On Tuesday mobile game developer Dobsoft released its latest puzzler, Knight Saves Queen, which is basically Chess For Dummies. For anyone who has ever tried to learn chess, the game can initially be quite daunting. With seven different types of pieces, each with their own unique moves, just learning to maneuver each of them can be difficult enough, let alone throwing in strategy and offense or defensive gameplay. Though Knight Saves Queen has been developed as its own unique type of single player puzzle game, it would make a brilliant trainer for anyone just learning the basics of chess.
In the first level of Knight Saves Queen, players are taken to a standard chess board. The Queen is positioned on one square of the board, as is your Knight. The player learns how the Knight moves and then must get the Knight to the Queen’s square within a certain number of moves in order to “save” her.
In the second level, an enemy pawn is introduced. Players must first take out the pawn and then rescue the Queen. While in regular chess players take turns making moves, in Knight Saves Queen, enemy pieces can only move if you place yourself directly in danger -- and you definitely don’t want to do that. Since the Knight acts as both savior and King, it only takes one slip-up to end it all.
As you progress through the levels, more enemy pieces are introduced and placed in tricky combinations on the board. In some levels, your Knight is given additional ally pieces, like a pair of pawns, which can be sacrificed without losing the game. Being an avid chess player myself, I can honestly say that some of these levels are quite tricky. If you don’t finish the puzzles within a specified number of moves, you lose a life. Levels can be completed with bronze, silver or gold stars, depending on how few moves were needed to win. Every 10 levels there is castle wall you must go through to get to the next set of levels. You will not be able to unlock the castle wall, though, until you’ve completed each level with a gold star, adding an even deeper problem-solving element to the game. You can purchase gold stars if needed in-game, but I find it’s more fun just to keep at a puzzle till you’ve mastered it.
Knight Saves Queen is available now and free to download on both the Apple App and Google Play Store. If you enjoy puzzlers, this one is worth giving a go.
