Press

Fact sheet and media for anyone covering the game. Facts reflect the build of September 2026.

Fact sheet #

The pitch #

Tagline. Take the square. Take the field.

One sentence. CHECKFIRE is a turn-based tactical shooter on a chessboard: every unit moves like a chess piece and shoots like a soldier, and no order is legal if it leaves your commander under fire.

One paragraph. Take the 8×8 board and the six chess pieces and re-arm them as a modern infantry squad. Movement is chess. Combat is not: a rook is a sniper who is lethal at range and nervous up close, a bishop wants you inside four squares, a knight lobs grenades over cover, a pawn carries a riot shield. There are no hit points, a hit removes the piece, and the one rule that holds it all together is the one chess already has: you may never leave your king in check, and in CHECKFIRE "check" includes being shot, including the miss. On top of the match sit a seeded roguelite campaign, an endless operation, a daily challenge with a leaderboard, online play by room code and full classic chess against a real engine. No accounts, no unlocks, no grind.

Spoken. "It's chess where the pieces have guns. Rook's a sniper, knight throws grenades. You still can't leave your king in check, but now check includes being shot. Then there's a roguelite campaign on top."

Features #

1. Chess movement, shooter combat. Six classes, six real weapon profiles with ranges you can read before you commit. No HP; one hit removes a piece.
2. The CheckFire rule. Every order must leave your commander safe from capture and from fire, on both outcomes of a chance shot.
3. Three rulesets. Core Rules, Special Abilities (one single-use skill per class; the AI uses them too), and Classic Chess with a perft-verified engine.
4. Two operations. Broken Crown, a finite seeded roguelite campaign of 6 to 12 sectors with no meta-progression; Last Pawn Standing, endless engagements with a roster that grows every fourth board.
5. Twelve sector objectives in three families: ordinary, bonus boards that award a unit for speed, and enemy objectives the patrol can win against you.
6. Sixteen field supplies in two bands: free combat actions and cleared-ground tools.
7. A real opponent. Four tiers of tactical AI; Stockfish as an optional fifth tier in Classic Chess.
8. Daily Operation. One shared map a day, fixed squad, one attempt, a leaderboard under a callsign. No account.
9. Online Match by six-letter room code. No lobbies, no profiles, nothing stored.
10. Full controller support, item-by-item menus, no cursor hunting.
11. Army Wizard. Build a faction skin from your own images; visuals only.
12. Isometric pixel art, six faction colours, seeded scenery, a Field Manual that explains every piece and objective.

Media #

Screenshots are 1280×720 captures from the current build, free to use in coverage of the game. Logos are the game's own.

Logos: CHECKFIRE wordmark (PNG, transparent) · CHECKFIRE mark (256 px) · Manic Trash Panda mark (512 px)

Notes for writers #

• The game is in development; there is no store page, price or release date yet. Please do not infer one.
• "Steam Deck" here means the game has been played on one with its controller mapping; it carries no verification badge.
• Stockfish (GPL v3) is an optional engine tier, credited to the Stockfish developers; it is not part of the game's own code.
• Custom armies from the Army Wizard are skins. They cannot alter rules.