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=========== RIVAL CHESS =========== Version 1.5e June 6th 1995 Russ Newman Chris Moreton chris-m@gemini.co.uk Latest Updates of Rival available on the Internet via the World Web Wide at http://www.gemini.co.uk/gemini/biopages/coffee/coffee.html Or direct download from www.gemini.co.uk/gemini/biopages/coffee/rival.zip -------- Contents -------- 1. Quick Help 1a. Known Problems 2. What's it all about? 3. Registration 4. Using The Game 4a. Starting a game of Chess 4b. Computer Opponent Options 4b1. Playing Method 4b2. Opening Book. 4c. The Program's Move. 4d. Taking back, Replaying Moves 4e. Configuring The Display 4f. Saving and Loading Games 4g. Playing alternative games 4g1a. Rules of Kinglet 4g1b. Tactics for Kinglet 4g2a. Rules of Giveaway Chess 4g2b. Tactics for Giveaway Chess 4g3a. Rules of Shatranj 4h. Setting up the board 4i. Statistics 4j. Solving Chess Problems 4k. The End Of a Game. 6. Brief History 7. Icon Descriptions. Section 1 ---------- Quick Help ---------- If you are reading this file because you are bewildered for any reason, here is some quick help, otherwise jump to the What's it all about? section. You should have the following files in your Rival directory File Purpose ----------------------------------------- RIVAL.EXE Executable file - essential OPENINGS.LIB Opening library RIVAL.HLP Internal help file README.TXT This file OPTIONS.RIV Saved options file REGISTER.TXT Registration Form To run Rival you must have a PC with a 286 or better processor and a standard VGA graphics display. Unfortunately you must also have a mouse and a Dos mouse driver loaded, even when Rival is launched from Windows. Keyboard support will be added very shortly but for the time being if you load Rival without a mouse driver, the only way to quit is to press ESC. When playing Rival, clicking the right mouse button will bring up a brief help text about the object or icon you are pointing to with the mouse. This is the best way to learn what each icon does. When an icon has a green tick on it, this shows that the option is active, e.g. when the opening book icon is ticked, the program will use its opening book. Section 6 gives a complete description of each of Rival's icons. (1a) Known Problems -------------- All problems listed here will be fixed by the end of May '95, some may be sorted out sooner. Pawn promotion -------------- At present, you can only promote to a Queen. This is except for Kinglet games where you can promote only to a King. Mouse ----- If you do not have a DOS mouse driver loaded, Rival will not work because the Keyboard is not supported. This is true even if you start Rival from within MS-Windows. You must quit Rival by pressing ESC if your mouse does not respond. Usually you can load a DOS mouse driver by typing MOUSE at the dos prompt (or adding it to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file). Alternatively, you may be able to add the line DEVICE=C:\DOS\MOUSE.DRV (or another path) to your CONFIG.SYS file. Keyboard support is being added. Section 2 -------------------- What's it all about? -------------------- Rival plays chess and chess variants. Rather than take the sensible approach and allow you to operate the program via drop down menus, Rival uses icons, great big chunky ICONS. We'll leave it up to you to decide if this was a good idea or not but Russ spent a lot of time drawing those icons so please try to love 'em! We're very pleased with the way it looks, and once you've figured out where everything is and what it does, you may well find Rival a lot easier to use than if it used words and stuff. As well as playing a respectable game of chess, Rival plays various variant games using the regular chess pieces (see 'Rules For Variant Games'). Very shortly, Rival will be able to play half a dozen or more variant chess games, at present it plays only tow, Kinglet and Giveaway chess. There are always additions to the game that we have wanted to include and we are updating the program almost constantly. Other features that haven't made it into this version are our opening editor which is still almost impossible to use and the ability to print game records from within the program. These things will be making an appearance very shortly however. We will be particularly enthusiastic to improve the program if you all register!, which beings us neatly onto section 3... Section 3 ------------ Registration ------------ If you do enjoy Rival or continue to use it please register. On registration you will receive the latest version of the program, a printed manual, frequent updates and any goodies that we can think of, such as our opening editor which is currently undergoing work to make it usable. Registered users will also of course receive support. Any correspondence regarding the program can be made via Email at the address chris-m@gemini.co.uk To register please write with your name, address and 15 pounds to the address given below. If you prefer, a form is available by printing the file REGISTER.TXT Please make cheques/postal orders payable to Chris Moreton (or Russ Newman) P.O. Box 138 Southampton SO15 0ZD Section 4. ----------- Using Rival ----------- (4a) Starting a Game of Chess ------------------------ To start a game, make sure that you are playing the right game. You can see, and change, what game you are playing (Chess, Kinglet or Giveaway) by