500 Game Surplus/XSurplus.iso/665/BLITZ.DOC

Text File | 1993-01-13 | 8KB | 136 lines

         BLITZ-DRAUGHTS, (C) PC Solutions.
    -----------------------------------

  Welcome to BLITZ DRAUGHTS, the worlds strongest shareware draughts
program! Please note that shareware is * NOT * free software - if
you use it, you are obliged to pay for it. You can become a legitimate
registered user by purchasing any our program-packs - details will be
given when you run BLITZ.
  You will need to be a very good player to beat BLITZ, even on a very
low level of play. Remember that the F5 key enables two-player/set-up
mode, so you can enter the moves of a game to set up a position, or
use the computer as a display for two human players. Note that you can
also change the X-Y size of the board - have fun with checkers on
a 5x7 board! BLITZ is the ONLY program able to do this.
  Note that black pieces really come out YELLOW - if they were black,
they would be invisible! I found this to be the most pleasing
combination. You can select CGA mode for true white/black pieces.
Hercules graphics users should be able to run BLITZ under SIMCGA.
If you are using a mouse, make sure MOUSE.EXE is installed - this
is standard for any mouse-program.
  BLITZ has all the features that you would expect from a commercial
chess program, ie. fast ALPHA-BETA tree search, opening book (for the
8 by 8 game), and much more. The response time is used as a GAME-
AVERAGE - sometimes the computer takes longer, but in the long run
it is accurate. The total time taken is given as #Sec, and total moves
as #Mov, at the top right of the screen. The CORNER-MODE inverts all
black squares for grey and visa versa - this is most effective on
odd-sized board shapes. When BLITZ returns a score of +/-30000, a
win/loss is in sight, and the compter is playing perfectly!
  If you like SHAREWARE-BLITZ, please buy the full version, on GAMES-
-PACK-1, which has extra Strength Levels, position Edit, Game Replay/
Load/Save/Backtrack and more. It also plays a MUCH stronger, faster game
- indeed tests show that it outplays ALL other commercial draughts
programs at this time.
  PLEASE support quality shareware like this!!

          PLAYING THE GAME
         ------------------

  DRAUGHTS is traditionally played on the BLACK squares of an 8 by 8
chess board - BLITZ can re-size the board, but for clarity let us
discuss the 8 by 8 game. The squares are numbered from 1 (bott right)
to 32 (top left), with black men on squares 1-12 and white on squares
21-32. Men move diagonally forward onto empty squares, or jump over
and capture an opponent if there's a clear space behind it. One VERY
important rule - IF YOU CAN JUMP, YOU MUST! If, after jumping, the
same piece can jump again, IT MUST! One exception to this rule - when
a man reaches the KING-ROW (the 8th), and is made into a KING, it
may NOT make any futher jumps - until the next move! When a man
becomes a KING, it can move in all 4 diagonal directions. When one
side has no legal moves left, that side loses the game!

  HINTS - Do not push your pieces too far forward too early, they
may become vulnerable. Try to keep sound back-defences, to prevent
your opponent getting kings. Watch out for traps - remember IF YOU
CAN JUMP - YOU MUST!

  When playing, move your cursor by using the numbers around the
'5' on the numeric keypad and hit RETURN to select piece. If that
piece can move in more than one direction, you will then need to
select a direction key (1,3,7,9) - ie. 7 moves up-left. If you have
a MOUSE you can simply click the left button on source and
destination squares. To abort the computers thinking, hit the ESC
key ONCE - you may have to wait a bit before the cursor appears.
You can select pull-down menus with the mouse - hold the right button,
move to the desired menu option and release the button.
Other commands DURING PLAY:-

    ESC - Abort back to main menu.
    -,+ - Alter average response time in seconds - ZERO for beginners.
    F1  - Show moves, ie. all of your movable pieces.
    F2  - Make me take your go.
    F3  - Auto-play. (Hit ESC to end)
    F5  - Toggle two-player/setup mode on/off.
    F10 - Help screens..


          BACKGROUND INFO
         -----------------

  Draughts is a much under rated and neglected game, often derided as a
'kids' game, and looked down upon by exponents of games like chess. This view
is unjustified, as the game offers characteristics and suppleties simply not
found in any other board game. And despite of over 200 years of research and
analysis of the game, there is still plenty of new play to be found by the
adventurous player. In a way, the virtue of the game is actually in its
limited piece movement and mobility, since this forces you think in terms of
warding off threats at a much deeper level than you would do in a game like
chess, that has a larger mobility.
  The most important rule is that if you can jump YOU MUST! This leads to
fascinating combinations, often sparked by cunning material sacrifice.
Consider this problem:-
  Black Man on 4, Black king on 6, White men on 7 and 12. Black to play and
win. (or  B 4,K6 : W 7,12   in standard notation.)
  The winning move is 4-8! White MUST jump 12-3, its man at 3 becoming a
king. Now black moves his king 6-2! White now only has 1 move, 3-8, since its
man at 7 cannot move, and black simply jumps the 2 pieces 2-11,11-4 and wins!

  Here is another problem:-  B 1,2,6  : W 11,18,27  with black to play and
win. The key move for black is 2-7 !! White replies 11-2, and the new king
HAS to stop at 2 to be crowned, it cannot go on and make further jumps. Black
now plays 1-5, White must jump 2-9 and black wins with 5-14,14-23,23-32.
  Now a harder problem:-  (Composed by D.Oldbury)
    W 6,10,14,15,18,19,22,23,27 :  B 1,3,7,12,K13,20,K25,26
      White to play and win.
Sage/Blitz can see the 17 move solution in seconds:-
  27-24! 20-27, 14-9, 7-14, 15-11, 1-10, 11-7, 13-6, 18-9-2,
  25-18, 23-14, 10-17, 19-16, 3-10, 2-6, 12-19, 6-15-24-31-22-13
White wins.
  Well, obviously there is far to much to the game to cover here. I could
describe the myriad of openings, with marvelous old names like "Will o' the
Wisp" or "Maid of the Mill", but such analysis is beyond an intro like this,
that is simply designed to give you a taste of the game. I'll leave you with
a short game demonstrating a famous trap in the "Bristol" opening, a sort of
"Fools Mate", dating back to 1650!
  11-16, 23-18, 16-20, 24-19, 8-11 (losing move), 19-15, 10-19, 18-14, 9-18,
  22-15-8, 4-11, 27-24, 20-27, 31-24-15-8, White wins.



  This version of BLITZ is released as shareware. You may distribute
it as long as you don't charge more than a small disk-copying fee for it,
or alter it in any way.
  PC SOLUTIONS holds all rights to this program, and we reserve the right
to withdraw permission to use or distribute this program from any individual
or organisation, if we feel they are abusing this privilege.
  Please remember that shareware is NOT free, but 'try before you buy',
so please become a registered user by purchasing one of our program packs -
see the advert within the program.
  People often ask how we generate such small, fast programs - well special
thanks must go to Borland and thier excellent Turbo-C compiler - this can
generate much, much faster/smaller code than, say, Quickbasic. Forget the
rest, Turbo-C is the best! Contact Borland on Freephone 0800 212727
(or 0734 321150) for futher info. You will find some of our own special
C-Tools for Turbo-C on our Util-Pack..