Checkmate
In The Wild West

Checkmate in the Wild West is a fast-paced deduction game where you search for moves that capitalise on undefended pieces on chessboards. Rather than playing them, however, the goal is to find all of them in the limited time to progress a wacky, wild west story. It stands out for this unusual twist on chess, where rather than play full matches, you're encouraged to improve your move-spotting skills.

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You play a hopeful chess player travelling the Wild West in pursuit of better skills and untold riches. Play involves working through a series of levels by completing the objective within a short time limit of a few seconds. In some levels, you need to identify moves that could take the opponent's pieces. In others, you may need to find moves to get your opponent into check, identify pieces on the board that are undefended, or even force a draw.

As you progress, you earn gold used to purchase special power-ups that help you, like one that freezes the level timer or another that removes all non-essential pieces. If you fail a level, you simply move on without the gold you would have earned, with impacts in the unfolding story. When you reach the end, you can start another attempt to beat more levels and get a better ending to your story.

The result is a game that's a strange twist on chess that turns the act of identifying good piece positioning and moves into a game in itself. Gradually seeing your skills improve over multiple runs as you turn the story to a better ending makes for a rewarding game of tactical recognition.

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Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Checkmate In The Wild West 4 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Thom Robertson and updated 5 days ago.