Chess Pie

[Barnhart]

chess pie is an entry in DARE which suggests that chess is an
alteration of "chest".  DARE's e.q. [earliest quote] is 1932.

There are quite a number of possibilities:

1) from cheese, in spite of the fact that it does not customarily
contain cheese;
2) from Chester, England;
3) from pie chest, a piece of furniture for storing pies;
4) from the expression "it's jes' pie" (a statement of an unknown
southern cook).

Regards,
David K. Barnhart, Editor/Publisher
The Barnhart Dictionary Companion [quarterly]
barnhart at highlands.com
www.highlands.com/Lexik

"Necessity obliges us to neologize."
Thomas Jefferson-August 16, 1813