"Ben Jonson and Shakespeare Playing Chess" by Karel van Mander (1603)

This picture was conjectured by Dr. Paul Wislicensus and Sir Sidney Lee to be a symbolic game of chess in which Shakespeare quickly checkmates Jonson. See the article in The New York Times, 3/12/1916. Despite many doubters, their view has been defended recently: Jeffrey Netto, "Intertextuality and the Chess Motif: Shakespeare, Middleton, Greenaway" in Michele Marrapodi, Shakespeare, Italy and Intertextuality, Manchester University Press, 2004, p.218. Courtesy of the Yorck Project.