The rivals from Checkmate are coming to life.
Lezhin Snack announced the short drama adaptation of BL manhwa Checkmate and dropped a visual and a short trailer to accompany the news. This manhwa isn’t just about two guys vying for the top spot; Checkmate has dark undertones when a scandal involving a man named Park Moon-seob and Soohyun throws everything as well as Eunsung and Soohyun’s rivalry into disarray. Details on the actors were not readily available as of this article’s writing.
Clocking in at close to a million views, TAN’s Checkmate first launched on Lezhin’s English platform on June 30, 2021 and finished with three seasons at a total of 103 episodes. 11 side stories were released from August 24 to November 9, 2023.
In a creator’s note, TAN revealed that initially Checkmate was a lot more explicit due to their preconceived notions on what R-rated BL comics should look like but eventually cut the scenes down. “I knew that the best way to make my stories fun would be to help readers understand and accept the storyline.”
Lezhin’s synopsis is as follows:
Soohyun doesn’t have a “first love,” but he definitely has a “first hate” – his high school classmate Eunsung. A smooth-mannered all-star, Eunsung snaps up first place in everything, leaving Soohyun always trailing behind in second place. Winning out over Eunsung is the one thing that motivates Soohyun, but after graduation, Soohyun contents himself with a dull, mediocre life. One day, Eunsung appears on the news, knee-deep in scandal and, for once, not perfectly at ease…lighting Soohyun’s inner fires once again. Desperate to see a fallen Eunsung with his own eyes, Soohyun jumps into the fray as a reporter, and gets Eunsung to strike an outrageous deal with him.
Checkmate can be read on Lezhin. Seven Seas has licensed the manhwa for a print release with Volume 4 set for an August release. The drama launches on the app on June 11.
Source: Lezhin Snack
