Chess/YMMV

The Game

 * Alternate Character Interpretation: In Shogi (a Japanese chess variant), the "king" has also been viewed as representing the children of that player's color -- the future, if you will.
 * Designated Hero/Designated Villain: The players.
 * Ending Fatigue: Some novice games can drag on for quite a while, especially when it's just chasing the king around the board. Professional players would have resigned long ago at this stage. This is the reason why the fifty-move rule was invented (which is still pretty long for an average game).
 * Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Having evolved in India, the Middle East and Southern Europe, modern chess has been dominated by Russians.
 * Nightmare Fuel: Some of the neuroses, pathological behaviors and/or full-fledged psychoses suffered later in life by many historical masters invites the question of just what impact long-term intense study of the game has on the human psyche.
 * Scott McCloud explores this. Also see The Tetris Effect.
 * Scrappy Mechanic: Explaining castling to a new player can get pretty daunting. Even in intermediate play a lot of confusion can still occur as to what is or isn't a legal castling scenario.

The Musical

 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Anatoly Sergievsky--troubled Anti-Hero pulled apart by the demands of everyone in his life who eventually decides to stand up for himself? Or a spoiled Jerkass whose great success and beautiful family aren't enough, so he abandons the latter, and eventually admits his first obligation is to himself?
 * Badass Decay: The versions that have "Pity the Child" in the first act result in Freddie becoming Walter's puppet without anything to save his character from being anything more than a Jerkass pawn with delusions of grandeur.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: "Endgame"--particularly the last minute of it-- as well as "Anthem", and "Pity the Child".
 * "Mountain Duet".
 * "Nobody's Side" is worth a mention too.
 * The sheer complexity of "Quartet (A Model of Decorum and Tranquility)" is also worth mentioning.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Freddie seems to get this a lot from the fanfic writers, but not so much from the rest of the fandom.
 * See the entry for Alternate Character Interpretation above. The latter interpretation leaves Anatoly as an even bigger a-hole than Freddie, so naturally the fangirls are gonna set about making him even more sympathetic.
 * Ear Worm: "One Night in Bangkok"
 * "Opening Ceremony / The Arbiter"
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: The 2006 World Championship match, anyone? Danailov would fit perfectly into this show.
 * Tear Jerker: Many folk who, for their own reasons, have had to leave the country they were born and raised in, have reported bursting into tears when they hear "Anthem."
 * The Woobie: Mischa in the Swedish production. Maybe his grandma as well.
 * Depending on the production (and the actor), "Pity the Child" can almost turn Freddie into one.