Deadlock's Solomon: The Three Real Chess Games the Wiki Lists in His Files, and When He Could Arrive

Who is Solomon in Deadlock?

Solomon is one of the six new heroes in Deadlock’s City Never Sleeps update, a chess-themed character whose official card carries three tags: Strategist, Focused, Checkmate. Valve announced him on 29 September 2026 alongside Nurse Harrow, Rat King, Deadman Danny, Baba and Violet, and it has published no abilities for him.

His card on Valve’s update page shows an older man with white hair and glasses, in a green and yellow scarf, with a white king between his hands. That is the whole official description: a name, a picture and three words.

The rest comes from the fan-run Deadlock Wiki, which cites the game files. It gives his internal codename as “Chessmaster”. Its lore page describes him carrying a chess clock and floating cross-legged, with a floating chess board. One of his five listed voice lines is “I’m always three moves ahead.”

The wiki also credits the voice to actor Carl Lumbly, citing a 30 September 2026 Discord message from Yoshi, whom the wiki describes as a Valve developer. We could not open that message, so treat the credit as reported, not confirmed.

One correction to existing coverage: a games.gg roundup lists his tags as “Strategist, Grandmaster, Checkmate”. Valve’s own card reads Focused.

Why is Deadlock Solomon trending?

Deadlock Solomon is trending for two visible reasons: Valve’s hero vote, open since 29 September 2026, and an 18-second GothamChess Short, “Vote Solomon Deadlock”, posted on 3 October 2026. It told a chess audience that a Valve hero carries real games in his files.

The key line in the Short, as YouTube’s auto-generated captions give it, is this: “Some of the script files actually feature historical games which are completely accurate.” Then comes the campaign pitch: “Unfortunately though, the rat was the first hero, but I hope they vote Solomon in soon.” In the captions he does not name the games or say when Solomon arrives.

Valve built campaigning into the hero vote, down to campaign posters, so a chess channel lobbying for the chess hero fits the design. The Short also arrived a day after the same channel’s video on Hikaru Nakamura’s Chess.com blitz record.

Which real chess games are in Solomon’s files?

The real chess games in Solomon’s files are, according to the Deadlock Wiki, three: Byrne against Fischer from 1956, Kasparov against Deep Blue from 1997, and Paul Morphy’s Opera Game from 1858. The wiki says they exist as animations “played on his board”.

The entry was added on 30 September 2026 by a single editor, who wrote that they had recordings of the animations but could not upload them. The wiki adds that the Deep Blue and Opera Game animations “are currently unfinished”. We found no statement from Valve on any of it.

We have not opened the game files ourselves. What we can do is check each named game against chess records.

1. Byrne vs Fischer, New York, 1956: the Game of the Century

The file bryne_v_ficher points to Donald Byrne against Bobby Fischer, played in round 8 of the Third Rosenwald Trophy in New York on 17 October 1956, according to chessgames.com. Fischer was 13 and had the black pieces. On move 17 he left his queen to be captured, collected a rook, two bishops and a pawn in return, and delivered checkmate on move 41.

Hans Kmoch named it in Chess Review that December, calling it “a stunning masterpiece of combination play performed by a boy of 13 against a formidable opponent”. The line is quoted on Wikipedia’s page for the game. Wikipedia places the game at the Marshall Chess Club; chessgames.com says only New York.

2. Kasparov vs Deep Blue, New York, 1997

The file kaspanov_v_deep_blue_g5 carries no year. The wiki reads it as the 1997 rematch between world champion Garry Kasparov and IBM’s Deep Blue computer, played in New York at the Equitable Center. Deep Blue won the six-game match 3.5 to 2.5. IBM’s own history says it became “the first computer system to defeat a reigning world chess champion in a match under standard tournament controls”.

The “g5” matters. Our reading, unconfirmed, is that it means game five. If so, the animation shows a draw. Game five was played on 10 May 1997 with Kasparov as White and ended level after 49 moves. IBM’s summary agrees: “Kasparov won the first game. Deep Blue took the next. The following three games were played to a draw.”

So the short final game Kasparov lost would be game six. The name lists Kasparov first, just as the other file lists Byrne, who had White, and Kasparov was White in game five of 1997.

