Note: A new version of Checkmate has been released. Get the new version now!
I told you earlier I was going to release it, and here it is! The Checkmate WordPress theme. It is a classic blog style template with a minimalist design packed with features and customizing options. This is one to definitely download and try out and includes a quick start guide to show you how to use some of the features.
Checkmate Demo – The demo is a bit messy looking because I tried to show off as much of the theme as I could.
Theme Options
Checkmate has a lot of options so you can get the most out of your theme without knowing any code.
- Optional Header Image
- Optional Featured Categories
- Feedburner Integration
- Menu Customization
- Optional Footer Widget Areas
Features
- Checkmate comes with 7 color themes. Grey, Red, Blue, Green, Purple, Brown, and Grey/Red.
- Custom widgets built for Checkmate.
- Tabbed Content Box – widget enabled
- Two, Three, or Split Column Design
- Feedburner Integration
- Optional Widget enabled footer
- Custom Icons
- Gravatar support for authors and comments(WordPress 2.5)
- Custom author, archive, tag, category, and search pages.
- Widget Enabled Sidebars
- Includes the TimThumb script for resizing post thumbnails located under the post meta information.
- Tested in Firefox 2, Safari(Mac), IE7, IE6. (IE6 has a problem with post thumbnails, if this concerns you bug me to fix it).
Ad Management
Checkmate has two forms of built in ad management. One form built right into theme options panel and another more advanced customizable form. Both forms of management are controlled by widgets for easy placement and you retain the ability to turn them on or off via theme options panel.
License
Checkmate is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. All I ask is that you link back to my website somewhere in your site.
Updates
- Version 1.01
- Added wp_footer hook for plugins
- Version 1.02
- Fixed Header Image Bug
- Added browser detectable RSS Feeds (RSS2, RSS1.0/RDF, RSS0.92, RSS2 Comments, ATOM)
- Version 1.03
- Added page template with comments enabled
- Version 1.04
- Fixed sidebar error when requiring users to be registered and logged in to comment
- Misc. code cleanup
- Version 1.05
- Removed query_posts from index.php for pagination support
- Version 1.06
- Changed “1 Comments” to “1 Comment”
- Fixed the multiple categories as “featured” categories error
Download It Now!
- Get the new version here!
- Download the old version Checkmate (4588)
Really Like It?
If you really like this theme and would like updates, more features, and new styles, why not grease the wheel and make a donation?
204 Comments
Leave a CommentGreat theme! Thanks for sharing.
14th May 2008
Glad you like it! If you use it let me know
14th May 2008
Hi, it’s a nice theme. What is the minimum requirement for the theme ? Wordpess 2.0 2.1 2.2 … ?
15th May 2008
The theme was developed and tested in WordPress 2.5. Most of the features should still work in 2.3, but it hasn’t been tested in anything below 2.5 so I cannot say for sure.
15th May 2008
Love the theme, and I’m using it on my blog. But how do I get archive, tag and category pages to display lists of posts instead of a single post. Sorry, I have searched everywhere and I can’t seem to get it to work.
Thanks
16th May 2008
Sharon,
In the WordPress admin section click on “Settings”, then on “Reading”. Check the number next to “Blog pages show at most”, this is the number of posts that will show up on the archive,tag, category, and home page.
If that doesn’t work or you already tried that let me know.
16th May 2008
Hi, Curtis!
Me again. I’ve changed to your fabulous theme the other day and was surprised by it’s full funtions. However there is a problem confusing me. The “post_thumb” function seemed broken in my site.
I’ve checked with firebug, and the code showed up same as your demo, but the thumb just doesn’t appear on the page. Would you please check it onmy homepage? Thanks!
17th May 2008
Oh, I forgot to tell you that I only set “post thumb” for this post:
http://lucifr.com/2008/05/18/firefox3-rc1/
17th May 2008
Lucifr,
It looks like there is a problem with the timthumb script that automatically resizes the post thumb to the correct size.
It looks like the image is hosted on another domain and I don’t believe the timthumb script will work unless the image is uploaded onto your domain.
One solution would to be to try uploading that image through wordpress and seeing if it works, if it doesn’t then that isn’t the problem.
Another easier solution is, if you don’t care about the post thumb being resized automatically, there is code in index.php commented out that doesn’t use the timthumb script. If you want to go this route let me know and I can tell exactly how to do it.
17th May 2008
Thank you,Curtis. I’ve figured out what to do. The latter method works better for me since all my pictures are hosted elsewhere.
