Mary Marvel #25 (1948)

Mary Batson hears someone shouting and calls SHAZAM to become Mary Marvel, but only finds Freckles threatening to punch out a boy, Rodney Weatherspoon, for saying she's not smart enough to play chess! Rodney points out he's the best in town and her being violent is evidence of that, but Mary holds Freckles back, telling her that she could get better revenge by just getting better at chess than him. They head to Mr. Shore's game shop where she finds there are two chess sets at the shop, one reserved for Mr. Butt (who runs a cigar store) and the one she guys. While they're heading out, two goons “named” Big Guy and Button-Mouth shove their way in and demand to buy both chess sets, but they decide to go after the girls when they find out they have the second set. They decide to wait until dark. They soon sneak in her open window with a ladder and seize Freckles, only for Mary to call SHAZAM to become Mary Marvel again and the goons drop Freckles off the ladder, forcing Mary Marvel to catch her while the goons escape. Mary Marvel is confused as to why they would steal a chess set like this: it's plastic and the kind you'd buy in a store. The next morning, Freckles consults Mr. Shore on this and finds that the same thing happened with Mr. Butt, getting his chess set stolen at gunpoint! Mary Marvel flies them to the manufacturer where they make this set, Chess MFG, Co. and sees the two men working there are the same goons from last night! Their foreman confronts Mary Marvel for seemingly attacking his workers, finding that the plastic pieces they were casting don't have anything hidden in them. However, when she instead checks the King and Queen pieces, she finds that they've been hiding priceless gems into them and Mary Marvel goes after them, flinging chess pieces at their heads so hard they're knocked out. The foreman, Mr. Trump, is happy to hear that his stolen jewels will be recovered, since they also make really fancy chess sets and they were hiding them in cheap plastic sets, only for Freckles and Mr. Butt to reserve the first two sets. Later, Mary Marvel spots Roger Weatherspoon playing chess, but Freckles decides that it's not worth it, chess is too dangerous of a sport!