When she realized that the chessmen themselves were playing against her without anyone's help, she strove to play her cleverest game to see what the result would be, and she knew more about chess than any woman there was in those times. But no matter how cleverly she played, she was always checkmated. After she had tried the game, she said that it was masterfully made and adroitly created, and asked whether everyone who played would be checkmated. 'No; he replied, 'a knight will come, gracious and desired and beloved over all others, and he will be so skilled in chess and other games that he'll not find his equal in this world. That knight will checkmate this game, but everyone else who plays it will be checkmated except him, and the power of this game will last all his life, but at his death it will end and the chessmen will never play themselves again

[...]

Lancelot stared for a long while at the men, for they were skillfully carved and beautiful. He took the silver ones and arranged them, and also the gold. After he had set them all out in their proper positions, he began by moving the pawn in front of the queen, and the other side did likewise. After he had made several pawn moves, he changed his attack subtly, moving his rooks and other pieces so that they were all well protected; then he doubled his rooks, played his knights to the right, and played so cleverly for all to see that he cornered the gold king and said, "Checkmate!"

The Vulgate Cycle