18th May 2008
Hi Curtis,
i installed your really good theme. I have an problem with the Show Header Image. If i chose Yes and put an Header URL in the field the Header image didn’t appear. Buf if i rename my header Image to your big_header_bg.png and i let the Header URL Field empty my Header Image appears ?
20th May 2008
Whoops, looks like the header file got replaced with a old version somewhere along the line. I’ll fix that, watch this page for the update.
20th May 2008
Hi, Curtis.
I think there should be a link for the browsers to catch the feed.
like these:
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/xml" title="RSS .92" href="" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3" href="" />
20th May 2008
newbie,
Header image has been fixed, let me know if there are anymore problems with that.
Lucifr,
I don’t know how I forgot those. All feeds that WordPress puts out are now detectable by the browser. Feedburner feed will also be findable instead of the WordPress feed if you use that option.
20th May 2008
Ok, thanks. I will update to your newer version. Can i delete the Checkmate Folder in the themes Folder and copy your new version to the folder. Is that the update procedure ?
I can’t see the comments on Pages ? Only on Post.
21st May 2008
newbie,
You can overwrite the existing Checkmate theme with the new file. You may want to backup the scripts folder if you are using the post_thumb feature.
I’ve updated the theme again, this time with a new page template to include comments. This file is called page3.php, no other files have been changed in version 1.03.
You’ll have to apply the page template to whatever pages you want to have comments enabled.
21st May 2008
Hey, thanks :)
25th May 2008
Hiya, thanks, this theme looks great!
But, something is not right,
1. if you select “Users must be registered and logged in to comment” in settings, when viewing any post, the sidebar will run to the bottom of that post, i.e. it no longer stays in the right-hand side.
2. if the post is too short, sidebar left, sidebar right and sidebar bottom will again run to the bottom of the post.
2nd Jun 2008
John,
It is partially fixed now. The error using “Users must be registered and logged in to comment” is now fixed.
I wasn’t able to re create the short post error. Did this happen when using “Users must be registered and logged in to comment”? What browser are you using?
I would suggest to anyone who hasn’t updated yet to update now.
2nd Jun 2008
Hi Curtis,
Thanks for your help, I’m using Explorer 7.0, let me try to use your updated version and see if it goes away, I kind of like that left and right sidebar, if it works again, that will be great! later!
2nd Jun 2008
Hiya, it’s me again, for the short post error, a bit more info: it only happens on the front page. If I click the post title, the page that shows the post content and comment and stuff is ok, i.e. the sidebar left and right and bottom are ok, they are in their correct position.
But for the front page, if I use sidebar left and right and bottom AND the post is short, sidebar left, right, bottom will go under the post..
Yes, that “Users must be registered and logged in to comment” part is ok now, thanks!
2nd Jun 2008
Hello,
wonderful Theme, i love it.
But I have any Problems.
One is it:
I can’t navigate on pages; next_page or previous_page and the plugin wp_pagenavi don’t work
It shows only/always the newest posts!
please, look at my website (www.tboggi.de/blog).
Thanks
tboggi
19th Jun 2008
tboggi,
Glad you like the theme and I love how you have modified it, site looks great, I especially like the post numbering!
On to your problems.
The pagination is broken due to bad implementation of query_posts on my part. From your site it looks like you can edit some code so I’ll tell you how to fix this. I’ll be updating the theme later if you would rather wait.
In the index.php file look for the following code, It is on line 39.
<?php query_posts('order=DESC'); if(have_posts()): while(have_posts()) : the_post(); if( $post->ID == $feature_post ) continue; update_post_caches($posts); ?>and delete the line that has query_posts, so it looks like this:
This should fix the wp_pagenavi plugin, if you still have any problems let me know. I’ll also be updating the theme later on if you would rather wait.
19th Jun 2008
Finally… i’ve been waiting for this theme months ago. hooo really nice theme indeed.. i’m lovin’ it :D
20th Jun 2008
Hallo Curtis,
first: it runs! great!.
My second problem is “my problem”:
You see in top of the page the “imagemenu” from phatfusion.net.
There ist a problem with javascripts from the imagemenu and the scipts in the footer.
When i delete the footer-js script = it works,
but with the footer js, works not.
Have you a Idea for “my problem”?
Greetings from Germany
tboggi
21st Jun 2008
Cool theme!
However when I unzip I don’t get a parent folder to contain all of the files – what do I do?
21st Jun 2008
paskal,
Glad you like it!
tboggi,
That script uses the mootools js library and Checkmate uses the jQuery library. Both libraries use the $ selector as a shortcut so it creates a conflict. I would suggest using kwicks for jQuery, it is the same thing but built for the jQuery library.
