A CHESS JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD

Travel the world and challenge 20 unique chess masters on your journey to become the CHECKBORNE Champion.
From London to Rome and far beyond, every chapter takes you to a new destination and a new opponent. Defeat each master to unlock the next stop on your journey.

20 MASTERS. 20 PERSONALITIES.

Every master has their own personality and playing style. Some favor patient positional play, while others seek sharp attacks, tactical complications or relentless pressure.
CHECKBORNE doesn't simply make every opponent stronger. Each master evaluates strong moves differently according to their individual style, creating opponents that feel distinct across the board.
Learn how they play. Adapt your strategy. Find their weaknesses. And defeat them.

PLAY CHESS YOUR WAY

Experience each match on an atmospheric 3D chessboard surrounded by scenery inspired by your opponent's home city. Rotate and adjust your view freely — or switch instantly to a traditional 2D board whenever you prefer.
Play White, play Black, or let a coin toss decide which side you'll take.
Need a break? Leave a match whenever you like and continue exactly where you left off when you return.
Play with mouse and keyboard or sit back with your controller — choose whichever way feels best at the board.

MORE THAN THE JOURNEY

Review previous moves during a match, retry opponents after a defeat, and improve as the masters become increasingly challenging.
Want to forget about the journey for a while? Sit down with a friend and play a classic game of chess in local two-player mode.

20 masters stand between you and the title.

Can you defeat them all and become the Master of CHECKBORNE?

POWERED BY STOCKFISH. SHAPED BY PERSONALITY.

CHECKBORNE uses the excellent open-source Stockfish chess engine as the foundation for its computer opponents — just like many other chess games and applications.

But the 20 Masters aren't simply Stockfish at different difficulty levels.

For each position, CHECKBORNE lets Stockfish evaluate several strong candidate moves. Our own personality system then weighs those choices according to each Master's individual style, while keeping their playing strength in mind.

An adventurous opponent may favor initiative and attacking chances. Another may seek simplification and strong endgames. Some build pressure patiently, activate their rooks, launch pawn storms, look for tactical complications, or punish loose pieces.

As the Masters become stronger, their freedom to deviate from the strongest moves becomes smaller — but their individual preferences remain part of how they make decisions.

The final opponent, AURORA, is different. The artificial Grandmaster has no human personality bias at all: Stockfish is unleashed at full strength.