We would say that chess is the most established board game ever. We say this because of its enduringness, as it has been around for over fifteen hundred years and has a global reach that is unmatched. It also has a historical significance that cannot get understated. According to historians, its roots go back to the seventh-century Indian game of chaturanga, which, after getting introduced in Persia, spread out into the Arab world, before coming over to Europe, where the traditional rule set emerged, one that has gained worldwide acceptance.
Chess has universal appeal because it can transcend cultural and language barriers. It is a game of psychological warfare and puts competitors’ decision-making skills to the test. Under pressure, of course. Matches between players from the US and the Soviet Union elevated its profile quite sizably in the 20th century. There is no other board game that features as competitive of a scene internationally as chess, and the emergence of online platforms has only elevated its worldwide standing.
Unlike gambling, where luck is the primary factor in who wins, chess gets associated with intelligence and strategy. So, it is an entirely different thing, but game developers want to build interactive gaming titles that appeal to just about anyone, so it is no shocker that there are a few chess-themed slots out there, and below, we list five from this selection that are worth considering for fans of The Game of Kings.
Shah Mat
Checkmate is the game-ending position in chess. It is when someone’s king has been captured with no escape possible. Shah Mat is essentially the Persian translation of Checkmate. It is the same thing, with Shah meaning king and mat getting translated into defeat. There is more than one spinner utilizing this phrase as their title, or it is getting incorporated into the theme presentation in some way. Shah Mat by Red Tiger is the one we are looking at here, and this is a cluster-pay slot with a high variance math model, a maximum payout of x4,323 your stake, allowing wagers as high as $20 per spin. The RTP here ranges from 96.71% as the highest setting to 90.75% being the lowest.
The presentation of Shah Mat has the usual Red Tiger flare, meaning it has eye-pleasing painterly graphics but is not overly dynamic. In this title, you get an 8×8 grid with the cascading engine, where wilds merge into multiplier ones for values up to x20. Mega symbols are also in play, and there is a bonus round in this game that can supply up to twenty-one on-the-house spins for six landed scatters.
Checkmate Hot 1
Here is another game-ending chess slot. Hot Rise Games made this one, and that is a lesser-known studio that appeared on the scene in 2021, residing under ReelPlay, famous for its Hot 1 mechanic, which this colorful game utilizes. It is in play here in the free spin bonus, which starts with the triggering bonus symbols locking in place and transforming into the lowest chess piece. Each new hit bonus token turns sticky, awarding an extra spin. When no new ones land, the sticky tokens progress upward, culminating in the final spin. It is then that the Hot 1 feature activates, and during this round, all sticky symbols become wilds, and any new bonus also becomes a sticky wild, granting an additional spin. The mode ends when no new symbols appear.
The variance in Checkmate Hot 1 is high, the hit frequency is 39.33, the default RTP stands at 96.14%, and the max win here is an impressive x4,953 on a potentially game-high wager of $400. The latter depends on the operator hosting this game, which has a 5×3 layout with thirty paylines.
SjakkMatt
Here we go with another checkmate spinner. In our eyes, this is a fairly interesting release from Relax Gaming, as it features a somewhat unusual presentation with a unique rotoscope look, the kind found in movies like Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly. It is a 5×6 slot with five betways that pay both ways, accepting wagers starting from five cents up to $200 per round. The RTP in SjakMatt is 96.09%, and this game has a wild feature, where a piece moves to a selected token, leaving a trail of wilds in its wake. SjakkMatt also has a free spin round where a meter comes into play, and pieces move around the board.
Moriarty Megaways
Fans of Sherlock Holmes are super familiar with Moriarty, the criminal mastermind who is obsessed with literature’s most famous detective, as he is the one who can challenge his intellect the best. Moriarty appears in several slots as a central figure, and in this one, an expansion of iSoftBet’s Twisted Tale series, he comes to us in a Megaways cascading spinner, with up to 352,947 bet ways that have chess as a theme and the game’s figures as premium symbols.
The variance in Moriarty Megaways is high; the RTP is the standard 96%, and the max win holds at an impressive x37,500 per spin on a top wager of $20 per spin. There is a symbol collection feature, a free spin mode, wilds multipliers, and more in this good-looking title from iSoftBet.
Lucky Chessmate
Apollo Games is a 2007 provider that we seldom hear about. It makes products for the African and European markets, with around seventy in its catalog. Most of these are picks with charming presentations, and the same holds for this cute 5×4 slot with an RTP that varies from 85% to 99%, which usually stands at 95%. It has a max win of x1,000, a max bet of $35, medium variance, and ten betways. This is a spinner where you get walking symbols, which makes sense, as the tokens are chess figures, and the grid is a chess board. So, the gameplay here keeps in line with the chess theme. Lucky Chessmate, a clever name, has two wilds, and we just love its cartoonish graphics.
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