CHESSMASTER 2000 ================ Typed by Brian for SEWER DOC DISC IV MOVING:- To make a move, position the cursor "hand" on the piece you have chosen (the hand will grab the piece that is positioned between its thumb and forefinger) and "grab" it by holding down the left mouse button. To complete the move, drag the piece to a legal square and release the button. If you prefer, you may enter moves from the keyboard using algebraic notation. For example, to move White's King Pawn two squares forward, enter 'E2E4', followed by [Return]. When entering moves algebraically, the Chessmaster will beep as soon as it recognizes an illegal move. You may backspace to correct mistakes. CASTLING:- To castle, move your King to its destination square. The Rook will automatically move into place. Don't forget that you cannot castle if the King is in check, or any of the squares it must pass over are threatened. EN PASSANT:- The En Passant capture is a special pawn-takes-pawn move. It is only legal immediately after your opponent's pawn moves two squares out, coming to rest beside your pawn. You may then capture your opponent's pawn En Passant ('In Passing') by moving your pawn diagonally to the square behind the opposing pawn and capturing it as though it had moved only one square forward. PAWN PROMOTION:- If you move a Pawn to the eighth rank, The Chessmaster 2000 will allow you to replace it. Select the replacement piece by clicking in the dialog box, or by typing the character (Q,R,B,N) beneath the desired piece. CLASSIC GAMES:- The 100 Classic Games of Chess are found on the Games diskette in the directory named 'CLASSICS'. They are named 'GAME.001' through 'GAME.100'. You may load a Classic Game by selecting "Load A Saved Game" from the File menu. Once loaded, you may replay the game by selecting "Replay The Move" from the Play menu, or have the Chessmaster analyze the game using the Analysis feature described below. STRENGTH OF PLAY:- At any given playing level, the Chessmaster will play its strongest game when the 2D board is displayed, sound is turned off, and the chess clocks are hidden from view. Doing these things reduces the amount of time The Chessmaster 2000 spends updating the display instead of evaluating possible lines of play. Moving the mouse also interrupts the Chessmaster's thought processes, so don't roll it idly about while waiting for the Chessmaster to move (unless, of course, you are trying to win through intimidation!). CONTROL AND CONFIGURATION:- All of the options available in the Chessmaster 2000 are controlled using the familiar GEM interface of menus and dialogs. Below is a complete description of each menu item. Please note that frequently-used menu items have associated control-key sequences which appear to the left of the item. For example, you may begin a new game by selecting "Begin A New Game" from the Play menu, or typing Ctrl-N (pressing the 'N' key while holding down the 'Ctrl' key). In addition, the [Help] key will offer a hint from the Chessmaster and the [Undo] key allows you to take back one or more moves. When playing the Chessmaster on a color monitor, the function keys F1-F7 are used to provide quicker access to the many features available to you on the Options menu. Note: the Load, Save, and Erase options all make use of the standard "file selector" dialog, which behaves in the following way: You may select a file by entering its name, and selecting 'OK' (you must do this if the file doesn't already exist), or simply by double clicking on the name in the window where file names are displayed. Clicking on the name of a directory (which appears with a box at the left) will enter that directory. The file selector always appears with the files in drive B visible. You may change to another by entering the drive name (e.g. C:) in the space above the filename window, and then clicking on the 'close' box of the filename window. LOAD A SAVED GAME:- Use this option to load a Classic Game or a game you have saved previously. SAVE THIS GAME:- Allows you to save the current game in the file of your choice. Games saved in this manner maybe loaded as above, and then continued, analyzed, or replayed. The empty directory 'OLDGAMES' on the Games diskette has been provided for your saved games. You may also save a game on any formatted diskette. ERASE A SAVED GAME:- Allows you to remove an existing file. Once erased, a file cannot be recovered, so be careful about double clicking on a file name! SAVE CURRENT SETTINGS:- The Chessmaster will remember the state of the following options for the next time you play: board dimension, play level, board rotation, easy mode, newcomer style, border coordinates, chess clocks, opening book, teaching, opponent, your side, style of play, sound, piece and square colors (color only), notation, and your name. RESTORE TOOLWORKS SETTINGS:- By selecting this option, you will reset the above options to the settings built into the Chess- master by The Software Toolworks. QUIT:- Exits from the Chessmaster and returns you to the GEM desktop. BEGIN NEW GAME:- After your confirmation, the board is reset and a new game begins. OPPONENT IS:- The Chessmaster can play against you, against itself, or act as a referee between two human players. Use this option to select which. PLAY LEVEL IS:- The Chessmaster 2000 has 12 standard levels of play, ranging from 1 move every 5 seconds (on average), to 1 move every 10 hours (useful for Analysis). As with a human player, the faster you ask the Chessmaster to move, the weaker its play. YOUR SIDE IS WHITE/BLACK:- You may play either White or Black (and may switch