We found no published record of the moves in the animation, so this stays an inference. (For a stranger machine opponent, see our piece on playing chess against a fruit fly brain.)

3. Morphy’s Opera Game, Paris, 1858

The file opera_game points to Paul Morphy against Duke Karl of Brunswick and Count Isouard, played in Paris in 1858 (chessgames.com). The two noblemen consulted on each move in the Duke’s opera box while a performance went on. Morphy, with White, won in 17 moves, giving up his queen on move 16 so that a rook could mate on move 17.

Even the opera is disputed. Chess historian Edward Winter records writers naming The Barber of Seville, Norma, La Cenerentola and The Marriage of Figaro. He also notes that Frank Marshall headed the game “The most famous game of all time” in a 1932 book.

The Deadlock Solomon chess games, side by side

Put next to each other, the three games span 139 years of chess.

File names and animation status come from the wiki. Dates, colours and results come from chessgames.com. The Kasparov column assumes g5 means game five of 1997.

Two patterns stand out. Both are our observations, and Valve has explained neither. First, two of the three games were played in New York, the city Deadlock is set in.

Second, castling. The wiki reads Solomon’s logo as chess notation, because queenside castling is written 0-0-0. On Valve’s card the three Os of his name sit in separate slanted tiles, with a rook’s battlements drawn above the L.

Queenside castling turns up in two of the three games. Morphy castled long on move 12 of the Opera Game. In the 1997 game five both sides did it, Black on move 17 and White on move 19.

Fact, claim and guess: how accurate the games are

Fact. The three real games are as described above. We checked players, dates, places and results against chessgames.com, IBM and Edward Winter. Solomon’s card, tags and release cadence are on Valve’s own pages.

Claim. That the files contain these games is the wiki’s report, from one editor, and the wiki was the only page we found carrying the file names. That the games are “completely accurate” is GothamChess’s claim. He says “script files” where the wiki says animations, and he names no games. The wiki’s note that two of the animations are unfinished sits awkwardly beside it.

Guess. Which game “g5” is, whether the misspellings are Valve’s or the wiki editor’s, why Valve chose these three, and whether players will see them during a match are all unknown.

One error can be pinned down. The wiki calls the 1997 game “the first game a chess grandmaster lost to a computer”. IBM’s history says an earlier machine, Deep Thought, “became the first program to defeat a grandmaster”, and that Deep Blue first beat Kasparov in a single game in Philadelphia in February 1996. The 1997 result was the first match win over a reigning world champion.

One mismatch we could see for ourselves is on Valve’s site. When we fetched the images from its update page on 3 October 2026, the file named hero_solomon.webp held Deadman Danny’s card, and Solomon’s card was in hero_baba.webp. Whether that is a slip or deliberate, we cannot say.

When is the Deadlock Solomon release date?

The Deadlock Solomon release date is not fixed, because it depends on where he finishes in the hero vote. Valve has confirmed only the cadence, two heroes a week on Tuesdays and Fridays at 2:00pm PT, with the first release on 2 October 2026.

Rat King won that first slot. In Valve’s announcement on 2 October the studio wrote: “The Rat King is available to play now! Have a great weekend and keep those votes coming, as our next hero will be joining us on Tuesday at 2pm PDT.”

That leaves five heroes and, if Valve keeps to its cadence, five dates. Valve has named only the next one, as “Tuesday”, which is 6 October. The other four are our projection from its cadence, not dates Valve has published. The Game Haus lists the same days:

• Tuesday 6 October 2026 (named by Valve)
• Friday 9 October 2026 (projected)
• Tuesday 13 October 2026 (projected)
• Friday 16 October 2026 (projected)
• Tuesday 20 October 2026 (projected)

Each release is due at 2pm Pacific, which is 10pm in the UK.

Valve’s page says voting happens in the new Pregame lobby, and “The winning team’s votes will count as double.” Your first win of the day doubles your votes as well.

We found no official tally published outside the game. The fan ballot at Deadlock Labs is unofficial. When we checked it late on 3 October 2026, he led the five unreleased heroes with 952 of 4,501 votes, or 21% of a total that still counts votes for Rat King. The site says its tally “counts Deadlock Labs votes only, the game keeps its own”.

