Chess Ultra is a sequel to Ripstone's original million-selling 2012 title Pure Chess, and is a massive improvement on the original title in every way, with crisp, beautiful 4K visuals across a whole variety of environments and chess sets.

Ripstone's first in-house developed game, built from the ground up using Unreal Engine 4, features a range of single-player and online game modes, including 10 different AI levels to conquer all the way up to Grandmaster-approved levels.

When players take the game online, they'll quickly find their friends and other Chess Ultra players in ranked, regular, Fischer and Marathon matches.

Twitch integration is just one of the brand new additions in Chess Ultra, allowing Steam players to stream the game live on Twitch and play against their streaming community, who will be able to enter chess moves into the chat.

Ripstone confirmed that the Nintendo Switch version of Chess Ultra will include cross-platform compatibility, enabling players across PC, Xbox One and Switch to be able to play chess against each other.

It has also been confirmed that Chess Ultra fully utilises the array of intuitive playing options on Nintendo Switch.

You can play on the big screen with the console docked, in tabletop mode with the Pro Controller, and on the go in handheld mode using either the Joy-Con controllers or by taking advantage of full touch screen functionality.

Additional to this, it will also include a unique way for two people to play the game in local multiplayer cross-table playing mode, whereby the console acts as the chess board. Place the console down between you and your opponent to play cross-table chess. Each player uses an individual Joy-Con controller to take their turn, and the game features an adaptive UI for cross-table play meaning you can focus on your strategy and enjoy the ultimate table top challenge.

Key features

• Stunning environments and beautiful chess sets, including a ‘Fire and Brimstone’ chess set that literally burns
• 10 Grandmaster approved AI levels
• Comprehensive time controls, including Classical, Blitz and Marathon, all available online
• Intuitive local and online multiplayer with ELO ranking system
• Over 80 chess puzzles
• Re-write the past by winning the biggest historic matches
• In-depth tutorials

Chess Ultra launched earlier this summer on PS4, Xbox One, PC and VR, with the first of many new DLC launching last week for these platforms; the Pantheon Game Pack. This pack includes an environment inspired by the Pantheon Temple in Rome, and a chess set of Imperial Roman soldiers.

Chess Ultra will be launching on Nintendo Switch later this year.