Manic Trash Panda Games Lab presents

Chess has entered the fire zone.

A turn-based tactical shooter where every piece moves like chess and fights like a soldier. One board. No hit points. And one rule that changes everything: never leave your commander under fire.

See how a turn plays Open the Field Manual

Windows PC / In development

8×8One board. Every square is a firing line.

6Soldier classes, each with its own weapon.

0Hit points. A hit takes the unit off the board.

1Commander. Lose him and you lose.

01 / One turn

Think in moves.
Survive in shots.

Every turn is one order to one unit. The board tells you everything before you commit.

A CHECKFIRE board: green squares show where a unit can move, and a red reticle marks the enemy it can shoot

The confirm-fire panel: rook F2 to F7, 100% certain, with FIRE and CANCEL

01
Move like chess
Every unit moves exactly as its chess piece. Rooks run the files, bishops the diagonals, knights jump. The squares you can reach light up green.
02
Fire like a soldier
Or shoot instead. Each class has its own range bands: close shots certain and long ones desperate, or the other way round. Cover blocks the line.
03
Confirm, then live with it
Every attack shows its odds and asks for confirmation. A hit removes the target outright. A miss leaves you where you stood.

02 / The squad

Every piece
is a soldier.

Six classes, six weapons, six single-use skills. The movement you already know; the firepower you have to learn.

Pawn

Shield infantry

Fire: Diagonal. Certain at one square, 40% at two. The front shield stops shots.
Skill: Shield Slam: shove a unit a square.

Rook

Long-range sniper

Fire: Along ranks and files. Certain at five squares and beyond, 40% up close.
Skill: Piercing Shot: through three squares.

Bishop

Rail gun specialist

Fire: Diagonal. Certain up to four squares, 40% beyond.
Skill: Drone Bombardment: five to seven diagonals out.

Knight

Grenadier

Fire: Grenades on knight squares. Always certain, over any blocker.
Skill: Hidden Mine: seen only by you.

Queen

Infiltrator

Fire: Any straight line, always certain. Then she must reload.
Skill: Infiltrator: untargetable for a turn.

King

Field commander

Fire: Adjacent squares, certain. He can never step into fire.
Skill: Shotgun Decree: a blast through shields.

Every class in the Field Manual

03 / The law of the board

Checkfire.

In chess you may not leave your king in check. In CHECKFIRE that covers gunfire too. No move, shot or skill is legal if a hit or a miss would leave your commander under threat.

It turns every exchange into a calculation. It also means the enemy commander can be cornered by sightlines, not just by pieces.

Read the CheckFire rule

04 / Ways to play

One board.
Four fights.

A single match, a campaign with a way out, a run with none, or the original game with new soldiers.

A firefight in wrecked streets, a marked officer at the heart of the enemy line

Versus

Checkfire Match

Full armies on one board, against the AI, a friend on the same screen, or online by room code.

A squad pushes toward the breach hatch and the bunker beyond it

Campaign

Operation Broken Crown

Requisition a squad, cross a map of sectors, recover the intel, find the landing zone and extract alive.

Survival

Last Pawn Standing

No map and no way out. Board after board, a unit earned for speed and kills, until the commander falls.

The original

Classic Chess

The complete rules of chess with the same soldiers, and an engine to test your game.

05 / Operations

Every sector,
a new brief.

In the operations each patrol carries an objective. It changes how you win, and sometimes how you lose.

Win it your way

Break the patrol, or meet the brief.

Eliminate
Hold the line
Breach
Ambush
King of the hill

Bonus boards

No commander. The faster you finish, the better the unit you earn.

Rescue
Sabotage
Hack
Exfil

Enemy objectives

The patrol has a goal of its own. Let it succeed and the sector is lost.

Leaked notes
Assassination
Escape

King of the Hill: two units inside the fenced zone, lit green while the squad holds it — King of the hillThree turns inside the fence

All twelve objectives

06 / Between the fights

Win the board.
Keep the squad.

Casualties stay lost unless you bring them back. Every broken patrol pays a supply, and the pack decides the next fight.

The patrol-broken debrief: turns, score and losses, with four supply cards to choose from — Patrol brokenChoose one reward

RequisitionSpend the supply budget on a squad. The commander is free.
FightBreak the patrol or meet the brief, in as few turns as you can.
RewardPick a supply, or take materiel instead.
RecoverBring casualties back, secure bunkers for recruits, use the pack.
ExtractFind the landing zone and break the command patrol waiting there.

Sixteen field supplies

07 / Daily operations

Same seed.
Everyone.

Every day brings two operations, identical for every player. Daily Broken Crown gives one attempt with a fixed squad. Daily Last Pawn Standing lets you retry as often as you like, and a good Broken Crown result can fund a bigger squad. A week of leaderboards, filed under a callsign, with no account.

See the daily boards

The Daily Operations screen: Daily Broken Crown and Daily Last Pawn side by side

08 / Your colours

Your army.
Same rules.

Six faction colours out of the box. Or build your own army from your own images with the Army Wizard: a front and a back per class is enough, and the wizard does the rest. It changes how your soldiers look, never how they fight.

Explore the Army Wizard