SouthPeak Interactive announced that its inventive strategy game Battle vs. Chess will ship to retailers in late September. SouthPeak expects revenue and positive margin contribution from this centuries-old classic with a new twist beginning in the 2010 calendar fourth quarter.

“Chess is one of the oldest competitive strategy games in the world and has a huge global fan-base,” said SouthPeak’s President and CEO Melanie Mroz. “We expect that the new and original challenges offered in our version will breathe life into a time-honored battle of strategic wit, attracting new users to this already popular game. It’s sure to become a classic in its own right and an important catalogue addition as our sales progress.”

New innovative game play includes a full-fledged tutorial system for new players and the utilization of both the Fritz 11 chess engine and a corresponding real-world ranking system. Battle vs. Chess includes new variations in piece placement such as ‘Madness Placement’ where pieces are randomly placed all across the board and ‘Tactical Placement’ in which pieces are manually placed by the player pre-game, only becoming visible to the opponent once the game starts.

Battle vs. Chess also includes over 50 puzzles and scenarios, which can be found in a full-featured Campaign Mode and a bonus Puzzle mode. Finally, Battle vs. Chess features several modes that challenge players to throw the traditional strategies of the game out the window and defeat one another in head-to-head battles in “Slasher” and “Duel” modes.

Battle Vs Chess is set to ship to retailers on PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Windows PC on September 28, 2010. It is rated T for Teen by the ESRB and comes with a suggested retail price of $39.99 for consoles and $19.99 for Windows PC.