Battle Chess - Putting the Fight into Chess

Battle chess is a computer chess program that allows you to play chess using animated characters as pieces. These characters are what you would expect to see in a medieval court like Camelot. They walk around the board from square to square as you play your moves.

But the really fun part is when they capture enemy characters. The Rooks are depicted by monsters that roam around the board smashing enemies over the head. The role of the Knights are played medieval Knights that hack their enemies down with a sword.

Pawns look like foot soldiers and Bishops, Queens and Kings are like those from the Middle Ages. Each of the pieces have their own specialized killing animation which plays when they're taking out an enemy.

You can also hear court music playing in the background when pieces are moving and capturing. All in all it is a great spin on the game of chess and can get new players interested in the game.

Features include:

• 35 Battle Animations
• Fully Voiced Introduction
• Digitized Sound
• Entertaining Battle Sequences
• Artificial Intelligence (Computerized Opponent)
• LAN for Human Opponents

It's essentially chess with some animated entertainment thrown in. An attempt to really bring your pieces to life. No longer pieces of wood, but real live characters.

This is a great medium to get younger kids interested in chess. It shows them that chess is fun. While they enjoy the battle scenes between the characters, they will hopefully unknown to themselves develop a passion for chess itself.

Battle Chess started life in 1988 as a fun PC game combining the Game of Kings with interesting animations. Interplay came on board in 1991. They improved the graphics but the 1994 version would be the last.


Inevitably it disappeared when later versions of Windows no longer supported it. When Topware released a similar program a court case ensued.


This was eventually resolved and Battle Chess: Game of Kings hit the market in 2014. 30 years of innovation marked the Evolution from Battle Chess to Regicide.

Here's a recommendation from Abandonia.com:

So what is it that draws people to play the game instead of playing against a friend?


The wonderful animations. Nothing is as much fun as watching these little bricks come to life and kick the living daylights out of each other. Every fight is unique and ingenious in its own way. My personal favorite is when the King uses his royal staff as a baseball bat and launches a bomb towards the Knight. The expression on the Knight's face is indescribable.


Let's move from modern chess history to finish our story with something a little more ancient. This is the Celtic History of Chess.