With the holidays approaching, don't miss your chance to get Checkmate Showdown at a massive 50% discount NOW on Steam through January 4th 🎉
For those who were waiting for sign to jump in on the action, now is the time! 🎮

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season! ❄️🎁

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1803410/Checkmate_Showdown/

Post launch update (1.0.0.1-9671)
This update contains bug fixes and a few balance tweaks.
We will keep updating the game as we go and provide balance updates as much as we can.


Achievements

• Achievements system has been reworked and fixed. You have to redo them to unlock those that were not unlocked before. There can be a few seconds before an achievement is performed and Steam gives you the achievement info.

Training Room

• Ultimate and Special infinites are now activated for both players instead of just player 1.
  
• Max combo damage is not reset to 0 when player resets the characters.

General Gameplay

• Guard break requires more hits now (450 damages instead of previous 300), but takes slightly longer to regenerate.
  
• All special startups in movelists have been fixed and set to actual value (held versions add the expected amount of frames to hold to the startup value)

Rook

• Ultimate has advantage over any other command grab.

Knight

• Air special hitbox does not start before it starts moving horizontally.

Official Checkmate Showdown Tournament
Mark your calendars - the Checkmate Showdown Tournament will be held on Saturday January 20th 2024!

Here are a few points about the tournament:

• For NA only (EU tournament TBD)
  
• No WiFi connection permitted. A connection test will be mandatory before games.
  
• 1000$ prize pool stays the same. EU will be a smaller prize pool
  
• Top 128 reduced to Top 64
  
• You have until **January 5th 11:59PM EST** to qualify
  
• Those who make top 64 will be messaged via Steam by KC from BadRez
  
• Winners will be paid out directly through Paypal or by Matcherino as it is a preferred method of payment to ensure transparency.

For more details, join our Discord of 3k+ members![discord.gg]

Post launch update (1.0.0.1-9616)
This first update mainly contains fixes for recurring issues in the game and balancing tweaks.
We will keep updating the game as we go and provide balance updates as much as we can.


Online

• Fixed ranked scoring issues where some players lost points when winning and earned points when losing. From now on, players will earn at least 5 rank points when they win a match.
  
• Leaderboards display the correct rank for the current player.
  
• Added more time before deciding if players can cancel a ranked match if the ping is above 100ms.

General Gameplay

• Short hop can no longer cancel into full hop if players hold down while short hoping.
  
• All ultimates now auto correct at start.
  
• Combo Breaker can now be used with LT+B (Ultimate modifier + Special), as well as the usual RT+B (Dash + Special)

Bishop

• 5S is now -5 on block, can be countered if used in a blocked string.
  
• 2H is -15 on block, can be interrupted if used in a blocked string.
  
• JS now hits if closer to the floor.
  
• JS is now 0 on block (instead on +10 if executed close to the floor).
  
• Overall makes less damage on shield.

Knight

• 6S Teleport is now minus on block.
  
• 5S is now punishable if blocked.

Rook

• Fixed an issue where command grab (5S) could be used before player jumps at wake up.
  
• JH can no longer restand opponent.

Queen

• 2S is now 8 on startup (faster) and has armor during charge.
  
• 6S tap is no longer safe on block.
  
• Overall makes less damage on shield.

King

• Fixed issue with the Ultimate pawns that could be blocked sometimes.
  
• JH can no longer restand opponent, as well as neutral tag assist (5A).
  
• Fixed UI issue showing wrong startup data for 5S. 5S is 5 frames of startup.

Official Checkmate Showdown Tournament
The 1st official Checkmate Showdown Tournament will be held in early January 2024 - for ranked players only.

How it works
The top 128 players will receive an invitation to our first official tournament with a prizepool of 1000$. You read that right - ONE. THOUSAND. DOLLARS. With a prizepool this big, this makes us one of the biggest indie fighting game tournaments ever.

We have a two week buffer or "pre-season" for ranked meaning you have two weeks to lab and try stuff out to get a sense of the gameplay. Then, as of Dec 1st, leaderboards will be reset and the race to qualify for top 128 commences.

We'll have a proper loser's bracket meaning we'll have 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes.
We're curious to know: How would you like to see the prizepool divided?

For more details, join our Discord of 3k+ members![discord.gg]

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In creator news, we clapped Forsen today at the game and NorthernLion did a pretty good job at clapping someone else.

Speaking of, if you are a content creator or you know a content creator that would like to try our game, you can redirect them to our Keymailer request page![www.keymailer.co]

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Changelog
Thank you for your patience on this. Here is the list of all improvements and changes that occurred throughout the demo up until the game release:

Animations
With the feedback provided by our community, we have reworked almost all animations in the game so they are way smoother than before.

