Well honestly it’s to say I changed something while I was fixing the graphical issues. But, I always felt the chess cameo was a little distracting and unnecessary.
This I agree with. I’m not opposed to fan service, there is actually a cool bit of fan service when Finn is looking through stuff and finds the blaster ball droid from ANH, its shown but it’s not a blatant attempt like the chess scene. The chess scene works in TROS because it feels like the characters are actually using it in-universe.
Prior to the sequels star wars was always self referential but that was built upon with each movie, this is one element the sequels fail at doing. The prequels were the last released movies before the purchase, which in my opinion means that reference wise they should have been more prominent in the sequels.
I think Rogue One remedies this issue at times, like seeing Bail Organa & Mustafar.