“I’m a real competitive person, so I’ll compete with you at just about anything, at just about any game,” Cooper said. “I wanted to get on Rod’s level.”

It didn’t take long. Cooper and Streater were playing chess so often that the rookie started beating his older, more experienced opponent.

“Don’t tell him this,” Streater laughs, “I stole some of his moves and used them against him. He’s a really good player. He taught me a lot.”

A lot of moves, Streater recalls, utilized the tactics of Cooper’s favorite chess piece, the knight.

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“It’s the most deceptive piece, in my opinion,” Cooper said. “I’ve won a lot of games with a knight, and I’ve lost a couple with that knight, because of the way it moves. You can’t see them coming in certain instances.”

For chess novices, Cooper explains. “The knight moves in an L shape, so it can move in any direction. And it can jump over other pieces.” It is the only piece in the game that can do so.

Deceptive, shifty, versatile. Sounds all too familiar to any NFL defensive back who has attempted to defend a Cooper double move, or to someone who has sat across from him over a chessboard.

“He just sits there with a blank face,” Streater says. “He’s deceptive. He’s quiet, but then out of nowhere, he’ll do something out of the ordinary, hits you with a sluggo [slant and go route]. He’s a quiet assassin. That’s how I’m going to describe him.

“Just like how he plays on the field.”

? @AmariCooper9 on being a #DallasCowboy & being ready for the season.

— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) August 4, 2020

Other Cowboys catch on

Cooper has made an immediate impact in Dallas since being traded in the middle of the 2018 season. He ranks fifth in the league in receiving yards (1,914) and is tied for first in touchdown catches (14) over the past two seasons.

Inside the locker room, what started as a hobby for Cooper five years ago in Oakland is evolving into a way to bond with his teammates in Dallas.

While Cooper often plays chess on his phone, he also owns several chess sets, including a folding travel set that allows him to play on the road with his new rival: Cowboys cornerback Chidobe Awuzie.

“When he got here, he was my locker mate, and I had peeped that he was playing chess on his phone,” said Awuzie, who learned to play chess while playing football for the University of Colorado (2013-16).

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Awuzie and former Cowboys cornerback Donovan Olumba, now with the Browns, had just established their own chess rivalry when they invited Cooper to join. But with one stipulation: They had to play over a real chessboard, not on an app.

Olumba purchased the board at a discount store, according to a story in The Dallas Morning News. The round pieces in the set give it the appearance of checkers, with the exception of the designations on top: Labels that identify each piece as a pawn, king, queen, rook, bishop or knight.

“Donovan started playing [Cooper], and beat him the first time,” Awuzie said. “After that, he never beat him again, and he just sort of fell off.

“That’s when we really started playing together.”

While admittedly a less experienced chess player, Awuzie, like Cooper, relates his strategies in chess to his mentality on the field.

“As a defensive back, I’m more reactionary,” Awuzie said. “[Cooper] studies, does a bunch of stuff to get better at chess. I never did any of that. So, I see what he does and I try to find the best move to react to it.”

“Now,” he adds with a proud smirk, “I’m catching up to him.” As only a master of deception could, with a blank face, Cooper plays off his chess rival coolly.

“He’s a pretty good opponent. Sometimes he wins.”

Yet last season, Cooper posted to his Instagram story some simple text over a black background that read: “Don’t let Chido [Awuzie] fool ya’ll. He’s 21-5 overall against me in chess. Only time he wins is when I make it easy.”

Cooper’s the knight

Cooper’s insatiable drive is triggered when facing any of his opponents, whether juking and sprinting past them on the field or staring at them, emotionless, while leaning over a chessboard.

Cooper’s endgame is with himself as he strives to become a grandmaster of all pursuits.