Hawkeye and BJ were playing chess in the Swamp. It was a "warm up" game to see who would take on Colonel Potter. Their CO might have been the best chess player in the camp. Frank didn't believe it, even though the Major knew about as much of chess as he did of supervising Triage, according to Colonel Potter.

This led to a short, but pleasant bit of entertainment several weeks ago. The 4077th was having a chess tournament organized by Father Mulcahy, "winner take none." As the Colonel put it, he didn't want a situation where an officer might be taking money from an enlisted member of the 4077th.

The only exception was Father Mulcahy. If the good Father won, all that money would go directly to the orphanage. The Priest could win $150 for his cause.

For the tournament, the Mess Tent was the place to be. An even 14 from the 4077th signed up, with others watching the games. To keep the 4077th running smoothly, Colonel Potter stated that only two games could be played at the same time.

As the tournament started, Frank Burns was scheduled to play Father Mulcahy. At the same time, Nurse Baker was taking on BJ.

Frank took about 15 minutes to defeat. He seemed to be taking a lot of time before each move. And it seemed like each move he made was a bad one.

When Frank moved his pawn forward and gave Mulcahy a quick and easy way to take the queen…and end the game, the Good Father asked, "Frank, are you sure that you'd like to make that move?"

Burns was very short, "Father, I know how to play a board game," as if Chess was like Monopoly or Scrabble.

"Well, you are boring," Hawkeye said to Frank as he watched the match, "So I don't think you'd be any good at any 'board game. You know about chess as much as you know surgery – quickly making bad decisions and sounding proud about it."

"Nerts to you," an angry Major said to Hawkeye."

"Glad you have such a good vocabulary, Frank, Did your med school require any reading?" Hawkeye replied.

Burns got up and quickly walked out.

Now, BJ and Hawkeye were eyeing the Chess Board in the Swamp. Things had been on the slow side for the past few days at the 4077th, so it didn't take long before people got bored. This was at least the 12th time they'd played chess on that day so far.

"I feel like I've done all of this before," BJ noted.

'We probably both have," Hawkeye began before he filed two glasses with the still's "finest" and handed one glass to his friend.

Frank walked in and spat out," All you do is drink all day. Disgusting."

BJ replied, "We drink at night, too."

Hawkeye had an idea. "Frank, what were you going to do now?"

"Why do you want to know?" Burns tersely replied.

"Well," Hawkeye, "You could join us in a 3 way chess match."

Hawkeye glanced at BJ, and then nodded a "in away that said, time to get creative

BJ looked at Frank and then spoke to Hawkeye," He's thinking about it."

Hawkeye added, "Frank, it's a great game. Better than if just two played. You might even beat us."

"I don't think he could beat us," BJ replied,

"Yeah," Hawkeye followed, "Frank, you aren't smart enough to play."

"Smart," Frank rejoined, "I'm just as smart as the next person."

"Then play 3 way Chess with us. You can show us how it should be done," BJ supplied.

"Fine," said Frank as he left his bunk and sat on a crate right beside the board.

"Let's start by dividing the pieces into 3 separate teams," Hawkeye started, "Frank, pick any 8 black pieces, then BJ and I will each pick eight pieces. The colors don't have to match."

Once they sorted things out, BJ noted that now each person would take 6 more pieces. Burns asked how they'd keep track of their own pieces since there were only two colors of pieces.

'"Frank," good catch," We'll get 3 pieces of paper. Then, each of us will list what 12 pieces each of us have," BJ began.

"But, keep that information secret," Hawkeye added, "You don't want another player to know what you've got."

"Now, let's line up our pieces," Hawkeye began.

Then, the PA system came to life," Captain Hunnicut please report to Colonel Potter's office. BJ please report to Colonel Potter's office."

"In trouble with the principal, again?" Hawkeye laughed.

:BJ laughed and then indicated that he'd just have to go in order to find out

"We'll pause the game while you are gone," Hawkeye stated, "Unless you're OK with two people playing 3 way chess."

"Sure, Hawk," spoke as he leflt the Swamp.

Hawkeye turned to Frank, "Want to play 3 person chess with just two people? It's really a lot of fun."

Frank Burns was thinking it over.

"I've got the dice," BJ added as he removed two red dice from his footlocker."

"You don't use dice to play chess," Burns remarked, "Even I know that.'

Hawkeye jumped in, 'Since we're playing 3 way chess, it's the only way to see how many spaces any of your pieces can move. You'll roll the dice once on every turn."

"