Spot Elon Musk in this throwback pic of his high school chess team

Elon Musk was a chess player in school (Image credit: chicago_glenn/Twitter)

There was a time Elon Musk used to play chess. Today, the richest man in the world prefers Battle of Polytopia, a strategy video game played on a randomly-generated map.

Elon Musk discussed the drawbacks of chess vs the advantage of Polytopia when an old photograph of him as part of a chess team surfaced on Twitter. The black and white photograph shows a young Musk posing with his teammates as part of his high school chess team.

“Do you still play chess?” the Twitter user who shared the picture on the microblogging platform asked Musk.

In response, the Tesla chief listed out the reason he longer plays chess. “Only 64 squares, no fog of war, no tech tree, only a few different pieces,no random spawn. Chess is a simple game. I prefer Polytopia,” he wrote.

Only 64 squares, no fog of war, no tech tree, only a few different pieces,no random spawn. Chess is a simple game. I prefer Polytopia.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 8, 2022

In March, he tweeted: “Chess is a simple game. Understandable when all we had to play with were squirrels and rocks, but now we have computers.”

“Polytopia is *way* better imo, if you like strategy games,” he added.

Polytopia is a turn-based strategy game developed by Swedish gaming company Midjiwan AB. The aim of the game is to control as much territory as possible on a randomly generated map and to develop an empire by beating opponents.