clicking the Game Rules icon on the main menu. You can then start the game by either making a move as white or instructing the program to make the white moves (make sure that you first that you switch the black pieces to be played by a human player, unless you want to watch an autoplay game). To restart a game at any time, choose the trash can icon on the main menu to discard the current game. (4b) Computer Opponent Options ------------------------- (4b1) Playing Method -------------- There are currently three playing methods. These are Fixed Level Fixed Time Championship Your prefered mehthod can be selected from the Change Timing Method icon on the main menu. When this menu is up, you can change the settings for each of these methods by clicking the button on which the current settings are displayed. Fixed Level ----------- When using a fixed level method, the program will play at one of seven skill levels from 2 through to 8. The skill level is directly related to how many half-moves ahead the program will look (that is at level 2 it will fully search 1 full move ahead even though it may look briefly at moves beyond this). Fixed Time ---------- When using a fixed time method, the program will take a given amount of time to play each move. This time can be between 5 seconds and 995 seconds. Championship ------------ When playing in championship mode, the program will make a given amount of moves within a given time. The default setting for this option is 40 moves in 120 minutes. In this version, this is controlled in the most basic of ways. Embarassingly, this is simply a division of moves and time to give a fixed time for each move. O.K. so this is to all intents and purposes identical to the Fixed Time method but it will become useful shortly. (4b2) Opening Book ------------ The opening book option is ticked by default allowing the program to use its opening book for the initial moves of a game. This can be turned off though by clicking the opening book icon. There is no opening book for variant games. (4c) The Program's Move ------------------ You can do one of three things whilst the program is deciding on its move. Wait for it to make a move Stop it Force it to play the best move found so far To stop it from making its move, left click the red button to the right of the screen where the top row of icons normally are. To force it to play its best move so far, left click the green button next to the red button. (4d) Taking Back, Replaying Moves ---------------------------- There are four icons on the main menu for taking back and replaying moves. We agree that these are at first sight rather similar but then again, they do have rather similar functions. The icons are situated on the third row of the main menu and reading from left to right do the following:- Play the last move taken back Take back the last move Play back all moves Take back all moves The last option is useful if you want to replay a game move by move. An automatic replay function will be added to Rival very soon. (4e) Configuring The Display ----------------------- All the icons for configuring the Rival display are found on the second the second menu which is reached by clicking the right arrow at the bottom right of the main menu. Reading from left to right, the icons are:- Change chess set Change chess board Change white piece colour Change black piece colour There are three chess sets, eight chess boards and the pieces can be any of eight colours. (4f) Saving and Loading ------------------ At the bottom left of the main menu are the save and load icons. The save icon has an arrow pointing into the disk and the load icon has an icon coming from the disk. When you select either of these icons, a further menu of fifteen icons will be brought up. You can save or load a game in any of these positions. On each icon in which a saved game is stored, a letter will appear representing the variant being played when the game was saved, the codes are:- R - Regular Chess K - Kinglet G - Giveaway Chess S - Shatranj This method of saving and loading will soon change as we are aware that it is far from the best way of doing things. (4g) Playing alternative games ------------------------- Rival currently plays three chess variants. These are Kinglet Giveaway Shatranj Whenever you start Rival, it will be set up to play by normal chess rules. This is the only option not saved when the save options icon is pressed. In order to select another game, either click the Variant button on the opening screen, or once inside Rival, click the Game Rules icon on the main Menu. In either case you will be given a selection of variant games, as well as, of course, the choice of playing by the regular chess rules. You can choose a different game even if a current game is in progress. However, the current board position must be a legal position for the game rules you wish to switch to. For example, if you are playing Kinglet and wish to switch to regular chess, both kings must be on the board and the side not on the move must not be in check. (4g1a) The Rules of Kinglet -------------------- We got the rules for this game from the book 'New rules for Classic Games' by R. Wayne Schmittberger. He acredits the invention of Kinglet to V.R. Parton. To win a game a Kinglet, your opponent must have no pawns left on the board. This can be achieved either by capture or by forcing pawn promotion. There