Rook toward King’s three.This time last year, the outdoor chessboard by the NE Campus Communication Arts Building was filled with not only oversized chess pieces but students forming teams to play the game as well. Yet this semester began with dead air and no clues as to where the chess pieces went.NE student and gameroom employee William Manuel remembered the first time he played the outdoor game with his roommate and said the disappearance of the pieces raised a few eyebrows.

“It was fun being out there. It was definitely a new experience,” he said. “I’ve never played with huge 3-D pieces, but I haven’t played since then because they’re not there.”

He said his theory for where they went led him to ask two questions for others who have noticed the mystery on campus.

“Were they stolen or have they been vandalized in some form?” Manuel said. “I don’t think that the school would take them away for no apparent reason, so I assumed there is always a reason first.”

The foam pieces are usually put out at the beginning of the week and taken back to storage Friday evenings except when bad weather arrives, student development attendant Traci Adame said.

Check.

“Every time I’ve seen the pieces out there, I’ve seen someone playing it. It’s really popular,” Manuel said. “It’s made an impression on me when I first came here. I was not too sure if I’d take TCC seriously, but I found my way into it and the chessboard and chess pieces, and everything just fell into it as well. It’s a real college and it’s real fun is basically what I got from (playing) it.”

However, the chess pieces were held back during the first couple weeks of school because of funding and because no one was maintaining the gameroom, Adame said.

“They weren’t out there because the student workers were not allowed to start working until Sept. 1, and the gameroom is run by student workers,” Adame said.

“So since financial aid is where the student workers come from, the money wasn’t released until Sept. 1.”

The chess pieces should be put back on the board within the week, Adame said.

Checkmate.