Edit the Settings File for Mosaic Chess

Pieces

The Pawn is a modern chess pawn. It moves one step straight forward and captures one step diagonally forward, and may move two spaces forward from its starting position and capture other pawns en-passant.

The pieces in the third rank are all from Chu Shogi.

The Phoenix moves as a Wazir or Alfil, stepping once straight or leaping two squares diagonally, in any direction.

The Kirin moves as a Ferz or Dabbabah, stepping once diagonally or leaping two squares straight, in any direction.

The Drunk Elephant moves as a King, except it cannot move straight backwards.

The Gold Generaal moves as a King, except it cannot move diagonally backwards.

The Silver General steps diagonally or straight forwards.

The Copper General steps in any of the three forward directions or straight backwards.

The first and second ranks contain pieces from Grant Acedrex and Janggi, along with some modern pieces derived from therefrom.

The Rook slides any distance through the edges of the squares.

The Bombard is the Cannon from Janggi. It moves like the Rook, only it must jump over exactly one other piece, whether moving or capturing.

The Knight in this game makes a 2,1 leap or a 2,0 leap.

The Bishop slides any distance through the corners of the squares.

The Arbalest is to the Bombard what the Bishop is to the Rook. It moves like the Bishop, only it must jump over exactly one other piece, whether moving or capturing.

The Gryphon makes one diagonal step and then slides outward as a Rook.

The Condor is derived from the Gryphon. It first moves as the Alfil, and then continues by sliding outward as a Rook.

The Lion is from Grant Acedrex. It makes a 3,1 leap or a 3,0 leap, in any direction.

The Rhinoceros (Unicorn) is also from Grant Acedrex. It leaps as a Knight and then slides outward as a Bishop.

The Zebra is the Giraffe from Grant Acedrex. Its makes a 3,2 leap.

The Osprey first jumps as a Dabbabah, and then slides outward as a Bishop.

The Queen in this game combines the moves of Rook, Bishop, Bombard, and Arbalest.

The King is just a King. It steps to any of the eight adjacent squares. It has no special jumps or castling moves.

Promotion

Whenever a promotable piece makes a move that ends within the last four ranks of the board from the moving player's perspective, it may promote, but if a Pawn reaches the last rank, it must promote immediately. Each promotable piece can promote to one other piece. The promotable pieces and their promotions are shown below.

Unpromoted	Promoted

Ending the Game

Victory is achieved by Checkmate or Bare King, with Stalemate and double Bare Kings being drawn.

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 mosaic2 settings file for Mosaic Chess, which was made by Daniel Zacharias.

Game Courier was created, programmed and written by Fergus Duniho.

Game Courier, Copyright © Fergus Duniho, 2001-2017