are no rules regarding check and the king may be taken like any other piece. All pawns reaching the last rank are promoted to Kings. All other regular chess rules apply. (4g1b) Tactics for Kinglet ------------------- I've never beaten the program at this game, so I can't really help with tactics. We would be very grateful if anyone can give hints on how to play this game. (4g2a) The Rules of Giveaway Chess --------------------------- The rules of giveaway chess are as follows. Their are rules regarding check or checkmate, the King is treated as any other piece. The winner is the first player to lose all their pieces. A player must capture if a capturing move is available. (4g2b) Tactics for Giveaway Chess -------------------------- Can't really help on this one either I'm afraid but I can tell you that this is the program's strongest game and I am getting to like it a lot. (4g3a) The Rules of Shatranj --------------------- Shatranj evolved into Medieval chess which in turn evolved into the modern othordox chess. In some ways some people may consider it superior to modern chess mainly due to its great sublety. The style of play is reminisent of a great end-game. The rules are the same as regular chess except:- Bishops (elephants) jump two squares diagonally. For example, an elephant on c3 can move to a1, a5, e1 or e5 and may leap as a knight can over any pieces that block its path. Queens (generals) move one square diagonally. There is no castling move. Pawns may not move 2 squares on their first move. Pawns may only promote to queens. The object is to checkmate, or stalemate the opposing king or to capture all enemy pieces (including pawns) other than the king. This last rule is known as the bare king rule. (4h) Setting up the board -------------------- When you choose the setup board option from the main menu, you will be presented with a new menu displaying a choice of each white and black piece as well as four other icons for cancelling, confirming, clearing the board and changing the side to move. To place a piece on the board, choose that piece from the menu and then use the left mouse button to place it on the board. To wipe a piece from the board, use the right mouse button. To return to the game without changing anything, choose the cancel (red cross) icon to leave setup. To confirm your new board setup, choose the confirmation (green tick) icon. You will only be allowed to confirm a position if it is a legal chess position, that is, the side not on the move is not in check, there are no pawns on the first or last ranks, etc. WARNING ------- When confirming a setup position, you reset any moves that have been made in the current game. (4i) Statisitics ----------- Selecting the Examine Analysis icon (question mark) on the main menu will bring up a statistics window. These statistics regard the previous move made by the computer. On the left is this window you will see the path of moves that the program's analysis was based upon. On the right, there are four boxes containing the following information:- Nodes searched Time taken Nodes per second (saves you working it out I s'pose) Depth searched to Nodes searched This figure shows the number of board positions that the program examined whilst deciding on a move. For example, if White has 20 available moves and Black has 20 replies to each of these moves, then if the program looked at all possible positions up to and including Black's next move then it would look at 400 nodes. Time Taken Shown in seconds, the amount of time the program took to decide on the last move that it made. Nodes Per Second This shows the average amount of nodes searched per second. Should give you some indication of how fast Rival is running. On a 486DX50 Rival averages at about 5000 nodes per second. (4j) Setting Up and Solving Chess Problems ------------------------------------- The Solve For Mate icon can be found on the second menu. When the icon is clicked, the program will search to see if there is a forced checkmate available within four moves. The forced checkmate must be for the side to move so you should make sure that the correct side is to play before choosing this option. You can change the side to play within the Setup Board menu (see Section 5a, above). (4k) The End Of A Game ----------------- Briefly. When a side is checkmated, their King will have a red splat on it. When a draw has occurred, each King will have a flag on it. In a game of Kinglet, all the pieces on the losing side will be ticked. Er... not quite sure why. Section 6 ----------- About Rival ----------- Russell drew almost all of the graphics. The only things that Russell did not draw because he was not available are the mouse icon and the confirmation question mark (you'll notice the difference!). The programming was my doing although Russell wrote the routines for displaying the graphics. Section 7 ----------------- Icon Descriptions ----------------- The icons are listed as they appear on the menus reading from left to right and then top to bottom. ====== MENU 1 ====== Examine Analysis ---------------- This will bring up details of the search that resulted in the program's last move. Amongst other things, the number of nodes (board positions) evaluated and the time taken to make the move. This icon can only be selected when the last move was made by the program. For more information see the section 'analysis