Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Cheevo's for Chess

To borrow from the video game world, what about cheevo's in chess? For those unfamiliar with the term a 'cheevo' or 'game achievement' is a reward you get for completing a task or reaching a goal, as part of your normal gameplay. The idea behind the cheevo is to extend the playability of the game beyond the normal 'well I completed it on epic level, so now what?' stage. Players are motivated to play the game multiple times to collect cheevo's, even if they have solved the main storyline.
Of course chess kind of has cheevo's, in the form of titles (GM, IM etc). Unfortunately these are out of reach for most players. The rating system is also a reward system, but the fact that you can earn negative achievements (by losing rating points), is a bit of a bummer. So what we need is a good list of cheevo's that add something to the chess playing experience. Here are some examples (and feel free to add your own in the comments section)

  • Dacked (Checkmating your opponent while still having all your pieces on the board)
  • Pillow to the face (Smothered mate with a knight)
  • I am Bobby (Winning a tournament with 11/11)
  • The Flash (Checkmating in less than 10 moves)
  • Bigamy (Having two queens on the board at the same time)
  • Taking one for the team (sacrificing your last piece to force stalemate)
  • They shoot horses, don't they (Claiming a draw under the 50 move rule)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How about Royal Pawn Fork (no explanation required)