A Game Courier Preset for Morphomania
Rules of Morphomania
Except for the following changes, the Fide rules apply.
There is no capturing en passant, castling and promotion of pawns takes place.
Bare king loses.
Stalemate is a win.
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With the exception of the pawns, pieces are played as in standard chess - regarding archbishop, chancellor, amazon and dragon horse see below.
In Morphomania pieces change their appearance and function depending on the color of the squares they reach or the rank they achieve.
The king is excluded from this.
In general:
Bishop:
The bishop becomes a dragon horse on the even ranks with additional move options of the wazir; on the odd ranks, the bishop's move options remain.
Knight:
If the knight changes from white square to black square it becomes a chancellor (additional moves of the bishop); back to white square the moves of a knight remain.
Rook:
If the black rook changes to white square, it can also move as a knight - and v.v.
Queen.
The white queen becomes an Amazon when moving to black square - and v.v.
Pawns:
Pawns can move a maximum of two squares forward on white squares, on black squares they become 'Speedpawns', with the possibility of moving a maximum of 3 squares forward.
In detail:
Bishop / Dragon Horse
The following table illustrates the changes:
| Odd Rank | Even Rank |
|---|---|
 |
 |
A bishop on ranks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 remains a bishop. At ranks 2, 4, 6, 8, the bishop mutates into a dragon horse.
A dragon horse at ranks 2, 4, 6, 8 mutates into a bishop when it gets to ranks 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9.
Knight, Rook, Queen, Archbishop, Chancellor, Amazon, Pawns
The following table illustrates the changes:
| White Square | Black Square |
|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The rook mutates from black square to white square to a chancellor and back again from white square to black square to a rook.
The knight mutates from white square to black square to an archbishop and vice versa.
The queen becomes an amazon when changing from white square to black square; the amazon becomes a queen again when changing from black square to white square.
A pawn remains a pawn on white squares. As soon as it reaches a black square, it mutates into a speedpawn.
In reverse, the speedpawn mutates into a pawn when it moves from a black to a white square.
The bishop, knight, rook, and queen move as in standard chess.
Dragon Horse
The dragon horse moves like a bishop or one step orthogonally.
The dragon horse and bishop can change color diagonals using the dragon horse's wazir move option!
Archbishop
The archbishop is a hybrid piece of knight and bishop.
Chancellor
The chancellor is a hybrid piece of knight and rook.
Amazon
The amazon is a hybrid piece of knight and queen.
Pawn (Morphomania)
The pawn moves one square forward and captures opposing pieces. If an opponent's piece is two squares away, it can be captured if there is no other piece in between. The pawn does not jump over pieces.
Speedpawn (Morphomania)
The speedpawn moves one or two squares forward and captures opposing pieces. If an opponent's piece is three squares away, it can be captured if there is no other piece in between. The pawn does not jump over pieces.
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.
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 morphomania settings file for Morphomania, 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