Battle Chess

Home * Engines * Battle Chess



Battle Chess, a mass market chess program famous for its animated move and specially capture sequences in 3D mode, released for various home and personal computer platforms as well as video game consoles, beside others for Apple II, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, IBM PC, Apple Macintosh, Acorn Archimedes, 3DO and Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was developed by a team around Brian Fargo and Michael Quarles, including Jay Patel, Bruce Schlickbernd, and Todd Camasta, released in 1988 by Fargo's company Interplay soon after ending the relationship with Electronic Arts.

=Remake= A remake dubbed Battle Chess: Game of Kings was released on Steam on March 16, 2014. The program was criticized due to bugs and its playing skills hardly at the level of its predecessors.

=Games= Battle Chess 4000 for MS-DOS played the Harvard Cup 1993, and surprised by winning from Michael Rohde and a drawing from Boris Gulko : [Event "4th Harvard Cup G/25"] [Site "Boston, MA USA"] [Date "1993.11.06"] [Round "03"] [White "Michael Rohde"] [Black "BattleChess 4000 SVGA"] [Result "0-1"]

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.Nxd5 Qxd5 7.e4 Qe6 8.Bb5 Bd7 9.O-O Bg7 10.d3 Qd6 11.Be3 Bxb2 12.Rab1 Bg7 13.d4 a6 14.e5 Qe6 15.d5 Qxd5 16.Rfd1 Qe6 17.Bc4 Nxe5 18.Bxe6 Nxf3+ 19.gxf3 Bxa4 20.Bb3 Bc6 21.Bd5 Bxd5 22.Rxd5 e6 23.Rd2 b6 24.Rc2 Be5 25.f4 Bd6 26.Kg2 O-O 27.Rc6 Rfd8 28.Kf3 Kf8 29.Ke2 Ke7 30.h3 Kf6 31.Rd1 Rab8 32.Kf3 Kf5 33.Rg1 h6 34.h4 Rd7 35.Rcc1 Be7 36.Rh1 h5 37.Rc6 Rb7 38.Rh2 Rd3 39.Rh1 Bd6 40.Rg1 Bxf4 0-1

[Event "4th Harvard Cup G/25"] [Site "Boston, MA USA"] [Date "1993.11.06"] [Round "05"] [White "Boris Gulko"] [Black "BattleChess 4000 SVGA"] [Result "1/2-1/2"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 d5 3.e3 Bf5 4.c4 Nc6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nf3 Bb4 7.a3 Bxc3+ 8.bxc3 O-O 9.Bg5 Qe7 10.Bd3 Bxd3 11.Qxd3 dxc4 12.Qxc4 h6 13.Bh4 Qd8 14.O-O Qd5 15.Qd3 Ne4 16.Rab1 Nd6 17.Nd2 Ne5 18.Qe2 Ng6 19.Bg3 Qc6 20.c4 Nf5 21.Rb4 Nxg3 22.hxg3 b6 23.Qh5 Rad8 24.Rc1 Rd6 25.Qb5 e5 26.Qxc6 Rxc6 27.d5 Rd6 28.e4 Re8 29.c5 Rd7 30.Ra4 Ra8 31.cxb6 cxb6 32.Rc6 Re8 33.Rac4 f6 34.a4 Ra8 35.Kf1 Kf7 36.Nf3 Ne7 37.Rc7 Ke8 38.Rc2 Kd8 39.R7c3 Rc8 40.Rxc8+ Nxc8 41.Ke2 Nd6 42.Kd3 f5 43.Nxe5 fxe4+ 44.Kd4 Rc7 45.Nc6+ Ke8 46.g4 Kd7 47.Re2 Kc8 48.Ke5 Kd7 49.Rc2 Rc8 50.Kd4 Rc7 51.Rc3 Ke8 52.Ke5 Kd7 53.Kd4 Ke8 54.Re3 Kf7 55.f3 exf3 56.gxf3 h5 57.Re6 Rxc6 58.dxc6 Kxe6 59.gxh5 Ne8 60.Kc4 Kd6 61.Kd4 Nf6 62.c7 Kxc7 63.Ke5 Nxh5 64.Kf5 Ng3+ 65.Kg6 Ne2 66.Kxg7 Nd4 67.f4 Ne6+ 68.Kf6 Nxf4 69.Ke5 Ne2 70.Kd5 Nc3+ 71.Kc4 Nxa4 72.Kb5 Nc5 73.Kb4 Kd6 74.Kb5 Kd5 75.Kb4 a6 76.Kc3 a5 77.Kb2 b5 78.Kc3 b4+ 79.Kb2 Kc4 80.Kc2 Nd3 81.Kd2 b3 82.Ke3 b2 83.Ke4 a4 84.Kf5 a3 85.Ke6 Nb4 1/2-1/2

=See also=
 * Death Chess 5000

=Forum Posts=
 * Battle Chess 4000 + NT4 = Yuk by Mark Taylor, rgcc, April 9, 1999
 * Deep Thought, Kasparov, Fidelity, Ferret, CM4000,Junior, Battle Chess by K. Burcham, CCC, March 23, 2002
 * Chess Programming Questions by Randall Jouett, rgcc, May 21, 2002
 * Battle Chess needs help by Julien Marcel, CCC, May 17, 2012
 * Battle Chess: Game of Kings out on Steam Early Access by Sean Evans, CCC, March 22, 2014
 * Brian Fargo reveals Battle Chess 3 prototype by Sean Evans, CCC, December 29, 2015

=External Links=
 * Battle Chess from Wikipedia
 * Battle Chess: Game of Kings™ on Steam
 * Commodore 64/128 Old Computer Chess Game Collection - Battle Chess from The Spacious Mind » Commodore 64, Commodore 128
 * Battle Chess (Video Game 1988) - IMDb
 * Battle Chess (Video Game 1988) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb


 * Battle Chess series - MobyGames
 * Battle Chess (1993) 3DO cover art - MobyGames
 * Battle Chess for 3DO (1993) - MobyGames
 * Battle Chess 4000 Screenshots for DOS - MobyGames


 * Battle Chess Special Edition - GOG.com
 * The Computer Chronicles - Amiga 2500 (1989), YouTube Video
 * Battle Chess starting around 8:35

=References= Up one level