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Apart from the differences mentioned below, Jean-Louis Cazaux's game of Metamachy is played like Chess:
Setting Up the Game
Before the game starts, Black places his King, Queen, Lion, and Eagle (or Gryphon) on the four middle spaces of his first two ranks in any arrangement, then White moves the same pieces to match Black's piece in mirror symmetry. Game Courier handles this by moving each White piece as Black moves each of his pieces from the center of the board. After this is done, White gets to make the first move.
Pieces
The Knight, Bishop, Rook, and Queen move as they do in Chess.
The Pawn moves the same as in Chess, except it may make its double move from any space, it may capture a Prince (described below) that has made a double move by en passant, and when it reaches the last rank, it may promote to a Queen, Lion, or Eagle.
The King moves as in Chess, except that there is no castling, and the King gets another special move instead. On its first move, the King may leap to any empty space in its second perimeter. These are the spaces two spaces away, including any space a Knight could reach. It may move over other pieces, but it may not use this move to escape check, and there must be an intervening space that is free from check. In the case of a Knight leap, there are two alternate intervening spaces, and the move is illegal only if the King would be in check on both of them.
The Cannon moves as it does in Xiang Qi. It moves as a Rook except that it must hop over an intervening piece to make a capture. It captures the pieces whose space it moves to, not the piece it hops over.
The Camel, a traditional piece from historic variants, is a (3,1) leaper. Since this space is always the same color, it is a color-bound piece.
The Elephant can leap one or two spaces diagonally.
The Eagle moves as the fairy piece commonly known as the Griffon. It is a bent rider. It may move one space diagonally, or it may start in that direction, then continue its move in an ortogonally outward direction, moving from there as a Rook.
The Lion may leap to any space one or two spaces away, including those that a Knight may leap to.
Finally, the Prince is a promotable Pawn-like piece with greater powers of movement. It may move two spaces forward to an empty space, just as a Pawn may on its first move, but this power is not limited to its first move. Like the Pawn, it may be captured by en passant when it makes a double move, but it may not itself capture by en passant. It otherwise moves like a King. On reaching the last rank, it may promote to a Queen, Lion, or Eagle.
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.
The inclusion of a piece does not indicate that it is used in the game you are playing. But if your game uses pieces not included here, you should choose a different piece set.
Credits
This preset uses the default settings file for Metamachy, 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
Kibbitzing Etiquette
Kibbitzing is the practice of commenting on a game you are not playing. In commenting on a game, please follow these rules of etiquette.
(1) If you notice that someone has made an illegal move, please mention it. Some Game Courier presets cannot enforce rules, but Game Courier does enable players to take back any previous move. Details on how to take back a move are provided in the User's Guide, linked to above the board.
(2) Unless otherwise specifically asked to, do not offer hints or suggestions to players on what moves they should make. In general, avoid coaching comments.
(3) Once a game is over, it should be alright to offer your analysis of the game and your specific comments on what moves players should have made. If some players don't want this, they may mention it in the Kibbitzing section, and you should honor this request by not commenting on the game.
(4) Be polite. At the appropriate time, offer any criticism you have in a constructive manner. Avoid heckling players for bad moves.
(5) Don't spam this space with irrelevant comments. If you have a comment about Game Courier, rather than about the specific game you're viewing, please post it on Game Courier's Index page to give it.