Saturday morning, December 28, 2024. Cold rain in New York. And the San Antonio Spurs' 7-foot-plus center is at a puddled table in Washington Square Park, with a towel to dry off the chess pieces.
The night before, after the Spurs beat the Nets, Victor Wembanyama had asked his followers where to find the best chess in the city. The answer was Washington Square Park. So that morning he posted where he would be, and he went.
"Who wants to meet me at the SW corner of Washington Square park to play chess? Im there,"
Victor Wembanyama, on social media, December 2024, as reported by NBC New York
A few dozen people showed up in the rain. For about an hour, he sat down across from whoever came. For one of them, it was a lot more than a pickup game.
"This is the biggest chess game of my life."
One of Wembanyama's opponents in Washington Square Park
He played four games and lost two, both to professional players. The two he won made the morning for him, because one of them came against his brother. Asked why he did it at all, he said he simply felt like it, and that was reason enough.
"I lost against two pros but I won against my brother, so it was worth it."
Victor Wembanyama, to the Associated Press, December 2024
Afterward he floated an idea: an NBA players-only chess tournament, with the proceeds going to the winner's charity of choice.
Half a year in a chess club
The chess was nothing new. It has been part of his life since he was a kid in France, when he joined a local club for a while.
"I learned chess when I was around 10 years old and played for half a year in a chess club."
Victor Wembanyama, as reported by Chess.com, July 2025
His reason fits on one line. Chess, he said, challenges the brain.
Layup lines
The league noticed. Before a game against the Bulls, their mascot, Benny the Bull, set up a chessboard on the sideline during warmups.
Wembanyama stopped in the middle of layup lines, made a move, and went right back to warming up. Then teammate Jeremy Sochan answered with a move of his own.
Two courts in Le Chesnay
Then he took it home.
Wembanyama grew up in Le Chesnay, a town just west of Paris. On January 21, 2025, he dedicated two new outdoor courts there, one for five-on-five and one for three-on-three, paid for in large part by the Spurs Give Foundation and built to the plans he had sketched himself. The Spurs' general manager, Brian Wright, remembered watching him at a whiteboard drawing every detail. Wembanyama played on them with local kids the day they opened.
"It was my dream also to have these kind of courts when I was living here,"
Victor Wembanyama, at the court dedication in Le Chesnay, January 21, 2025, to the Associated Press
The Hoop Gambit
In July 2025 he went bigger. His first Hoop Gambit festival, on a Sunday in Le Chesnay, put a seven-round chess tournament next to one-on-one and three-on-three basketball. By his own count it drew 150 chess players and more than 300 hoopers, with chess players as young as five. Fellow French NBA star Rudy Gobert came out for it. The chess was won by an International Master, Yovann Gatineau.
Wembanyama promised to do it again, bigger and better. On August 8 and 9, 2026, he did: two days on the outskirts of Paris, two rapid chess brackets, a basketball tournament, and the chess streamer Levy Rozman, GothamChess, helping out and putting on an exhibition.
The kids had their fun with him on the court. In the exhibition basketball games, the younger players beat their much taller opponent every single time.
Adam
And then there was the chess. Wembanyama entered the open tournament himself, and a six-year-old named Adam beat him.
He did not dress it up. He told Le Figaro it was his fault: he had taken much longer than Adam at the start of the game, he had the much better position, and he ran out of time. In chess terms, he got flagged by a six-year-old.
"I had a much better position than his. Much, much better."
Victor Wembanyama, to Le Figaro, August 2026, as reported by HITC
His own ranking of his two loves is just as honest.
"I am better in basketball than I am in chess, but I love both. Basketball a little bit more,"
Victor Wembanyama, at the Hoop Gambit, August 2026, as reported by Eurohoops
The other board
A few months before the festival, in April 2026, he was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year. All 100 first-place votes went to him, making him the first unanimous winner in the award's history. He finished the regular season with 197 blocks and led the league in blocks for the third straight season.
That is the player the rest of the league sees. The one who showed up in the rain with a towel for the pieces, lost to two pros, beat his brother, and took the blame when a six-year-old beat him on the clock: that one has been at the board since he was a kid.
GAMECHANGER™Reporting draws on the Associated Press, NBC New York, CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, FOX Television Stations, Pounding the Rock, Chess.com, Eurohoops (2025 and 2026), HITC (citing Le Figaro), The Chess Drum and Infos Yvelines.
Sources (14)
NBC New York: Victor Wembanyama plays chess in New York City · CBS Sports: Victor Wembanyama pulls up to Washington Square Park in New York to play chess · Associated Press via West Hawaii Today: Wembanyama a towering presence on chess board too · Sports Illustrated: Victor Wembanyama, Spurs play chess with Bulls mascot during pregame warmups · Associated Press via Click2Houston: In his hometown, Wembanyama dedicates a pair of new outdoor courts for kids · News 4 San Antonio: Victor Wembanyama fulfills childhood dream for his hometown · Chess.com: IM Yovann Gatineau wins Wemby's Hoop Gambit tournament · Pounding the Rock: Victor Wembanyama launches his Hoop Gambit · Eurohoops: Victor Wembanyama announces a second annual basketball and chess tournament · Infos Yvelines: Le Chesnay, Wembanyama's Hoop Gambit in August 2026 · Eurohoops: Victor Wembanyama blends courts and chessboards in Paris, 'I love both' · HITC: Victor Wembanyama draws attention after losing to a six-year-old at his chess tournament in France · The Chess Drum: Wembanyama hosts Hoop Gambit for a second year · FOX 10 Phoenix: Victor Wembanyama named 2026 NBA Defensive Player of the Year in first unanimous vote