Gameplay and mechanics
Throw cancel
Throws can now be cancelled by using a special move or a special dash/jump cancel. However, the tradeoff is that the damage is reduced and the following moves will start at a much higher scaled down

Short jump
To ensure that the short jump is accessible to everyone, as it is a crucial mechanic for combos and movements, there are two ways to perform it. You can either hold down the jump button while pressing it, OR you can quickly tap the jump button or upward on the joystick.

Command grab armor on startup
Rook's command grabs and Queen 2S now have armor on their startup frames. This ensures that the move will be performed correctly even if you get hit it after it connects.

Frame data adjustment
Numerous adjustments have been made to the frame data throughout the game in order to achieve better balance. These adjustments have been applied to the movesets of all the characters. You will have the opportunity to check the frame data for each move in the move list of every character.

Game feel adjustment
We made efforts to minimize awkward interactions to enhance the smoothness of the game. Additionally, we focused on creating an enjoyable game experience overall. We aimed to provide satisfying moves and combos throughout the game to maximize player enjoyment.

Locomotion update
To ensure that each character feels unique, we have made some changes to their locomotion. Specifically, we have focused on the Queen and the Bishop to better align their movement with their respective archetypes of "Footsie" and "Rushdown".

Knight Rework
Knight is now more committed to the Zoner archetype
Special moves no longer cost anything but have a longer recovery time (except for 5S).
After hitting an opponent, you can use the special button again to consume a special bar and teleport to the point of impact of the projectile.
Knight's back dash and aerial back dash have been transformed into teleportation abilities.
The Knight’s move speed as been reduced to fit better with his archetype

Queen Rework
Queen has less recovery on her dashes and her overall mobility has been buffed

Online play
Netcode
We improved our netcode a lot based on beta and demo matches analyses. Feel free to tell us how that works for you now

Ranked matchmaking
Ranked matchmaking is now available. Each player has an Elo rating, and you will be matched against players with similar Elo ratings to ensure fair matches. Additionally, we have added a leaderboard that displays the best players based on their ranks and Elo ratings.

Game Modes
New game mode: Chess 960
A new non-competitive game mode has been added: Chess 960. In this mode, the main pieces are placed in a random order following the Chess 960 rules. Specifically, the King must be positioned between his rooks, and the Bishops have to be placed on black and white squares. Pieces placement are mirrored so there is no RNG disadvantage. You can play it online in a private match as well.

AI available
Now you can play against AI locally, which will assist new players in getting into the game. Please note that there is no difficulty scaling, as the AI is not perfect. Its purpose is to help players become familiar with the game mechanics.

Training room update
We have updated the training room with a few upgrades to facilitate labbing. These upgrades include enabling fast regeneration on combo breaker and tag assist. Furthermore, the fast regeneration applies to both characters.

General
Achievements
The game now has a total of 26 achievements. All the achievements can only be unlocked in an online match (casual or ranked). Some of them are hidden. Have fun discovering all of them.

Added French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese languages
We did the translation on our own so feel free to message us if any translation is bad or should be replaced.

Audio
Add 2 new soundtracks for the Arch map and polish the existing one.
Include missing sound effects, such as the Queen ultimate.

Polish Maps and VFX
Edit the lighting and add VFX to make the maps feel more alive and pleasing to see.

Polish UI
We have added icons for the moves, allowing you to easily remap each input. Additionally, we have made changes to the combo breaker icon to improve visibility when it is ready or charging up.

Are you ready to become the ultimate competitor?

We're excited to say that Checkmate Showdown is AVAILABLE NOW.

From the Closed Beta to the Demo, local events here in Montreal to being invited to Evo in Las Vegas - we can't thank you enough for your continued support and your genuine interest in our game. We're excited to show you what's in store so take a minute to read through our update just so you don't miss anything!

What to expect

• Casual matches: Enjoy a full Checkmate Showdown experience without the sweat.
  
• Ranked matches: Enjoy a full Checkmate Showdown experience WITH sweat & leaderboards.
  
• Private matches: Play against a friend or a viewer with a room code!
  
• Chess960: Randomize the starting position of each major piece.
  
• Local Vs./CPU Vs.: Hop on the couch, plug in an extra controller and fight each other or a bot!
  
• Practice mode: Head into the training room and start labbing combos, tag-assist, etc!
  
• 5 classic characters: Each with their own distinct moveset, attitude and abilities!
  
• Rollback netcode: For minimal latency and smooth gameplay. Also it's 2023.
  
