Many of us know the dearly departed Heath Ledger for his acting talent, but he was so much more than that. Apparently, the star was an amazing chess player.
The fact resurfaced recently on Reddit. In an MTV interview, Ledger revealed that he had been playing chess in Washington Square Park — the famous NYC chess spot — since he was a kid.
“I’ve played since I was a kid. I play at least one game a day,” he said.
According to Earl Biggs, a chess regular at Washington Square Park who spoke to People, he might have needed a bit more practice despite his love for the game.
“I saw him a few times… He seemed like a nice guy. He’d usually lose. We played for a couple of dollars and he’d lose a few dollars. He just had fun, he loved it. We’d talk trash talk at the chess table … Oh, you don’t want to know what we’d say! We’d say things to him like, ‘How can you make that move! How can you make a move like that!!!’ And he’d just laugh. Heath would just come around and jump into a game. People walking by didn’t bother him. We didn’t talk about anything personal except, ‘Hey, you owe me five dollars!'” said Biggs.
To be fair, the people who play at Washington Square Park are really, really good. We have no doubts Ledger could have whooped us in a few moves.
