Have you ever played chess? It’s quite a pawpular game. Chess has been around for centuries, and there are even variants: Star Trek has three-dimensional chess, Harry Potter has Wizard’s Chess, and we rats? You guessed it: Cheesy Chess. It’s a game both fun and tasty, because the chess pieces are made of cheese!
To start out, pieces are carved from different-color cheeses; moldy ones, like bleu or Roquefort, are often chosen for the black pieces, and pale cheeses like parmesan make up the white. In the past, pieces were contrasted by hardness or softness rather than color, but rats of yore found the soft cheeses hard to carve – a process done with our sharp incisors (mmm … tasty) – and they also kept oozing all over the cheese – er, chess – board.
I’ll admit: I’m not much of a Cheesy Chess player. I’ve tended toward other hobbies – like keeping my fur well groomed – rather than taking up the sport, but I don’t mind taking in a good game. Recently the Cheesy Chess Championships were held in my hometown of Ratlanta. Many rodents spectated, but the event was also broadcast in audio via the sewer pipes: recent rains washed them out, providing a clear conduit for play-by-play squeaks to travel.
Unlike sporting events like pawball that use brawn to win the game, Cheesy Chess is very cerebral. And sure enough, this year’s Cheesy Chess Champion turned out to be none other than The Brain, very loudly cheered on by his not-so-cerebral pal Pinky. Brain won in the final round when his pawns checkmated the sire – for you see, in Cheesy Chess, the pawns are the most important.
If you’ve never tried your paw (or hand) at Cheesy Chess, I encourage you to do so! A squeak to the wise, however: playing the game can get expensive, as you have to buy a new set of pieces for each game. Because in Cheesy Chess, when a piece gets taken, it gets eaten!
Keepin’ it squeak,
Bob
Photo credit (with modification): http://www.threadnz.com/uploads/images/Food/2010/cheeseboard%20chess.jpg
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