• Input customization: Because the community said so!

Although you can play with a keyboard, we recommend using a controller. We are compatible with most controllers including fightsticks, just make sure everything is properly setup in your Steam controller input settings. If you're looking for someone to play against, you can always join our Discord of 3000+ members[www.discord.gg] and head into the #LookingForMatch channel and post your lobby code!

Before we get into our launch update, including upcoming events... Please leave a review! Leaving a review helps us a lot in terms of discoverability and is the best way to support us after buying! We're trying to get 10 reviews in the first few hours!

Bugs
Although they should be at a minimum, you will most likely find some - this is okay! The best way to let us know about any bug you encounter is through Discord. Join our Discord server[www.discord.gg] and head into the #bugs channel. The more information you have about the bug and your PC specs (including screenshots/videos,) the easier it is for us to process it.

Ranked
Ranked will be available at launch however we will be resetting leaderboards two weeks from now (Nov 30th). We need to make sure everything is running smoothly so we're giving ourselves a two week buffer. This means that your ranked status will start "counting" as of Dec 1st 2023. Thank you for understanding!

Events

Brilliant move of the week
We have a channel in our Discord[discord.gg] called #clips where you can post your brilliant plays/combos/moments. Every week, we'll pick one lucky winner and highlight them on our social media platforms. You might even win a prize!

Combo Competition
We'll be hosting a combo competition in our Discord in 2024 after giving you all enough time to lab with each character. More info soon on Discord.

Monthly Community Tournaments
Tournaments will be held every month in Discord (could be bi/tri weekly) hosted by devs and community members (mods). We'll try to match skill level as best we can so every level of player is welcome! For bragging rights, Discord roles and game keys!

Hand and Brain
Imagine this:

JWong being instructed by Alexandra Botez vs Daigo being instructed by Andrea Botez. Thirteen seconds left on the clock, 2 pieces left for each player, only half HP, commentary done by your favorite chess and FGC caster - chaos ensues. Checkmate Showdown Hand & Brain Showmatch.

For now, this is a vision of ours but we're throwing it out in the universe because we'd love to see it happen for real. If you know anyone that can help make this happen, please reach out in Discord!

**Official Checkmate Showdown Tournament**
The 1st official Checkmate Showdown Tournament will be held in Early January 2024 - for ranked players only.

Upon release on November 15th, ranked players will have about 2 months to grind. The top 128 players will receive an invitation to our first official tournament with a prizepool of 1000$. You read that right - ONE. THOUSAND. DOLLARS. With a prizepool this big, this makes us one of the biggest indie fighting game tournaments ever.

If you're looking for a new game to grind, this is your chance.

That being said, we'll also have a tournament production company helping us out with this so stay tuned...

For more info, head over to our Discord[www.discord.gg].



Additional Info

Console release
We're currently working on porting to PlayStation 5! We're not sure when it will be ready but we'll keep you all informed on the release date once we know more through Discord or Socials

Steam Deck
As of right now, we are not optimized for the Steam Deck. We are investigating this issue and we'll know more soon - Apologies for the inconvenience.


Future plans
At BadRez Games, we're very keen on making and shaping games with the help of our community.

Through community feedback and testing phases, we were able to make key quality additions to Checkmate Showdown and we will always continue doing so with our future titles. Whatever you want to see, we can make it happen as long as it's agreed upon by the majority and it makes sense for the game. If you're interested in this type of community management, please consider following us on our journey!

If we're successful enough with Checkmate Showdown, we will continue supporting the game throughout the next year. This could be in the form of additional features but mainly for balancing as of right now. We'll always listen to what you have to say and if something needs to be changed, we'll put a plan in action to address those changes.

As for other Game Modes, we have a bunch of cool ideas suggested by the community that could be really fun for Checkmate Showdown. While we'd love to have every game mode & modifier possible, having the necessary resources will depend entirely on the player base feeding it. On our end, we will try our best to bring as many people as we can to the game but your help is greatly appreciated as well - whatever form it comes in.


What started off as a funky idea to make an accessible fighting game with a twist quickly turned into an FGC validated game. With the help of the BadRez community on Discord, we were able to add even more depth to it and make this game the best it can be.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below and we'll get to you as soon as possible.

For now... GET IN HERE AND DEFEAT THE KING!👑👊

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1803410/Checkmate_Showdown/

We have some BIG news for you, including information on the Checkmate Showdown Tournament in early 2024 and last minute surprises but first...

Only TWO more weeks until the game releases!

Checkmate Showdown will be available on November 15th 2023. The game will be priced at 19.99$USD + a 15% launch discount (grab it while it's on sale!)

