Is the mysterious Panthan warrior friend or foe? As hero battles for maiden in a deadly game of living chess, the pieces are fighting men and the stakes are life and death Burroughs began writing The Chessmen of Mars in January, 1921 and the finished story was first published in Argosy All-Story Weekly as a six-part serial in the issues for February and March of 1922. #5 in Burroughs's Martian Barsoom series.