Each week, Apple chooses an "App of the Week" to highlight, which means it can be downloaded for free. This week's pick is an iMessage app called Checkmate, able to be played with friends using Messages.

Checkmate is one of the first iMessage apps to be named App of the Week, and it is normally priced at $0.99. With Checkmate, you can play a game of chess with a friend entirely over iMessages. Apple's notes on the game:

checkmateappoftheweek

We use iMessage for everything from keeping up with family news to sending stickers to our significant others. Sometimes, though, we just want to duke it out with knights and kings on the chessboard. What makes Checkmate so great -- aside from its super-intuitive interface -- is the way we can chat with (and smack-talk) as we play... or take as much time as we need to contemplate our next move.

Starting up a game with Checkmate requires you to go to the App Drawer and select the Checkmate icon. From there, updates on moves in the game are sent using iMessages. Checkmate can only be played within iMessage and it needs to be installed through the Messages App Store.

Checkmate supports multiple matches, so you can play with multiple people at one time, across all of your devices. Checkmate has no in-app purchases and regularly adds new themes for free.

Checkmate can be downloaded for free for the next seven days. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

AngerDanger Avatar
88 months ago
iMessage: boldly going where desktop computers were in 2000.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sasparilla Avatar
88 months ago
Apple you need to make iMessage multiplatform now, this would be great with my many friends who are on Android (~80% of the market?). Thinking of it as a way to keep people on iOS is not the right angle - have the best solution, not protect how things were. JMHO....
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
darkarn Avatar
88 months ago
Time to check this out mate!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Porco Avatar
88 months ago
Looks quite nice.

If you're going to play before going to sleep, all that blue light emanating from the board makes me think it might be a good idea to play using iOS' Knight Shift function. (sorry).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Thunderhawks Avatar
88 months ago
Looks quite nice.

If you're going to play before going to sleep, all that blue light emanating from the board makes me think it might be a good idea to play using iOS' Knight Shift function. (sorry).
"Amen to that"! says the bishop
[doublepost=1501848305][/doublepost]
Time to check this out mate!
Would that need the consent of the king?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mansu944 Avatar
88 months ago
How is this better than an app?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
iPad And Calculator App Feature 1

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...