A Game Courier Preset for Morphing Chess III
Rules of Morphing Chess III
Except for the following changes, the Fide rules apply.
There is no capturing en passant, castling takes place.
Bare king loses.
Stalemate is a win.
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Pawns
Pawns are upgraded on the e-file as follows: on
e1, e9 they become an amazon, on
e2, e8 they become a chancellor, on
e3, e7 they become an archbishop and on
e4, e6 they become a queen.
The upgrade achieved is retained, even if other fields of the e-file are reached.
Rook, Knight, Bishop
They are upgraded on the e-file.
They mutate (like pawns) into the following pieces on the following squares: on
e1, e9 they become an amazon, on
e2, e8 they become a chancellor, on
e3, e7 they become an archbishop and on
e4, e6 they become a queen.
The upgrade achieved is retained, even if other fields of the e-file are reached.
Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, Archbishop, Chancellor, Amazon
At the 5th rank, they become pawns. As pawns, they can mutate into a queen, archbishop, chancellor or amazon in the manner described above (see pawns).
King
On the 5th rank, the king receives the move options of a pawn, but retains his royal appearance and his royal function.
Such a king, who thus reached the 5th rank, can promote on the e-file.
He gets the move options of the following pieces on the following squares :
e1, e9 - amazon
e2, e8 - chancellor
e3, e7 - archbishop
e4, e6 - queen.
Example: a king on the 5th rank reaches square e3 as the next square on the e-file and can move on as an archbishop. This does not change if it reaches further squares on the e-file. To be able to move differently, the king must first visit the 5th rank again in order to reach other squares on the e-file.
The king always retains his appearance and his royal function.
If such a king does not reach the e-file again, it retains the move options of a pawn for the rest of the game.
Pieces (move options)
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Pawn (Morphing Chess III) The pawn moves one or two squares sideways in both directions, or one square diagonally sideways, also in both directions. It does not jump over pieces.
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Knight (double knight) The knight may move to one of the squares nearest to that on which it stands but not on the same rank, file or diagonal. With the double knight, the move options are doubled. This means that the knight can leap directly to a space two knight leaps away.
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Bishop (Morphing Chess III) The bishop may move to 4 squares along a diagonal on which it stands. The bishop can jump over pieces.
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Rook (Morphing Chess III) The rook may move to 4 squares along the file or the rank on which it stands. The rook can jump over pieces.
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Queen (Morphing Chess III) The queen may move to 2 squares along the file, the rank or a diagonal on which it stands. The queen can jump over pieces.
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Archbishop The archbishop is a hybrid piece of knight and bishop, whereby the bishop part may move to any square along a diagonal on which it stands.
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Chancellor The chancellor is a hybrid piece of knight and rook, whereby the rook part may move to any square along a file or the rank on which it stands.
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Amazon The amazon is a hybrid piece of knight and queen, whereby the queen part may move to any square along the file, the rank or a diagonal on which it stands.
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King Castling: This is a move of the king and either rook of the same colour along the player’s first rank, counting as a single move of the king and executed as follows: the king is transferred from its original square three squares towards the rook on its original square, then that rook is transferred to the square just next to the king.
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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 morphingchessiii settings file for Morphing Chess III, which was made by Gerd Degens.
Game Courier was created, programmed and written by Fergus Duniho.
Game Courier, Copyright © Fergus Duniho, 2001-2017
WWW Page Created: 15 August 2001