board. The goal of checkers is to
leave your opponent with no legal
move, either by taking all of his
pieces or by blocking his pieces.
(Here's an important difference
between chess and checkers: in
chess, a stalemate is a LOSS for
the player who can't move.) Each
player takes turns moving. Men
must be moved diagonally forward,
staying on the dark squares. A
piece is captured by jumping over it
to an empty square on its other
side. A piece can never jump over
its own pieces. Captures are oblig-
atory. When a man reaches the
other side of the board, he is pro-
moted to a king. A king can move,
and jump, backward and forward. A
player can have more than one
king. A man that is promoted to a
king due to a jump cannot contin-
ueumping as a king. He must wait
for the next turn.
Play Checkers Right Away
Make sure CHECr is shown on the
display. If it is not, see the
Changing Games section (Page 15).
Unless you instruct it otherwise,
Touch Checkers gives you the
Black pieces—the ones at the bot-
tom of the board. Black always
moves first. A black box on the dis-
play (••) indicates it’s black’s move.
In making your first move, it’s very
important to understand that a
move is made up of two parts:
choosing a
From
square and a
To
square.
Using the supplied stylus (plastic
pen), press down gently on the
center of the square for the man or
king you wish to move. You'll hear a
beep and the man or king will flash.
If you hear an error buzz and the
piece does not flash, then that
piece cannot legally move any-
where. If you change your mind
and want to move a different piece,
simply press the
From
square
again to cancel it.
Now gently press on the center of
the square you want to move it
To
.
You'll hear a beep, letting you know
your move has been registered.
After you make your move, Touch
Chess will reply with its move auto-
matically. You'll see the piece flash
on its
From
square and move to its
To
square. Throughout the game,
the display at the top keeps track of
the move number and the elapsed
time for each move.
You Must Capture if You Can
Remember that capturing is obliga-
tory in the game of checkers,
although if you have a choice of
captures, you choose which to
17