Andrea,
When you unzip the file you should get a folder named Checkmate that contains everything. If you don’t you can create a folder named Checkmate and unzip the files into that folder.
21st Jun 2008
Very nice looking theme and I’m seriously considering using it on my main blog. In testing, however, I’ve come across a few problems:
I can’t seem to get the recent comments/recent posts box on the right to show up the way you have it in the demo. What is the widget I need to use to do that? I have “tabcontent 1″ in sidebar left, but I see nothing.
Also, none of the widgets show up on an individual post page.
Is there a description of the various sidebars and where they would appear on a page that would serve as a good reference?
21st Jun 2008
Oh one more thing, which is strange: If I enable the feature story in theme options, the site goes into some strange reload loop, so it never does load fully and then looks like it’s trying to re-load and never does.
21st Jun 2008
Gideon,
I looked at your site and it looks like you got the tab box working.
The only widget that disappears should be the Welcome Box widget, which is by design.
There is a file called Checkmate.pdf in the theme folder which will show you the locations of the sidebars and also how to use them. It also contains some info about the other features.
As for the feature story reload loop I have no idea what could be causing that. Which version of WordPress are you running? It could be a conflict with a plugin also. Try disabling plugins one at a time and see if the problem goes away.
Let me know if there is anything else.
21st Jun 2008
Trackbacks / Pingbacks
show/hide trackbacks[...] puede descargar directamente del sitio de Curtis Henson, haciendo clic aqui. Tags: checkmate theme, plantillas gratuitas « Mullenweg habla de [...]
[...] | Download Añade este post a tus favoritos: Hide [...]
[...] Demo / Download [...]
[...] Demo / Release Page [...]
[...] Checkmate???? [...]
[...] Checkmate???? (CNNIC)??????????????CN????????? [...]
[...] Download Subscribe to comments Comment | Trackback | Post Tags: [...]
[...] Checkmate theme has 10 widget areas! With that many places to stuff widgets things can start to get [...]
[...] hemos terminado de configurar mayormente el look del sitio, le hemos cargado el theme Checkmate, y hemos empezado a toquetearlo agregandole widgets y otras porquerías! Jeje. Se ha sumado al [...]
[...] Source | Demo | Download [...]
[...] through cyber-space we’ve hit some turbulence in the fun zone! Checkmate is nearing 200 downloads, and has had three [...]
[...] CheckMate is a classic blog style template with a minimalist design packed with features and customizing options. This is one to definitely download and try out and includes a quick start guide to show you how to use some of the features. [...]
[...] CheckMate is a classic blog style template with a minimalist design packed with features and customizing [...]
[...] Rapidblack ???? ???? ???? 2. Checkmate ???? ???? ???? 3. Revolution ???? ???? ???? 4. Author’s Grid [...]
[...] CheckMate [...]
[...] Checkmate: A Free WordPress Theme » Curtis Henson (tags: wordpress theme) [...]
[...] CheckMate [...]
[...] CheckMate [...]
[...] ..:: Author’s Website :: Preview Theme :: Download ::.. ~ Not [...]
[...] CheckMate [...]
[...] checkmate, ????? WordPress ??, ??????. [...]
[...] ????????????????????????????????????Smashingtheme????????????????????????????????????????widget???????????????????????????????????Checkmate????????????????????????????????????????????????????widget???????????????????????Rss??????????????css??? [...]
[...] na funkcjonalno?ci, a przejrzysto?? pozosta?a (mam nadziej?). Styl, którego u?y?am to Checkmate, oczywi?cie modyfikuj?c go tu i tam. Mog? si? pojawi? jeszcze jakie? b??dy, w razie czego, [...]
[...] | Demo | Descarga CheckMate | Demo | [...]
[...] tema escolhido foi o CheckMate e o principal motivo desta escolha foi a adequação do tema às necessidades do pBlog, além de [...]
[...] ???Checkmate ????? ???1.05 ???2.5.1 [...]
[...] ???? ???? ???? 54. Revolution [...]
[...] CheckMate is a classic blog style template with a minimalist design packed with features and customizing options. This is one to definitely download and try out and includes a quick start guide to show you how to use some of the features. [...]
[...] CheckMate is a three column, right sidebar, widget ready and ads ready wordpress theme. [...]
[...] Checkmate: A Free WordPress Theme » Curtis Henson (tags: wordpress themes webdesign) [...]