Copyright: Lighthouse Chess 1993


Lighthouse Chess for Windows

Help Index

Chess Moves

Communications

Contest

Restore a Saved Game

Starting a New Game


Contest

          *****************************************************

          ANNOUNCING THE FIRST NATIONAL MODEM CHESS CONTEST!

          *****************************************************

          YOU CAN WIN UP TO $500,000 IN THE FIRST NATIONAL  MODEM CHESS CHALLENGE!

          LIGHTHOUSE PRODUCTIONS is sponsoring the First National Modem Chess Tournament.

          The way it works is this.  To enter the tournament,  you must become a subscriber to this program. This is a nominal fee and will entitle you to free upgrades, books about the game, manuals, chess tips, a chess magazine, a score of free programs, a PLAYER'S REGISTRY so you always have someone to play against.

          AND FOR A LIMITED TIME, A $1,000 DISCOUNT COUPON FROM A LEADING COMPUTER CATALOG!

          BUT TO GET THIS $1,000 IN FUTURE DISCOUNTS YOU NEED TO SUBSCRIBE TODAY. THIS OFFER WILL EXPIRE JUST 30 DAYS AFTER YOU RECEIVE THIS PROGRAM.  SO ACT NOW!

          REGISTRATION IS ONLY $15.00 PER PLAYER. If you have an opponent who wants to be entered into the tournament, he must also register this program.

          Then, there is also a one-time Tournament Entry Fee of $5.00/ROUND.  The entry fees we collect goes into the prize fund and could total as high as $500,000 if only 50,000 people enter the tourney.  We have done our homework and we find that there are about 10 million good chess players in this country, and we are spreading word of this tournament through every BBS and computer network we know of.  So, the odds of getting at least 50,000 players are exceedingly good. (Don't try to figure out the exact math.  There is an administration fee that makes it too difficult, but these are good round figures to go on.)

          But if we totally fail and only get a few thousand players, the prize money will still be worth going after, say $200,000 for 20,000 ENTRANTS.  See how it works? This is still worth going after and the fewer people entered the better are your chances of winning.

          WE'LL PROBABLY ATTRACT SOMETHING BETWEE THE WORST CASE AND THE BEST CASE SCENARIO AND THE PRIZE MONEY WILL PROBABLY BE AROUND $400,000.00  (But this will be split amongst the top three players, the Champion to get  70% of the purse, 2nd place takes 20%, and 3rd place takes 10%)

          But this also means that if you're really good at Chess you should help us get entrants by simply passing this disk around and helping us to promote it.  Upload it to every local bulletin board.  If only one person in each city does this, we'll get many thousands of entrants. SO, the prize money could go as high as a cool ONE MILLION DOLLARS, if you help by distributing this program every way you can think of.

          [   We'll give you some more ideas later.         ]

          BUT FOR NOW.  Why not go to the ORDER FORM order menu in the reader program that came with this package, print out the order form and sign up with the Chess Registration Part.  That done, you can begin to play your friends and sharpen your skills.

          Here's how the Contest works.  AFTER YOU REGISTER, we will send you an official Modem Chess Challenge Kit.  In it, you will find all the rules and the method of moving up in the Challenge to become a finalist.  You will also be registered in our database, so that every time you move up, the results are recorded and we can then match you up with your next opponent.

          You will play a total of 12 opponents to get to the final round in which the prize money will be distributed as follows.

          The 3rd place winner will get 10% of the pot. The 2nd place winner will receive 20% of the pot.  And the Champion will receive the remaining 70% of the total cash prize.

          Remember, this could total as much as a cool half Million Bucks, or even a cool Million, if enough people enter. In this case, 3rd place would win $100,000, 2nd place gets $200,000 and the winner keeps the balance of $700,000.

          If the prize only comes to $100,000.  It's still worth the time and fun put into it because the 3rd place winner will get $10,000, 2nd place would receive $20,000 and the Champion would receive a very respectable $70,000.

          So, you'll want to register right away.  If you're good and think you can win the big one, help us distribute this program. For every friend you give this program to, he or she may find ten more, so there is a possibility of a geometric progression  in entrants and therefore prize money!

          If you think about it for a while, you could probably get this program into a hundred individual players. Every community has a couple dozen BBS'es and each one of these has an average of about 1,000 members. So, this should be your first job and it's easy.  It will only take a few minutes each upload.

          Then, there are computer clubs all over town.  There are schools you might be attending with computer classes and Chess Clubs.  There is always your local mail man, who will gladly accept the disk and send it anywhere in the world for you for a nominal sum.

          But the best way we know is BBS's in your community. Since this is a program already zipped up and completed, your local SYSOP will be happy to receive this to distribute to his members.  He gets paid for the time that his members spend on his board, usually, so he is happy to take on this program.  You can either send it to him on disk, or upload over the phone lines, whichever method you find easiest. Many BBS operators don't publish their mailing address for privacy reasons, so you will probably be best         off uploading to them.  They always publish this phone number because they want the members to find them.

          Also remember that publicity is a good way to get people to become entrants.  A story in your local newspaper will attract many people who didn't even know there was such a program on their local BBS. Tell them about it and you'll get hundreds of people to join the contest.  You can also call radio talk shows and tell them about it.  Send a few Press Releases to the Radio Stations, TV stations & newspapers in your area, if you're really into PR and want to learn how the Media works in this country. It will be educational and who knows what it might lead to, perhaps a whole new career!

          That's the whole story of the First National Modem Chess Challenge.  We hope you'll enter.  It could win you a NEW HOME & a VACATION HOME IN HAWAII!

