At the height of the cold war, a battle was fought between the US and USSR forces. Not just the secret history of the war in outer space, but also the other war: between Bob Fischer and Bo Spasky. The battleground was an 8x8 grid, tiled black and white. Instead of scavengers, pawns. Instead of gun towers, castles. And, like a missing recycler, there was no way to regain another king if you lost one. The game was Chess, and the US won.

In a press release dated 4.1.99, Pandomic Studios announced Battlezone 8x8: the Chess Zone. Step into the shoes of Bob Fischer, Kenneth Millers, or Andy Goldberger and relive the famous battles. Or, switch sides for Bo Spasky, Georg Collinski, and Wilhelm Roslaus-- the Russian and East German experts. Beyond just the most famous battles fought over these grounds that the public saw, the heroes on each side have their own campaigns, each consisting of many missions leading to the ultimate showdown.

Building on the world-renown Battlezone 2 engine, this Chess title is sure to amaze every gameplayer and chess grandmaster alike. Fully 3D models are used with the Right Mesh Resolution(tm), also known as RMR technology. Players will be able to see the battlefield from any angle, while distant units are dynamically polygon reduced to keep the framerate high from any angle. The same intuitive interface is brought into the BZ:8x8 universe-- command any unit at any time through a set of quick keystrokes, and pointing at the destination they should attack. What's more, you can take full control of any unit of yours, and drive it around the fully 3D battlefield at will.

"BZ:8x8 breaks new ground by marrying the Action/Strategy game with the classic franchise of chess, which everyone knows how to play" said the president of Pandomic. "We feel that we will be able to reach a huge audience by uniting the well-praised interface, action, and destruction found in Battlezone with the name recognition and unit names of the Chess franchise."

Gamers should be able to send pawns out to gather scrap, drive the rook, bishop, knight, or mighty queen around the battlefield, looking to destroy enemies. High resolution textures (4096x4096) bring the squares of the battlefield to life, beyond the simple black and white. Fully 3D terrain can be used to hide attacks from the enemy, while long range death can be inflicted upon the enemy's pawns with the rave gun.

"We felt that with Deep Blues able to beat up on Kasparoff at will, most humans would be intimidated playing the computer at chess" said BZ:8x8's lead AI programmer. "We've made BZ:8x8 more forgiving of the novice player-- opponent scavengers, err pawns, are still unable to maneuver around anything in their path, heading straight to their destruction at the hands of enemy. In fact, we had to lobotomize our AI to produce such simplistic behavior."

When contacted with design specs for BZ:8x8, the reigning world chess champion, Deep Blues, running on a modified RISC/4000 box spat out a few lines of text to its console. We have it on good authority that Deep Blues said something to the lines of "You puny humans want to challenge WOPPR again? I'll crush you again, *AND* obliterate the Balkans in an all-out nuclear war before you can blink." Kasparoff, Deep Blues' latest victim responded to that saying "Uncultured piece of junk! You won by putting a rave gun on your Queen. You have no honor, no decency, and I demand a rematch! It is a good day to die!"

Up to 64 players at once will be able to take to the BZ:8x8 battlefield at once in network games, with such variants on gameplay as 'Capture the Rook', Strategic command, Kings of the Stalemate, and the ever popular Deathmatch of the Queens.

System requirements listed as the box specs are as follows: Pentium 166Mhz, 32MB RAM, 56.6K Modem, and a 3D accelerator card recommended for maximum carnage. No word yet on whether a Minix port is in the works, but such a thing has not yet been denied by press reports.

The game is also reported to be gold mastered, and simply waiting for the official stamp of approval by the US Chess & Tanks Federation before shipping to stores. Expect to see it soon-- the president of the Chess & Tanks Federation, Don Clancy, has been absorbed for hours playing it, and is giving it his highest rating, after writing a 1500 page novel as the manual.