Checkmate

Checkmate (Japanese (Katakana): 大接戦！頭脳バトル) is the twenty-first episode of Tenkai Knights. It first aired on January 26, 2014 on Teletoon in Canada.

Summary
Gen attempts to shatter Chooki's confidence and make him the "weak link" among the Tenkai Knights.

Plot
On Quarton, Vilius readies his army for his newest plan. When Granox mentions the army will be great enough to conquer Quarton, Vilius admits he has greater ambitions.

Meanwhile, on Earth, the boys remain unaware of Vilius's plans. Guren is disappointed that he can't spend the weekend with his father, while Chooki and Toxsa go to hang out at the park. There, Toxsa learns that Chooki is an expert chess player. Having been watching them, Gen approaches them and requests a match from Chooki.

Back on Quarton, Boreas and Eurus argue about their actions regarding resent events. While the others agree they should remain neutral, Eurus argues that more direct action is required to protect their planet.

Back on Earth, after a challenging match, Gen manages to claim victory. Chooki is a bit shook up by Gen's taunts.

On Quarton, Vilius orders Dromus and Granox to coordinate on a mission to defeat the Tenkai Knights and wipe out the Corekai. Granox is even given a new Robofusion ability just for the occasion, a powerful long-range cannon.

The boys receive the call to go to Quarton as the Corekai are attacked by Dromus and Granox's forces. When the arrive, Bravenwolf attempts to distract Dromus while the other three go after Granox. During the battle, Lydendor realizes that this is exactly what Dromus had wanted them to do from the beginning. Realizing this, he foils Dromus' plan and together with Bravenwolf, use Titan Fusion to defeat Dromus and Granox send the Corrupted forces running.

Later, Vilius reveals to Slyger that Dromus and Granox were nothing more than a distraction. He then uses his new levitation platform to locate the Guardians Sanctuary. Suspiciously, Guardian Eurus was absent.

In the episode

 * Lydendor and Bravenwolf tenkai titan fuse in this episode.

Background

 * This episode used to go by the title "Lydendor's Challenge".
 * This episode aired in Japan on the same weekend, when Tenkai Knights concluded in Canada as the first country.
 * This episode was aired within an one-hour-special together with Dromus Betrayed on August 30, 2014.

Characters
Note: All characters are listed in order of their first appearances in the episode. The time they appear is the time from the Japanese dub.