          Even if you don't think you're good enough to win a National Chess Challenge, register anyway and we will offer a local Chess Challenge among Chess players in your area.  Now, the odds will be greater of winning, but the prize money will be smaller.  How much is the prize money for local Chess Challenges?  Again, it depends on how many people register from your local area.  So, once again, it behooves you to make copies of this program and hand it out to as many of your friends as possible and tell them to do the same.  Then check up on them later and make sure they've registered so that you can all play in the local competition.

          SO, REGISTER TODAY by going to the chapter of the read program and print up the order form, then send it in.  Or alternately, print the file called 'Order.frm' if you can't run the reader program. AND if you don't find an 'Order.frm' file with this set of programs, just write us with your name & address and enclose the Registration Fee and the  Entry Fee for a total of $5.00.

          LIGHTHOUSE PRODUCTIONS

          P.O. BOX 7885

          SANTA CRUZ, CA  95061

See Also

Long Distance Charges


Long Distance Charges

          We tried to keep the Long Distance Charges down to less than a couple dollars per game BECAUSE the program will hang up the phone after you've transmitted each move to the opponent.  The whole call should only take a few seconds, in most cases, this amounts to about .20 per move.  And since you don't know where in the United States your opponents may be from, you should plan to use the cheapest Long  Distance Service you can find.  It just so happens we have such a plan just designed for this kind of contest.  Your current Long Distance Service might be charging you by rounding off the time to the nearest WHOLE MINUTE. Since our game takes about ten seconds to transmit data, you'll want a service like ours that breaks off at 6 SECOND INTERVALS. This alone could save you as much as .15 cent per move.  This adds up to a considerable amount of money and that's why we devised a simple solution.

          In later chapters you can sign up for our Long  Distance Savings Plan by simply printing up the residential or business form, filling it in, and then sending it to the address on the form.  This will save you, on average more money on your Long Distance Bill than this game will cost you.  Because you're GUARANTEED TO SAVE A MIN. OF 10% OFF OF ANY LONG DISTANCE PLAN YOU'RE NOw USING.  So, on an avg. bill this could come to $5 or more.  If you own a small busines, it could save you hundreds per month, so you'll want to sign up right away.

          This is the same service that MCI customers get, because it is MCI, but purchased at wholesale pricing, which you cannot get any other way.  SO, this is GUARANTEED to save you AT LEAST 10% OFF of any other Long Distance Plan you may now be using.  And if you're still dealing with Ma Bell, A.T.& T., it will save you even more.  About 25%.

          So, if you sign up with our Long Distance Service the money you save will more than pay for the ENTRY AND REGISTRATION FEE, and phone charges.  We designed  it this way to encourage more people to enter.  So, now I hope you'll agree that there's nothing to keep your from registering and beginning the Tournament by challenging a friend, across town or on the other side of the world!

          And you'll also be supporting us and keeping all  future fees very nominal, because our Organization gets 5% of the savings.  So, you are still saving a guaranteed 10% and supporting our contest each month with a nominal donation which comes out of your savings.  This way, we can continue to bring you fine quality programs like this and some of the others you'll find in our catalog.

          We hope you enjoy using our program and if you help to make this a huge success we'll be publishing & sponsoring many more tournaments on just about every subject.  So, thank you for your time in  reading all this propaganda and we hope to see you in the winners circle.

          SO, REGISTER TODAY, and we'll immediately send you the Entry Pack of Discount Coupons and forms for entering each round.

          All you have to do is go to the Order Form chapter and have your printer ready.

          Good Luck.

          Lighthouse Productions

          P.O. Box 7885

          Santa Cruz, CA  95061


Chess Challenge

Enter, the FIRST NATIONAL MODEM CHESS CHALLENGE.  You could win up to $500,000. See Chess Challenge details in Text File, 'Contest.txt' which came with this program -- or optionally go to the section of this help file called Contest for more information about entry into the challenge.


New Game
Starting a New Game

You may begin a new game by selecting New under the Game popup menu. Until you start a new game or restore an old game, no pieces will be moveable. Once you start a game, you will asked which color you will play. You must decide before playing which colors you and your opponent will be.


Restore Game
Restoring a Saved Game

To restore a saved game, select Restore from the Game popup menu. All games are saved after each play to ensure that, in the case of a computer shutdown, you and your opponent will be able to resume the game. You must remember which color you were playing. It is possible to have two games saved at any time. You may save one game in which you are playing white and one in which you are playing black.


Moves
Chess Moves

When it is your turn to play, your clock will begin to tick (your clock is on the bottom of the screen regardless of which color you play). You have 1 hour in which to decide and make your moves. To make a move, place the mouse cursor on top of the piece to move, press and hold the left mouse button. Move the piece to the desired destination and release the left mouse button. Once you have completed your move, you must select the Commit Move menu item to send it to the other player. Until you hit commit, you may take your move back selecting Undo in the Move popup menu.


Communications

You may play your opponent via network (shared directory) or modem. To play via network, make sure that you and your opponent are using the same working directory.

Important Note for Network Games:

Make sure that you and your opponent are the only people executing the chess program in your working directory at any one time. If anyone else uses the directory at the same time, both games may be interfered with.

See Also:

Modem Setup


Modem Setup

You may change the settings of the modem communications by selecting Modem Setup from the Communications popup menu. This dialog box enables you specify the phone number of the opposing player's modem.

There two modes of modem communication; live and re-connect. The game play has less interruptions (i.e. dialing and reconnecting to the opponent's modem after each move) if Live mode is selected. For long-distance games however, you may wish to consider using re-connect in order to keep your long-distance bill down. You may also change modes during play.