at any time if you don't like the way things are going for you). If you change sides, you may also want to rotate the chess board; see below for directions on how to do that. EASY MODE IS ON/OFF:- Like a human opponent, The Chessmaster 2000 normally thinks ahead while you consider your move. Should you find the Chessmaster winning too many games, turn Easy Mode on to prevent the Chessmaster from thinking ahead. NEWCOMER STYLE IS ON/OFF:- When Newcomer Style is On, the Chessmaster plays its weakest games; chess novices should use this setting. Newcomer is a special playing level, unrelated to the twelve regular levels of play and Easy Mode. For this reason, Play Level and Easy Mode are disabled (ghosted) when Newcomer Style is On. STYLE OF PLAY IS NORMAL/COFFEEHOUSE/BEST:- When choosing a move, the Chessmaster normally selects among several moves that it considers good. When Best is selected, the Chessmaster will always make the move it considers best. Coffeehouse style increases the chances that the Chessmaster will select an alternate and slightly "addled" move. OPENING BOOK IS ON/OFF:- If the opening book is on, the Chessmaster will consult its library of over 71,000 historically proven sequences of opening moves. FORCE COMPUTER MOVE:- Should you become impatient with the Chessmaster when playing at higher levels, you may force it to move by selecting this option. The Chessmaster will then make the best move that it has found thus far. This option is also used when you have undone the Chessmaster's move using "Take Back Last Move" (below). TAKE BACK LAST MOVE:- This option takes back the last move made. Note: If you take back moves so that it is now the Chessmaster's turn to move, select "Force Computer Move" (above) to instruct the Chessmaster to proceed with play. The [Undo] key also selects this option. REPLAY THE MOVE:- When one or more moves have been taken back, you may select this option to progress forward through those moves. This option is also used when replaying the Classic Chess Games stored on disk. THE BOARD IS NOW 2D/3D:- The Chessmaster can display the board from overhead, in 2 dimension, or from a point slightly above the edge of the board, giving you a 3-dimensional perspective of the game. BOARD COORDINATES ARE ON/OFF:- Using this option, you may toggle the display of rank/file coordinates along the edge of the chess board. If you enter moves via the keyboard, you may find it convenient to display the coordinates. CHESS CLOCKS ARE ON/OFF:- For each player, the chess clocks show the name, the elapsed time, and the last two moves made. Using this option, you may choose to hide or display this information. ROTATE THE BOARD:- For added insight into the game, use this option to view the chess board from any side. CHANGE PIECE COLORS:- (color monitor only) Choosing this option will bring up a window containing slider bars that allow you to change the color of the pieces for Black or White by adjusting the amount of red, green, or blue sent to the screen. After adjusting the colors to your liking, you may save them for use the next time you play using the Save Current Settings option. CHANGE SQUARE COLORS:- (color monitor only) Using the same window as above, you may adjust the colors of the Black and White Squares on the board. CHOOSE CHESS SET:- (color monitor only) The Chessmaster owns two different chess sets, one made of wood, and the other of metal. You may select either for use. To use the set you have chosen all the time, use the Save Current Settings option. SHOW ALTERNATE SCREEN:- You may flip back and forth between the chess board and the alternate screen by pressing the [Esc] key. The alternate screen displays the following information. MOVE LIST:- All the moves made so far in the game. You may scroll the list vertically by using the up and down cursor control keys. CAPTURED PIECES:- All pieces which have been removed from play. CHESSMASTER'S THINKING:- Three 'lines of play' are displayed: Best, Current, and Previous. The Best line is the best sequence of moves the Chessmaster has thought of so far. If you force the Chessmaster to move, it will make the first move in its Best line (and the reply to that move will be the first hint given should you ask for advice). The Current line is the line of play that the Chessmaster is examining right now. Because this line is a "snapshot" of an incomplete thought, the moves and score for the Current line may not always make sense. The Previous line is the line from the previous move made by the Chessmaster. It has nothing to do with the Chessmaster's thinking for the current move. The lines of play are displayed as a sequence of moves, a Score, and a search Depth. In the sequence of moves, the first move is the one the Chessmaster might make next, followed by what it expects your reply will be, its answer to your reply, and so on. Of course, you might not make the expected reply, and even if you do, the Chessmaster may think of a better answer in the meantime. So the further down the sequence of moves you go, the less likely it is that those exact moves will be made. The Score reflects how far ahead or behind the Chessmaster thinks it will be if the sequence of moves is played out to the last move shown. The score is computed in "pawn-equivalents", so a score of 1.00 means the Chessmaster believes it will be ahead one pawn, and -3.00 means it will be down the equivalent of a Knight or Bishop. Fractional scores come from the Chessmaster's evaluation of positional strength. The search Depth is the minimum number of half-moves, or plies, the Chessmaster will look ahead. A