What did the writer mean?

“Judging by some of the building jobs we’ve seen lately, the bricklayers
spend their off days watching chess matches.”

The above quote is from a small town Washington State newspaper in 1928. What did the person mean, probably a man. Maybe he thought the bricklayers were working slow. Maybe the patterns of the bricks looked like chess boards.
What are your thoughts.

Russell Miller, Camas WA

Given the hemlines that year, maybe chess was the only thing that cauaght their eye.

Were they the ones that built the Tacoma Narrows bridge?

Bill Smythe

Maybe after laying twenty bricks, the bricklayers agreed to call it a day.

At the time 1,000 bricks a day was standard. He may have been commenting on the smouth surface, like a chess board.

The builders were making forty or less moves in the first two hours.