Excalibur 0.0901 Operating Manual Download

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CHAPTER 7: Rules & Tips

Object of game: Checkmate

Setting up to play: White moves first
and so begins with a small advantage.
The board is
positioned

that each player
has a white cor-
ner square on his
far right (“light
on right”). T h e
rooks are placed
on the two cor-
ner squares to the
left and right. The two knights are placed
on the squares next to the rooks. Next to
these are placed the two bishops and, in
the center, the queen and king. The White
queen is always positioned on a light
square and the Black queen on a dark
square (“queen on her own color”). The
eight pawns are placed on the squares in
the second row in front of these chess
pieces.

Moving the pieces: All legal moves for
each selected piece will be shown at one
time. With the help of Electronic Chess,
you will quickly learn the movements of
all the pieces “by doing.”

The pawns can move only forward. For
the first advance from its initial square on
the second rank, a pawn has the option of
moving one or two squares, but after that
it can move only one square at a time. The
rook can move any number of squares,
but only on the ranks and files. The bish-
op moves only on the diagonals. The
queen can move in any direction over
unoccupied squares, thus being able to
move on any open line. Except for the

knight, none of
the  pieces  can
jump over men
of  either  color
or change direc-
tion  during  a
m ove.

T h e

knight move is
in the shape of
an “L,” moving
two squares up or down, and then one
square over. Or it can be one square up or
down, and then two over. The king moves
in any direction. But it can’t move into
check (attack by an enemy man).

Special Moves

Capturing a piece: Apart from the pawn,
all pieces capture in the normal direction
of movement as described above. The
pawns, however, which normally move
only in a straight line, may capture only
diagonally to the left or right in front of
its square. A player doesn’t have to cap-
ture an opponent’s man.

Castling: This is an important move that
whisks your king into safety and gets
your rook into action. The move is exe-
cuted by moving
the  king  two
squares  towa r d s
the rook and then
placing the rook
on  the  square
passed  over  by
the king. A play-
er can castle only
once in a game.
Castling is legal if neither the king nor the
involved rook has yet moved, if all the
squares between the king and rook are
vacant, if no enemy piece controls the
squares through which the king has to