David (David Berman) and Det Crawford (Alimi Ballard) make comments about the Elvis impersonator DB they are investigating, recalling their fave movies. David found he has severe head trauma, but there's not that much blood around at all. Greg (Eric Szmanda) and Sara (Jorga Fox) investigate and look for where the DB could have come from as Sara finds gravitational blood drops.
Further down the road Sara notices a dead bird. Greg describes it as something out of Edgar Allen Poe, but Sara points out it's not a raven but a rook, as seen by the white skin around its beak. Someone's stabbed it and left it there. Greg then makes a connection between the King and the rook, all chess pieces. Greg notices the street name, the King was found at Avenue C and 1st Street, the rook at Avenue D and 1st Street. C-1 and D-1 are chess moves; and he should know since he was captain of his chess club at school. Also the rook is only native to Central Asia and Europe, so it must've been brought here.
As Greg hurries to Avenue E and 1st Street, he tells Sara about a move called castling. The rook is moved from its position to D-1 and the King from E-1 to C-1. So there should be something else there. Hey I noticed the car behind them. Sara points out Memphis on the car and inside there's plenty of blood, to suggest it was the likely CS. There's also a tyre iron inside, Doc (Robert David Hall) conducts the autopsy and Finn (Elisabeth Shue) can't resist the jokes as David's already enlightened him with so many Elvis jokes, he's had enough. He gives her some trace and she replies, "thank you very much" Elvis voice style. That the DB died from wounds to his head and was drugged, as he has two holes on his neck.
Hodges (Wallace Langham) ran what he believed to be a hair from the DB, but was actually moss. He says the Mediterranean has new moss rugs in the bath which are supposed to be good for the environment, so he's thinking maybe the killer could have left it behind. There's also a chess tournament at the hotel. Greg and Nick (George Eads) arrive and Nick can't believe any of the men there could have been killers. Greg saying 'what a nerd can't kill'. Chess is very competitive and any one of them can turn killer. Jenny (Sarah Lafleur) introduces herself as the director of the chess tournament and points out how it's exclusively a man's game. Well you gave yourself away there, missy! Ha. No, really she did.
Greg notice someone he used to know and taught him all about chess, when he was younger, his mentor, we get flashbacks of Greg at any early age playing chess with Max. He plays with a man who has no patience with Greg interrupting him and leaves the game agitated. Nick asks for a list of players from Jenny and mentions Karl Schrute (Carlo Rota) the champion, he's playing others simultaneously.
Sara shows DB (Ted Danson) a list of the names they have and he shows her a chess move, this shows the move is not an opening one and so there must be other Vics out there too. Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) can't find anything relating to chess in any of their old cases, but Sara hands Morgan half of the list so they have to narrow down whether there's anything from the other cities where the tournament has been. She finds six other cities and believes that the game is only just beginning as all were chess moves. Greg speaks with Max (Ron Glass) again asking if he can help them with a list of moves. He notices that the moves were made in a game between Troy Parker (Gary Colon) and Karl 16 years ago. Troy played the game and lost, then he disappeared.
Karl tells Greg that he gets all sorts of letters from people and one of them sent him a model chesspiece. He still has it. When analyzed, Hodges finds it's paper mache and made by someone who had time on his hands. He's narrowed it down to Lee Crosby (David Dastmalchian). He was in prison and he was the same man who left Max at the chess table. Nick and Crawford question him and his association with the murders. He was in every city where the DBs were found and he has an obsession with Troy but wouldn't make that same losing move.
Sara attends another CS and Greg says it's not the move that was meant to happen next. A man is found knifed to death in his car and inside the car, his clothes show he's a knight of the round table. The killer has changed the pattern. Nick collects evidence from the car and finds insects in the backseat, which are bed bugs. As well as blood and DNA which matches to Troy. Jenny brings in a package which has another chess piece also adding that Karl is missing. Yes, that was mistake number 2, being so helpful. Greg asks Max why Troy changed the game and Max tells him that Troy was three moves away from the endgame, The Osterlitz move. Greg watches a video of Troy after he quit and he gets angry at the person filming. Sara asks why he gave up chess?
Morgan tracks the bed bugs down to a motel where Troy is staying. Yuck, that was easy wasn't it. Here Nick and Crawford find chess boards and games being played on them,as well as the DB of Lee, killed in the bathtub. He must have been an accomplice. His killing is another move in the game and Greg thinks the final move will be made soon, leading to Karl being killed. Hodges tells Morgan that the drugs found in the room are experimental, used in Mexico and Europe, so Troy couldn't have killed anyone. Nick and Crawford question Max and think he's behind the killings. When they leave, Max tells Greg that he knows where to look to see the endgame. Greg has another flashback and realizes the endgame revolves around the Queen. See obvious giveaway again leading to Jenny.
She's angry cos she can't play chess and her father could only see her brothers and men as being true chess players. She saw her father everywhere she went in those chessplayers. She closed all the accounts with vendors, except the storage facility where they found Troy and Karl. She sees the Queen as the most powerful piece on the chessboard. Greg is happy Troy is found. He tells Sara he stopped playing chess as it involves too much sacrifice and it wasn't fun anymore, and could be an obsession. Sara says they should get dinner and play a fun game of chess.
Another episode which focuses on Greg again which was good to see and his knowledge of chess. Some great moments here like Sara knowing Greg needs to see the game as fun again and having dinner with him. It's going back again over the years and how their relationship/friendship has grown over the years. Once more it's Greg's knowledge of the game which leads to a case being solved, especially his association to the chess game from the outset. Guess the Queen is more powerful as she can move anywhere on the chessboard, but only in one direction at a time.
Not being big on chess, ha, won't go into too much detail into it, but am told that the move mentioned at the start was wrong since a castling is a King move and not a rook move. Thus since the rook was moved first on the board then castling can't take place.
Once again Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) wasn't featured in this ep, like the producers were making it obvious they no longer want him in the show, that's two eps in a row now he's not been on.
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