Years ago, there was a chess-themed group of villains that Iron Man battled. The Bishop wielded a staff that zapped peoples’ brains and turned them timid. The Knight could charge on his (flying) horse at great speed. But I missed the Rook. What could the Rook do?
Woah, the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Delux Edition doesn’t have a listing. Given some of the other losers that made it in, I doubt you’ll ever find anything about these guys out.
Good luck. I think they were hired by Stane, but that doesn’t help.
I think this probably belongs in Cafe Society forum, and I am so moving it. You’ll probably get better response.
Can’t find an entry for “Rook” even in the Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe, which lists obscure characters by the truckload.
Are you sure you’re not thinking of The Chessmen, from Kurt Buseik’s Astro City comics?
Hm. If I were 400 miles to the north, at my parents’ house, I could go through my brother’s old comics. I distinctly remember the write-up on them…but not what the Rook does. Sorry. Maybe he could charge infinite distances, but only at right angles? 
The only reference I found to him was that he captured someone and threatened them with posionous spiders. Exactly what one would expect a rook to do.
All he seemed to be able to do is set up traps involving “a clever system of counterweights.” (Iron Man #165.) His third trap for IM involved an acid gas dubbed “the purple mist” that was strong enough to dissolve IM’s armor. In that issue, he was a dwarf, but he seemed taller in issue 163. IIM didn’t catch the Rook, and he was never heard from again. In issue 200, the Chessmen reappeared – two knights and a Bishop, but no Rook. Maybe Stane punished him off-panel .
I have GOT to get a girlfriend.
Wow. I am seriously underwhelmed by the Rook.
Even though no one would even care about correcting me, I am kind of compulsive about this kind of thing, so I’d like to note that the bishop’s brain-zapper was in his miter. I think he just smacked Iron Man around with the staff.