Excalibur 974, Operating Manual

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no escape for the King from an
attacking piece. This is known as
“Checkmate”.
7. The game is over when the
king of the player whose turn it is to
move is not in check and the player
cannot make any legal moves. This
is known as “Stalemate” and is con-
sidered a drawn game.
Individual Moves
Turn on the HELP feature under
OPTIONS (see page 7). All legal
moves for each selected piece will
be shown at one time. You will
quickly “learn by doing” the move-
ments of all pieces.
1. The Queen can move to any
square along the same row, column,
or diagonals on which it stands, but
cannot pass over an enemy piece.
2. The Rook can move to any
square along the same row or col-
umn on which it stands, but cannot
pass over an enemy piece. See also
Castling (right.)
3. The Bishop can move to any
square along the diagonals on
which it stands, but cannot pass
over an enemy piece.
4. The 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.
5. The Pawn can move one
square forward. On its first move it
may move two squares forward.
When capturing, it moves diagonal-
ly (forward) one square. See also
en passant
(below.)
6. The King can move one square
in any direction, as long as it is not
attacked by an enemy piece. See
also Castling (below).
Special Moves
1. Castling is a move of both the
King and either Rook which counts
as a single move (of the King) and
is executed as diagrammed below:
To castle your King on Electronic
Chess, simply move your King over
two squares.
Castling cannot occur if:
a) the King has already been
moved.
b) the Rook has already been
moved.
c) there is any piece between the
King and the Rook.
d) the King’s original square, or
the square which the King must
cross, or the one which it is to occu-
py is attacked by an enemy piece.
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Normally, it is easier to start from
an empty board to set up such prob-
lems. So first, press 2nd then
OPTIONS repeatedly until CLrBr
(clear board) is displayed. Now
press the SETUP key. You’ll see
that your display board is automati-
cally cleared, except for a White
king.
Use the
DIRECTION
keys to
move the White king to the correct
square and press GO . Continue by
placing the Black king on it’s
square. (You can’t leave the SETUP
mode until both the White and
Black king are placed.) Black
pawns will be the next piece to
place, but you may repeatedly press
the SETUP key to select the piece
type you want to place on the board.
To change the piece’s color, use the
q / n
key. Don’t forget to press GO
to register the piece on the board.
Follow this procedure until all the
pieces in the problem or position
are completely set up. Finally, press
CLEAR to play or to have
Electronic Chess analyze the posi-
tion.
Make sure that Electronic Chess
knows which color is to move.
When you first enter setup mode,
you may change the color of the
side to move by pressing
q / n .
Operational Hint
If you missed where Electronic
Chess moved, simply press
UNDO
and then
GO
. This will not affect
being able to rate your game.
General Rules of Chess
1. The two players must alternate
in making one move at a time. The
player with the white pieces moves
first to start the game.
2. With the exception of castling
(see below), a move is the transfer
of a piece from one square to anoth-
er square which is vacant or occu-
pied by an enemy piece.
3. No piece, except the Knight
may cross a square occupied by
another piece.
4. A piece moved to a square
occupied by an enemy piece cap-
tures it as part of the same move.
The captured piece must be imme-
diately removed from the chess-
board by the player making the cap-
ture.
5. When one player moves into a
position whereby he can attack the
King, the King is in “Check”. His
opponent must either
a) move the King
b) block the path of the attack
ing piece with another piece, or
c) capture the attacking piece.
6. The game is over when there is
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