Forecasts deserve the same caution. The Game Haus guesses he will be the fourth hero out and names “Friday, October 13, 2026”, a date that is a Tuesday on its own list.

Deadlock Solomon abilities: what is known before release

As of 3 October 2026, Solomon’s abilities have not been published by Valve or documented by the wiki. Everything below is pre-release and subject to change.

What the files and the wiki show

The wiki’s weapon and abilities sections both read “To be released!”. Its infobox does carry pre-release numbers: a 27-round magazine firing 9.52 bullets a second at 5.5 damage each, 780 health and 3 stamina. It files him under heroes with automatic weapons.

The wiki attaches its own warning: “The stats listed here may not reflect this hero’s final stats.” The tracker site unDeadlock records one change for him, dated 29 September 2026: “New hero added to the game files. Currently marked prerelease only and not selectable.”

What is still unconfirmed

The four abilities, their names and his ultimate are all unconfirmed. Blitz.gg’s hero page says stats “will show up here once Solomon is playable”.

So treat any Deadlock Solomon abilities list published before he is playable as unconfirmed.

Deadlock is still invite-only: how access works

On current access rules, not everyone will be able to play Solomon when he is released. The Steam store page carries two notices. The first: “Deadlock is still in early development stages with lots of temporary art and experimental gameplay.” The second: “Access to Deadlock is currently limited to friend invites via our playtesters.” The listing shows no price, and its release date reads “To be announced”.

Valve’s update announcement on 29 September 2026 thanks players for feedback “despite the game being unfinished”. Every stat, tag and file name in this article sits inside that caveat.

What a misspelt file name teaches about business records

Solomon was added to the game files on 29 September 2026, by unDeadlock’s record. Within a day a wiki editor had catalogued the chess animations. Within four, a chess creator with millions of subscribers had called the games accurate on camera. Files most players will not open were opened almost at once, and the claim reached the audience best placed to spot a wrong move.

Business records work the same way. A stock figure or an order history can sit unread for months. Then the one person who can tell opens it: a customer chasing a late order, an auditor, a buyer doing a count.

In a game file a misspelt name is harmless. In a parts list it can create two records for one item, and the stock splits between them. In the systems we build, we try to put the check at the moment a record is written, for example comparing a goods-in quantity with the purchase order as it is keyed, because that is the cheapest point to catch a wrong number.

That is what makes a stock record worth trusting. OpsMavix builds custom internal systems for inventory, orders, purchasing, production and reporting, replacing spreadsheets and disconnected tools. You can click through working examples in the demos.

FAQ

When does Solomon unlock in Deadlock?

Solomon unlocks when he wins a slot in the hero vote, and no date is confirmed. As of 3 October 2026 he is one of five heroes still in the vote. Valve has named only the next release, Tuesday 6 October at 2pm PDT. If its Tuesday and Friday cadence holds, the later slots would be 9, 13, 16 and 20 October 2026, which is our projection.

What are Solomon’s abilities in Deadlock?

They are unpublished as of 3 October 2026. Valve’s page shows only his name, art and three tags, and the wiki’s abilities section reads “To be released!”.

Which chess games are in Solomon’s files?

According to the Deadlock Wiki, three: Byrne vs Fischer from 1956 (the Game of the Century), a Kasparov vs Deep Blue game from 1997, and Morphy’s Opera Game from 1858. The wiki marks two of the three animations as unfinished.

How does the Deadlock hero vote work?

Players vote in the Pregame lobby for the hero they want released next. Per Valve’s update page, the winning team’s votes count double and your first win of the day doubles your votes. Valve’s stated cadence is one hero each Tuesday and Friday.

Can anyone play Deadlock right now?

No. Valve’s Steam page says access “is currently limited to friend invites via our playtesters”. The listing shows no price and no release date as of 3 October 2026.

Final takeaway

Deadlock’s Solomon is, for now, a name, a card, a few pre-release numbers and, by the wiki’s account, three chess games in a folder. The verified part is small: the release cadence from Valve and the three real games from chess records. The misspelt labels and the reportedly accurate moves rest on one wiki editor and one Short. Everything about his kit waits on the vote.

The habit worth copying is the one behind this story: open the file and check it against the record. If your stock, order or production numbers have not had that treatment lately, Book a free Operations Leak Audit and we will go through them with you.