A Game Courier Preset for Caïssa Britannia
Includes automation or rule enforcement.
No display of legal moves.
No evaluation of endgame conditions.
Rules of Caïssa Britannia
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Queen | Prince Consort | Unicorn | Lion | Rook | Bishop | Dragon | Knight | Pawn |
|---|
The object is to checkmate the enemy Queen, which still moves as the Queen in Chess. Since the Queen is royal, though, it may not move through or into check. But this restriction on the Queen's movement does not impair the Queen's ability to check the enemy Queen. So Queens may never face each other across empty lines, and Queens may never pass over spaces the other Queen could reach, regardless of checked spaces that would normally stop the Queen from reaching the space.
The Prince Consort, taking the place of the King, moves as a Queen without capturing, or captures as a King. Neither the Queen nor the Prince Consort get to castle. The Unicorn moves as a Bishop or Nightrider, which can make consecutive Knight moves in the same direction, until it is blocked or makes a capture. The Lion moves as the Cannon from Chinese Chess along both diagonal and orthogonal lines. It moves as a Queen, but it must leap over an intervening piece, of either color, to make a capure. Dragons move as Alfilriders or Dabbabariders. A Dragon can make a series of two-space leaps in any direction, so long as all but the last landing space is empty. Bishops can move as Bishops or as non-capturing Kings. Rooks, Knights, and Pawns move as they do in Chess. Pawns get a double move from their starting position, and they may promote to a Knight or to any captured piece upon reaching the last rank.
How to Move Pieces
Full Algebraic Notation
Algebraic notation identifies each space by a coordinate that begins with its file label and ends with its rank label. On the Chess board, files go up and down from one player to the other, and ranks go from left to right. In most games, files are represented by letters, and ranks are represented by numbers, but there is no fixed rule requiring this for all games, and some games, such as Shogi, reverse this convention. If you look at the diagram, you will usually see the file labels going from left to right and the file labels going up and down. And if you hover your mouse over a space, you will normally see the name of the coordinate appear in a tooltip.
It is not uncommon to see algebraic notation being used for Chess, but it is often in an abbreviated format that requires you to know both the rules of the game and the current position to know exactly which piece moves where. For example, the notation "Ne6" indicates that a Knight is moving to e6, but it doesn't indicate which Knight, and it doesn't specify where the Knight is coming from. To figure this out, you need to know how a Knight moves and which Knight on the board can make a legal move to e6.
Although rules may be programmed for individual games, Game Courier itself does not know the rules of any game, and it is unable to parse abbreviated algebraic notation. Therefore, it relies on full algebraic notation, which completely specifies the move without requiring any knowledge of the game's rules or the current position. The most usual type of full algebraic notation indicates the piece that is moving by its label, the space it is moving from, and the space it moving to. In Chess, a typical first move might be written as "P e2-e4". When you hover your mouse over a piece, you will normally see the piece label followed by the coordinate for the space, and when you hover it over an empty space, you will normally see the coordinate label. Including the piece label in your notation allows Game Courier to check that the piece you're moving is the right one, and it makes game notation easier to follow, but it is not mandatory.
You may promote a piece by including a promotion move after your regular move. A promotion move has a piece go directly to a coordinate. Here is an example: "p e7-e8; q-e8".
You may remove a piece from a space by adding an @ to the space or by omitting the destination coordinate. For example, both "@-e4" and "e4-" would remove the piece on "e4". This is useful for en passant when you are playing a game that does not handle this automatically. For example, "P d5-e6; e5-" removes the Pawn on e5 after a Pawn moves from d5 to e6.
You will not need to remove spaces for most games, but if you should need to, you can do this by omitting the first coordinate in a move. For example, "-e4" would remove e4 from the board. To add or return a space to the board, you may add an @ or any other piece to it.
Available Pieces
Pieces are represented by labels, usually using uppercase letters for White and lowercase letter for Black. When you enter a move or specify the starting position for a game, you should remember that piece labels are case-sensitive. Many piece sets are available for use with Game Courier, and this table shows you which pieces belong to the piece set you are currently using.
These pieces come from a set containing more pieces, but this preset has had the set of pieces reduced to those used in the game.
Credits
This preset uses the old settings file for Caïssa Britannia, which was made by Fergus Duniho.
Game Courier was created, programmed and written by Fergus Duniho.
Game Courier, Copyright © Fergus Duniho, 2001-2017
WWW Page Created: 15 August 2001