"Checkmate" is an episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series, The Prisoner. It was written by Gerald Kelsey and directed by Don Chaffey and third to be produced. It was the ninth episode to be broadcast in the UK on ITV (ATV Midlands and Grampian) on Friday 24 November 1967 and first aired in the United States on CBS on Saturday 17 August 1968. The episode stars Patrick McGoohan as Number Six and features Peter Wyngarde as Number Two. Plot summary Number Six is persuaded to participate, as the white queen's pawn, in an oversized game of chess using people as pieces. A rebellious rook (Number Fifty-eight) is taken to the hospital for "evaluation". After the game is completed, Number Six talks with the Chess Master (Number Fourteen), who comments that one can tell who is a prisoner and who a guardian "[B]y their disposition. By the moves they make." Number Six is later invited to visit the hospital to observe the fate of Number Fifty-eight, and sees him subjected to Pavlovian mind control treatment. The woman playing the queen (Number Eight), who had fraternised with Number Six during the game, is subjected to hypnosis to make her fall in love with him and report his whereabouts should he attempt to escape again. Number Six shuns her, but seeks an alliance with Number Fifty-eight (the rook) and other villagers that he now believes he can identify as prisoners, not guardians. They attempt an escape by making a two-way radio out of various pilfered electronic parts and then hailing a passing ship with a Mayday distress call, pretending to be a crashing airliner. Number Six discovers, however, that again he has been a pawn – Number Fifty-eight had mistaken the strong-minded Number Six for a guardian. Believing that the escape attempt was a test of his loyalty, he reported it all to Number Two. Cast Peter Wyngarde . . . Number Two Ronald Radd . . . Rook Rosalie Crutchley . . . Queen George Coulouris . . . Man with stick Patricia Jessel . . . First Psychiatrist Bee Duffell . . . Second psychiatrist Basil Dignam . . . Supervisor Danvers Walker . . . Painter Denis Shaw . . . Shopkeeper Victor Platt . . . Assistant supervisor Shivaun O'Casey . . . Nurse Geoffrey Reed . . . Skipper Terence Donovan . . . Sailor