statistics' Invert Board ------------ When the icon has a tick on it, the board has been inverted. Click the icon to add or remove the tick. On an inverted board the pieces are displayed as if black were playing from the bottom of the screen. Setup Board ----------- Pressing this icon will take you into setup mode which allows you to set up the pieces on the board however you like. For more information on this mode, please see Section 4g. Change White Player ------------------- Pressing this icon lets you choose who controls the white pieces. If the program is currently using them, pressing this icon will give control to you and vice versa. In the main help text and this file the opposing sides are referred to as black and white regardless of the colour of the displayed pieces. White always plays up the board and black always plays from the top down, unless the board is inverted. You can tell if the board is inverted by looking at the Invert Board icon on Menu 2; it will be ticked if the board is inverted. Change Black Player ------------------- See Change White Player. Select Timing Method -------------------- When this icon is left-clicked, you will be given a selection of timing methods to choose from. See section 4b1 for a description of timing methods. Game Rules ---------- Left-clicking this icon will give you a menu of game rules to choose from. For more information on this see section 4f - Playing alternative games. Play Last Move -------------- If you have taken back any moves with the Take Back icon, this icon will allow you to replay them. Take Back Move -------------- This icon allows you to take back the last move made. When you take back any moves, both black and white pieces are placed under user control, i.e. the computer will not make a move until you tell the program which pieces to use. The reason for this is simply that if you were to take back a move made by the computer and the program was still in control of that colour, it would go ahead and make the move right back again. Play all Moves -------------- Pressing this icon causes all taken back moves to be replayed bringing the board back to the displaying the current state of the game. Take Back All ------------- This option takes back all the moves made in the game. The difference between this option and starting a new game is that when this option is selected, you can replay all the moves. Save Game --------- This is used to save the current game. For more information on this see Section 4e. Load Game --------- This is used to load a previously saved game. For more information on saving and loading games, see Section 4e. New Game -------- Use this icon to start a new game. The game rules you selected under the computer options menu will still be in effect for the new game. Confirmation will be asked for when you select this option. Next Menu Icon -------------- Selecting this icon will take you to Menu 2. This menu is primarily concerned with configuring the look of Rival. Descriptions of the icons in this menu follow. ====== MENU 2 ====== Previous Menu Icon ------------------ This option returns you to Menu 1. View Analysis ------------- When this option is selected the program will show its processes while it is deciding on a move. Opening Library --------------- When this icon is ticked, the program will use its opening library when it can. This option requires that the file OPENINGS.LIB is available. About Icon ---------- This icon will bring up information about Rival. Change Chess Set ---------------- You can use this icon to cycle through the three available chess sets. It's hard to imagine that you would prefer any of these but Russ got carried away. Have a quick look anyway. Change Board ------------ This icon will allow you to cycle through the eight different chessboard designs. There is a plain black and white board if you don't like our other efforts. Change White Colour ------------------- Pressing this icon will change the colour of the white pieces, i.e. the pieces that are playing up the board (if not inverted) Change Black Colour ------------------- See Change White Colour. Default Options --------------- Clicking this icon will reset all options to their default settings. Save Options ------------ Clicking this icon will save the current option settings. Saved settings will be automatically loaded when Rival is started. The only option not saved is the alternate game option. Rival will always start ready to play regular chess. Piece Slide ----------- When this option is ticked, the pieces will slide when moved rather than jumping. Solve For Mate -------------- Clicking this icon will cause the program to search for a forced mate from the side to move within a maximum of 4 moves for each side. If the program does find a forced mate you can click the green button above the anaylsis box to play the first move. During the search you can click the red button above the analysis box to stop the search and return you to the menu. Mouse Sensitivity ----------------- This option allows you to select the speed at which the mouse travels in relation to the amount you physically move it. Currently it will either be set to Low, Medium or High. This will soon change to allow for a sliding scale. Quit To DOS (or wherever) ------------------------- Selecting this icon will allow you to leave Rival. You will be asked for confirmation before you say goodbye.