome, but Impractical Big Damn Heroes Trailers Always Spoil Psychopathic Manchild Captain Obvious Faking the Dead Mundane Made Awesome Death Seeker You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Adaptational Villainy Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Get Out! Easily Forgiven Friend to All Children Affably Evil Gorn Horror Films Men Are the Expendable Gender Film Noir Index The Quiet One Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Bad Boss He Knows Too Much Sinister Minister Big Bad Rewatch Bonus Blatant Lies Anyone Can Die Foregone Conclusion The Bad Guy Wins N-Word Privileges Rich Bitch Crazy-Prepared Adult Fear Scenery Gorn Mistaken for Gay Broken Pedestal Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Adaptation Distillation Lampshade Hanging Badass in a Nice Suit Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Artistic License – Gun Safety Offscreen Teleportation Dropped a Bridge on Him Pragmatic Adaptation Psycho for Hire Offscreen Moment of Awesome Kill It with Fire Ominous Latin Chanting Fatal Flaw Cool Car Cool Old Lady Those Wacky Nazis Tagline No Celebrities Were Harmed From Nobody to Nightmare Real Life Writes the Plot Biopic Unusually Uninteresting Sight Jerk Jock Mad Scientist Chase Scene Cruel and Unusual Death Face Death with Dignity Boom, Headshot! Laser-Guided Karma Skewed Priorities The Un-Reveal Dumb Blonde No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Bilingual Bonus Obfuscating Stupidity The Bully Demonic Possession Dirty Coward The Chick Neck Lift Have a Gay Old Time Word of God Romantic Comedy Half the Man He Used to Be Sports Stories Actor Allusion The Smurfette Principle Stalker with a Crush Blackmail What You Are in the Dark Fun with Acronyms Slasher Smile Beta Couple Martial Arts Movie Country Matters Villain Protagonist O.O.C. Is Serious Business Soundtrack Dissonance Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! An Arm and a Leg One-Word Title Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Covers Always Lie Exactly What It Says on the Tin Character Development A Date with Rosie Palms Badass Bookworm Apocalypse How Adaptational Badass Made of Iron Show Within a Show Authority Equals Asskicking Downer Ending Five-Man Band Bar Brawl You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Brainless Beauty Agony of the Feet Hate Sink Setting Update Cowboy Cop All Girls Want Bad Boys Heroes Want Redheads Blood Knight Put on a Bus Abhorrent Admirer Death by Sex Damsel in Distress Dressing as the Enemy Self-Deprecation Wham Line Meaningful Echo This Is Gonna Suck Deadpan Snarker Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Scenery Porn Sci-Fi Horror The Remake Random Events Plot Left the Background Music On Fish out of Water Breaking the Fourth Wall Hoist by His Own Petard Anguished Declaration of Love Henpecked Husband Ungrateful Bastard Line-of-Sight Name Fat Bastard Canadian Movies French Films Took a Level in Badass Pimped-Out Dress Chekhov's Gunman Red Shirt Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Establishing Character Moment Gilligan Cut Jump Scare Kubrick Stare Italian Films The X of Y