Checkmate

'Checkmate' is a chess game released for the Gameboy Colour. It bears no similarities whatsoever to the Playstation game of the same name, except for one thing: Chess. Chess is a board game involving two players and thirty two pieces. This FAQ was written to cover the game, chess, and to help out at the Gameboy FAQ Completion project. Please enjoy, and if you've got anything to say, my email can be found in the Conclusion at the end of this guide.

Version 1.00 - 8th July 2007 - First complete version of the FAQ.

Version 1.10 - 6th December 2009 - Reformatting of FAQ into GameFAQs markup. Also fixed one or two spelling errors.

Version 1.11 - 13th December 2009 - Altered some of the Markup Encoding. Also altered some of the guide information. A plain text version of this update exists for sites that do not support the Markup system. Email me for a copy.

The controls for this game are incredibly simple. For menus, the controls are:

• Directional pad
• Highlight option
• A button
• Select option

During gameplay, the controls are:

• Directional pad
• Move cursor
• Move piece once selected
• A button
• Select piece
• Replace piece
• Drop piece
• START button
• Access the pause menu.

Once a pawn reaches the other side of the board, the following controls are used:

• B button - Scroll through list of possible pawn replacement pieces
• A button - Select chosen piece

After the copyright screen is shown, you can choose between playing in English and playing in Japanese. After you've made your selection, you are taken to the main menu. Select Tournement mode to play through all of the opponents, and select Open Competition to play any of the 16 offered opponents you like. You automatically play as white.

The pause menu shows you the last two moves you've made, and offers a useful hint. It is accessed by pressing the START button during Gameplay.

Chess is played on an 8x8 square board with the squares in either black or white. Each player has a set of pieces, usually black or white, and he/she sets them up on his side of the board. The other player uses pieces of another colour and he/she sets them up on the other side of the board, to make it symmetrical. Here is a diagram:

  BP - Black Pawn
  BR - Black Rook
  BK - Black Knight
  BB - Black Bishop
  BQ - Black Queen
  BM - Black King
  WP - White Pawn
  WR - White Rook
  WK - White Knight
  WB - White Bishop
  WQ - White Queen
  WM - White King
  OO - Blank square

         .--------------------------------.
         | BR  BK  BB  BQ  BM  BB  BK  BR |
         |                                | <-- Opposing player's
         | BP  BP  BP  BP  BP  BP  BP  BP |    pieces
         |                                |
         | OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO |
         |                                |
         | OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO |
         |                                |
         | OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO |
         |                                |
         | OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO  OO |
         |                                |
         | WP  WP  WP  WP  WP  WP  WP  WP |
         |                                | <-- Your pieces
         | WR  WK  WB  WQ  WM  WB  WK  WR |
         '--------------------------------'

White player moves first, then black, white, black, white, black, and so on. Only one piece may be moved per move. Each piece may only move a certain way, so you need to learn these.

Pawns can only move away from you. One their first move they may move two squares but from then on they must move one. They are allowed to move one square on their first go as well. To capture a piece, that piece must be diagonally in front of it. The pawn moves to that square you remove that piece from the board.

 OO  OO  OO

 OO  BR  OO
    /
 WP  OO  OO

Bishops can move diagonally in any direction for any number of places but cannot jump over other pieces. To take a piece, that piece must be on a diagonal line to the bishop and must have no other piece blocking the way. It can only move on one line at a time.

Knights are the most complicated piece to move. They may jump over pieces, friendly or opposing, but must move two spaces in one direction (not diagonal) and one space to the another, for example:

     BK --> Next square --> Next square
                                 |
                                 v
                           Down a square

     OR
     --                      Up a square
                                 A
                                 |
     BK --> Next square --> Next square

Rooks are exactly the same as bishops except they move in straight lines rather than diagonal lines. They take pieces exactly the same way.

The queen is the ultimate piece. It has the same properties as the bishop and the rook combined. It can move diagonally any number of spaces AND straight lines any number of spaces. It can only move in one line per move though, so no cheating!!!

 Tip - Try to protect your queen as much as possible, it is very
       valuable.

The king can move in any direction but only one square at a time. It can take pieces like any other piece, but you must on no account put your king in danger of being taken.

The object of the game is to trap your opponent's king so it can't escape anywhere and therefore must be taken. If this happens to your king, you lose the game. This is called a 'checkmate'. If the king is in a position to be captured it is called a 'check', and you must either

       1. Move the king away from danger
       2. Take the piece that is threatening the king
       3. Move one of your pieces in the way so the king is shielded.

Finally, if one of your pawns makes it to the other side of the board without being taken, it can be changed into any other piece, apart from the king. The most common choice is the queen, and if you already have a queen on the board, you can use a rook turned upside down. It will have all the regular properties of the piece you have swapped it for.

This table shows each opponent's difficulty rating, from one to sixteen.

This computer is practically impossible to beat. I've tried at least twenty times and only beat it once. Once you defeat this opponent, you will get a 'congratulations' message and will be returned to the title screen.

If you've got anything to add to this FAQ, or you want to point out a mistake or just give me your comments, then my email address is

                    bodo_parkour [at] hotmail [.] co [.] uk

When emailing me please use a sensible subject heading otherwise I may think it is spam and just delete it.

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I'd like to say thanks to you for reading this, and to SBallen for running GameFAQs. He does a great job.

This file is copyright (c) Bodo_parkour. All rights reserved. Please do not steal my work and you are more than welcome to save it to your hardrive for future reference.