Here's a few things to know before launch:

Casual/Local Vs

For our Casual players out there, you'll be able to go into casual play and be matched against someone of your own skill level so you can enjoy a full Checkmate Showdown experience without the sweat.

If you're looking for offline play, we have a few available options such as vs CPU and local VS (either two controllers or 1 controller and 1 KB directly in the same PC). Checkmate Showdown is also compatible with most controllers (including fightsticks), just make sure everything is properly setup in your Steam controller input settings. Remote play is also available.

If you're looking for someone to play against, you can always join our Discord of 3000+ members[www.discord.gg] and head into the #LookingForMatch channel and post your lobby code!

Ranked

Ranked matchmaking will also be available if you'd like to test your skills in this dual-layered fighting game. Leaderboards will show you where you are currently ranked amongst your peers around the world.

Points are won by winning and lost by losing. The more points you have, the higher rank you are.
The scoring is as follows:

• If you win against a stronger opponent, you win more points.
  
• If you win against a weaker opponent, you win less points.
  
  
• If you lose against a stronger opponent, you lose less points.
  
• If you lose against a weaker opponent, you lose more points.

Events

Brilliant move of the week
For our newer players, we have a channel in our Discord[discord.gg] called #clips where you can post your brilliant plays/combos. Every week after launch, we'll pick one lucky winner and highlight them on our social media platforms + a chance to win a prize!

Combo Competition
We'll be hosting a combo competition in our Discord in 2024 after giving you all enough time to lab with each character. More info on that soon!

Bi/Tri-Weekly Community Tournaments
Tournaments will be held every 2-3 weeks in Discord depending on availability, hosted by devs and community members (mods). We'll try to match skill level as best we can so every level of player is welcome!

Official Checkmate Showdown Tournament
The 1st official Checkmate Showdown Tournament will be held in mid January.
For ranked players only.

Upon release on November 15th, ranked players will have 2 months to grind. The top 128 players after 2 months (January 15th 11:59PM EST) will receive an invitation to our first official tournament with a prizepool of 1000$. You read that right - ONE. THOUSAND. DOLLARS.

With a prizepool this big, this makes us one of the biggest indie fighting game tournaments ever.

Make sure you lab every character and test out your pawn/tag-assist strats cuz this tournament is going to make Bobby Fischer and Daigo look like chumps.

For more info, head over to our Discord[www.discord.gg]

Last minute surprise
We can now confirm that Checkmate Showdown will have a Chess960 game mode!
Click here[www.chess.com] to learn more about this game mode.

We can also confirm that we're currently working on porting to PlayStation 5! We'll keep you all informed on the release date once we know more.


Development Roadmap
The future of Checkmate Showdown will rely on the community.

If we're successful enough, we will continue adding on to the game and we'll always be ready to address certain balancing issues thanks to our group of testers on Discord. We'll always listen to what you have to say and if something needs to be changed, we'll put a plan in action.

As for other Game Modes, we have a bunch of cool ideas suggested by the community that could be really fun for Checkmate Showdown. Having these ideas is great, but implementing those ideas in our game requires a number of resources (Time/Money/People). While we'd love to have every game mode & modifier possible, the (indie) reality that we live in means the future of the game depends entirely on the player base feeding it.

We're confident we can keep the hype going for a few months with planned events & streams but if you'd like to help us out and make sure we extend the lifecycle of Checkmate Showdown, you can:

• Spread the good word
  
• Leave a review (this helps us!)
  
• Talk about the tournaments for both casual and ranked players
  
• Share our posts on Social Media
  
• Share with your favorite streamer(s)
  
• Join our Discord[www.discord.gg] and actively participate
  
• Send us clips of your gameplay or use the #CheckmateShowdown hashtag

CALL TO FGC
If you're a TO or if you're in an FGC Discord that runs tourneys, we'd love to add our game to the mix! Contact [email protected] to get in touch!


We're two weeks away from launch and we're making sure everything is just right before release. We can't wait to show you what we've been cooking and to see the community pop off. Hopefully, upon release, a few streamers can help us out by playing. We've reached out far and wide and now we must let the FG gods to their thing.

See you on November 15th!

Today's setup comes from the Queen's Gambit TV Show, Harmon vs Borgov.

Read about it here!

Read up on today's setup right here

The Bongcloud Attack (or Bongcloud Opening) is considered a joke opening and is associated with internet chess humor. This joke opening is thought to originate from Chesscom user "Lenny_Bongcloud", who uses the opening with little success.

Read more about it here

Try it out in our demo today!
https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1803410/Checkmate_Showdown/