Galactic Chess Invaders

A real game of chess plays out on screen — legal moves, real check and checkmate, a live engine playing Black. Except Black's pieces are also a fleet, sweeping sideways, dropping a rank at a time, and shooting at you. You play both halves at once. The mouse commands White's pieces. The keyboard flies a laser ship along the bottom of the board. A five-second clock runs on every move. Reflex decides whether you survive; the chess decides what you are surviving against. The two halves are genuinely entangled. Shoot a black piece and it leaves the chess position. Let one descend onto your rook and the rook is gone. Checkmate the black king to clear the wave — or just shoot it. Walk a pawn to the eighth rank and you promote it and upgrade your guns at the same time, which is the one moment the game asks you to do both jobs in the same second. TEN WAVES, TEN IDEAS Each level introduces a…