Depth of 3, for example, means it will look at its move, your reply, and its answer: three half- moves. It may look further if it sees something interesting, such as a capture or check. When the Chessmaster has looked at all moves at the current search Depth, it will start a new search one ply deeper, if it thinks it has time to finish. Note: The Chessmaster 2000 may not be thinking deeply, or at all, if the Level of Play is set low, Easy Mode or Newcomer Style is in effect, or the present game is following moves from the opening book. GET CHESSMASTER'S ADVICE:- Selecting this option will cause the Chessmaster to move one of your pieces to a legal square, then back to its starting point. You may cycle through all moves available to you by repeatedly choosing this option. The first hint that the Chessmaster gives is the one it considers to be your best response to its last move (see Chessmaster's Thinking above). On low levels, however, the Chessmaster's opinion of what moves are best for you may not be very good, since it has not had much time to see the future consequences of a move. The [Help] key also selects this option. TEACHING IS ON/OFF:- When Teaching is On, and you select a piece to move (by grabbing it or entering its position from the keyboard), a shadow of the selected piece will appear in all the squares to which that piece can legally move. In cases where the move results in the capture of an opposing piece, a shadow of the threatened piece will appear instead. SOUND IS NOW:- The Chessmaster can signal moves, captures, check, mate, and other events using several kinds of sounds. You may choose from the voice of the Chessmaster, music, a bell tone, or silence. NOTATION IS ALGEBRAIC/ABBREVIATED:- With this option, you may choose the notation used to display moves on the chess clocks, and in the move list (on the Alternate Screen). When typing in moves, however, you must always use algebraic notation (e.g. 'E2E4'). ENTER YOUR NAME:- If you would like your name to appear in your chess clock when playing, select this option and enter your name. If you then save the current settings, your name will appear again the next time you play. PRINT MOVES SO FAR:- Selecting this option will print a list of the moves made to this point, followed by a representation of the board. PRINT EACH MOVE IS ON/OFF:- When this option is on, each move will be listed on the printer as it is made. SETUP A POSITION/LEAVE SETUP:- Select this option to enter chess problems, or to handicap play by removing pieces. When selected, play is stopped, the clocks are hidden from view, and a "piece selection kit" appears. Set up the board by adding pieces (dragging a copy from the piece selection kit onto the board), removing them (simply drag them off the board), or moving them on the board. To resume play (after choosing which side will move first), simply select this option again. SETUP INITIAL POSITION:- Places all pieces in their starting positions on the chess board. CLEAR THE BOARD:- Removes all pieces from the chess board. WHITE/BLACK MOVES FIRST:- When playing resumes after setup, the color shown will move first. ENTER/LEAVE ANALYSIS:- Select this option to analyze a game which has been played, partially played, or loaded from disk. Before entering analysis, you should take back one or more moves. Analysis will proceed from that point. Select this option again to stop analysis and return to normal play. For each move analyzed, the Chessmaster will show the move it would have made at that point (with score and best line of play), and then play the actual move. If a move is made from the Chessmaster's opening book, no line of play is shown. For more about the significance of the line of play, see "The Chessmaster's Thinking" above. Note: The higher the Level of Play selected, the deeper the Chessmaster's analysis will be. Levels 9-12 have been provided specifically for this purpose. SAVE ANALYSIS TO DISK IS ON/OFF:- By selecting this option BEFORE beginning analysis, the text of analysis messages will be stored in the current directory in a file named CM.ANL. ANALYZE MOVES FOR WHITE/BLACK/BOTH:- You may choose to have the Chessmaster analyze the play for one side only. The default setting is to analyze play for both sides. Analysis will be faster when only one side is being examined. TAKE BACK LAST MOVE:- Takes back the last move made by either side. Used when you want to analyze the game from just a few moves back. The [Undo] key will have the same effect as selecting this option. TAKE BACK ALL MOVES:- Takes back all moves to the beginning of the game. Used when analyzing an entire game. START/STOP SOLVING:- Use this option to begin the Chessmaster's search for a solution to the specified problem. Before starting, you should set up the board using the Setup feature, and then select which side is to mate, and the number of moves allowed them (see below). After the Chessmaster solves the problem, it will make a move. You can then play against the Chessmaster until it checkmates you. You may take back moves to explore alternate lines of defence. MATE IN...MOVES:- Choose this option to set the number of moves in which the Chessmaster must find the solution to the SolveMate problem. Note that the Chessmaster looks for a mate in exactly the number of moves you specify. In other words, "Mate in 4 Moves" will not find a mate in 3. WHITE/BLACK TO MATE:- Selects which side is to move and checkmate the other in the SolveMate problem. HAVE FUN!!! The voice of the Chessmaster was digitized using DIGISOUND ST, from Alpha Systems, 1012 Skyland Drive, Macedonia, OH 44056.