Brain's Chess Mess

Summary
Brain starts a chess club at school to improve his game and beat Los Dedos, the local chess master. Who knew the best player in the club would be... Rattles?

Plot
The episode starts with Brain who lost to a young girl nicknamed "Los Dedos" in a chess match. Los Dedos rubs her victory in Brain's face, calling him an "amateur" before leaving, which prompts Brain to form a Chess Club. Among the members are Buster, Binky (who only joined for free ice cream), George, Fern, and Mrs. MacGrady. The Chess Club is a failure, Mrs. MacGrady is the only one of the Club who knows how to play, and she can't ignore her duties as the school's lunch lady. The others just fool around.

Brain attempts to teach his classmates, but they don't pay attention. Rattles comes in after hearing the commotion and shows off his skills, easily beating Brain in a chess match. Astounded, Brain tries to persuade Rattles into joining the Chess Club, even offering him free ice cream and doing his homework for him, but Rattles refuses. Then Los Dedos arrives and insults both Brain and Rattles, before challenging Rattles to a chess match. Brain is convinced Los Dedos will never be beaten, but this prompts Rattles to change his mind about joining the Chess Club. He decides to teach Brain and the others how to play chess properly, in order to bring Los Dedos down a peg.

With Rattles' help, Brain and his friends (except for Buster and Binky) get better at chess. However, on the day of the chess tournament, Brain discovers that Rattles had gone sick with a stomachache. With no choice, Brain plays against Los Dedos in his place, unaware that Rattles had snuck in during the match to watch, completely fine. After a tense match, Brain finally beats Los Dedos, earning her respect as well as his friends' applause.

After talking Mrs. MacGrady about playing each other again, Brain catches Rattles walking outside and runs up to him, asking if he was never sick at all. Rattles admits he had a slight discomfort, but faked being sick knowing only Brain had enough skill to take her. As they both walk away from school, Brain asks if Rattles would like to join the Chess Club, to which Rattles agrees, but on one condition: they should have yellow raisins as a snack. Brain laments that he is too picky, to which Rattles replies that being a chess prodigy gives him the right to be picky.

Major

 * Brain
 * Rattles
 * Los Dedos

Minor

 * Arthur Read
 * Molly MacDonald
 * Pal
 * D.W. Read
 * Leah MacGrady
 * Binky Barnes
 * Buster Baxter
 * Fern Walters
 * George Lundgren
 * Wally

Cameo

 * David Read
 * Francine Frensky
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 5)
 * 3rd Grade Female Bear (Number 3)

Trivia

 * Los Dedos is Spanish for "the fingers" and she is called that because she drums her nails when she plays and Brain says that it drives her opponents crazy.
 * Rattles is revealed to be a skilled chess player.
 * Arthur makes a minor appearance during the intro, and is otherwise absent from the episode.

Episode connections

 * Arthur says that Molly gives good advice, which is a reference to "Don't Ask Muffy."
 * Rattles being good at chess in mentioned again in "Slink's Special Talent."
 * In "Truth or Poll," Brain's chess club is replaced by a video game club as a result of one of Binky's polls.

Errors

 * When Mrs. MacGrady and George first sign the sign up list for chess club, they write in black/pencil color. Later, Mrs. MacGrady's is shown as red and George's is blue.