diff --git a/test/test_env.py b/test/test_env.py
index b1e6c49ba4b..5ba89ce30f5 100644
--- a/test/test_env.py
+++ b/test/test_env.py
@@ -170,6 +170,8 @@
 else:
     mp_ctx = "fork"
 
+_has_chess = importlib.util.find_spec("chess") is not None
+
 ## TO BE FIXED: DiscreteActionProjection queries a randint on each worker, which leads to divergent results between
 ## the serial and parallel batched envs
 # def _make_atari_env(atari_env):
@@ -3381,8 +3383,6 @@ def test_partial_rest(self, batched):
         assert s_["string"] == ["0", "6"]
         assert s["next", "string"] == ["6", "6"]
 
-_has_chess = importlib.util.find_spec("chess") is not None
-
 # fen strings for board positions generated with:
 # https://lichess.org/editor
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("stateful", [False, True])