About

In Chess vs. In Real Life, also known as In Chess vs. IRL, refers to a series of memes that revolve around comparing in-game chess pieces to their real-world counterparts. Typically, these appear as two-panel formats with a specific chess piece mentioned, referencing their various characteristics in the game, alongside reaction images. The theme was primarily seen on Reddit at first but spread to other social media platforms throughout late May 2020.

Origin

The first example to use the theme surfaced online around late May 2020. One of the earliest examples (seen below) was posted on May 20th, 2020, by Redditor^[1] eyooji to the r/memes sub, depicting queens in-game vs. in real life. The post received over 50,000 upvotes and 214 comments. The Instagram^[2] account spongebob_memepage reposted this version shortly after, receiving more than 28,000 likes.

Spread

The theme continued to spread as more Redditors added new chess pieces to the trend. On May 21st, 2020, Redditor^[3] croatiankiwi73 posted another variant to the r/dankmemes sub. The post (seen below) received nearly 88,000 upvotes and 352 comments.

On May 21st, 2020, Redditor^[4] Nastilus posted an example to the r/memes sub describing knights (shown below), which received over 68,000 upvotes, 223 comments and two Reddit awards. The Facebook^[5] page for Mashup Meme Boy II then reposted this, receiving nearly 10,000 likes and 2,000 shares.

On May 22nd, 2020, Redditor^[6] quantum_apple posted another example to the r/dankemes sub under the title, “Haha rook go zoooom.” The meme (shown below) was upvoted almost 51,000 times and commented on 244 times. The Facebook^[7] page The Meme Book also reposted the meme, receiving over 7,500 likes and 1,800 shares.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References