Checkmate

Checkmate is a fictional government operations team featured in comic books published by DC Comics. They are part of the Post-Crisis era of DC Universe continuity and first appeared in the pages of Action Comics #598 in March, 1988. The group has also been featured in two ongoing comic titles, Checkmate, Volume 1, which was published from 1988 to 1991 and Checkmate, Volume 2, which was published from 2006 to 2008. The first series lasted thirty-three issues, while the second series ran for thirty-one issues.

Overview
Checkmate is an international government law-keeping agency and operates as an adjunct of Task Force X, which is the same umbrella organization that oversees the Suicide Squad. Checkmate functions under the aegis of the United Nations Security Council and specializes in top-secret covert operations against foreign and domestic acts of terrorism as well as missions involving threats of a metahuman nature. Checkmate's organizational structure is patterned after pieces on a chessboard with ruling administrators taking the positions of kings, queens, bishops and knights. The Black division of Checkmate specializes in operations with the White division focusing on intelligence and counter-intelligence. The original Checkmate headquarters was based out of Shelby, Virginia. The second iteration of the group was based out of The Castle in Switzerland.

History
Checkmate evolved from a pre-existing government task force known as The Agency, which was put together by Amanda Waller as an adjunct of Task Force X. The command position in The Agency was held by Russian expatriate Valentina Vostok, but she was replaced by Harry Stein after the group was re-branded as Checkmate. sought out the most stable personnel available from the American and international intelligence and law enforcement communities to form the backbone of Checkmate. His agency would field only the best-trained and well-equipped of agents, working under the strictest rules of secrecy. For the organizational structure of the re-organized Agency, Stein chose the game of chess as his working model.

Stein brought in Gary Washington (Knight One) and Black Thorn as Checkmate operatives, both of whom were his friends, and both of whom were introduced during his run on Vigilante.

The international terrorist organization, Kobra, manipulated the world's foremost operation agencies, including Checkmate to embroil them in a conflict with the Suicide Squad and Project Atom. This incident came to be known as the "Janus Directive". During this affair, Checkmate lost at least thirty-eight Knight agents(tallying to more than two thirds of Checkmate's Knight force, and its headquarters (as well as its cover, Konig Industries) in Shelby, Virginia. In the aftermath, Sarge Steel takes Waller's place as head of Checkmate, and Checkmate relocates to a new NORAD base in Colorado.  Sarge Steel reactivated Checkmate in order to locate the comatose body of Slade Wilson, aka, Deathstroke the Terminator. At this time, agent Phil Kramer was promoted to King and Kalia Campbell to Queen.

Pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1696, Checkmate was reorganized as the UN’s Chartered Metahuman Monitoring Force. The organization was restructured utilizing the "Rule of Two". Each super-powered or otherwise enhanced member in the "Royal Family" were to have an un-powered counterpart in a corresponding position of power. Pawns still remained as low-level field agents.

Notes & Trivia

 * The Checkmate organization was created by writer Paul Kupperberg and artist Steve Erwin.