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Rules of Panoply
The pawn moves without capturing by sliding any distance in either of the two forward directions, and captures by jumping over an enemy piece immediately in front of itself and landing on an unoccupied space behind. When a pawn reaches the farthest rank, it must promote. Pawns can promote to any piece other than a King or Barricade, regardless of what has been captured or not.
The King moves one space in any of the six directions, and captures as it moves. The usual rules regarding check and checkmate apply.
The Rider is a normal hexagonal rook. It slides any distance in a straight line and captures by landing on an enemy.
The Skirmisher moves without capturing like the Rider, but captures differently. When capturing, the Skirmisher moves, in the opposite direction of its target, as many spaces as it would move if it were moving to the targetted space. Skirmishers may not capture a piece if there is another piece of either color between the target and the Skirmisher. A Skirmisher is not required to capture when moving to a space where it could go to capture.
The Catapult moves without capturing like the Rider and Skirmisher, but captures differently from either. The Catapult catpures by leaping along a line over its target, landing on an empty space exactly as far from the target as the target was from the space the Catapult was on before. Other pieces, of either color, in the path of the leap do not obstruct the Catapult, but its destination space must be empty for it to capture.
The Herald moves like the Rider, but cannot capture. Instead, any enemy piece that is adjacent to a Herald at the beginning of a turn may not move. Pieces may still move through or into the spaces adjacent to the Herald. Two hostile Heralds can immobilize each other. A piece prevented from moving by a Herald does not give check.
The Guard moves to the next space in any direction that is not occupied by a friendly piece. It captures by replacement.
or 
The Barricade occupies two spaces on the board. Each player has two Barricades, which I have distinguished here by using slightly different graphics for each, although they behave exacty alike.
The Barricade has a complex move, consisting of one or two steps. Each step may be either a rotation, where one end of the Barricade moves to an empty space that is adjacent to both ends of the Barricade; or an advance, where one end moves one spacee directly away from the other end, and the other end follows. The advance step can alternatively be thought of as one end of the Barricade leaping over the other, landing on the opposite side.
A Barricade may only capture with an advancing step. Either, neither, or both of the steps a Barricade makes on a turn may be captures. A Barricade may capture and immediately retreat to its previous position, but it may not in any other circumstance make two opposite steps. Null moves are not allowed.
Barricades are immune to capture from all directions, except the two in which they can advance. Another way to express that is, no piece can capture a Barricade that does not begin its move on the same line as both ends of the Barricade. When capturing a Barricade, the capturing piece treats the first end as the target. Thus, pieces that capture by replacement will stop on the first end of the Barricade, although both ends are removed together. Pieces that jump treat the first end as the target of the jump. Pawns cannot ever capture Barricades, because a Pawn must jump exactly two spaces to capture and the Barricade would occupy both of them.
Barricades are not immune to immobilization by Heralds, from any direction. If either end of the Barricade is next to a hostile Herald, the whole Barricade cannot move.
Other Rules
Stalemate is a loss for the stalemated player. Fifty consecutive turns without any irreversible moves is a draw. Irreversible moves can be any of these:
- moving a pawn
- making a capture
- any move that cannot be undone without an irreversible move occuring; such as moving a herald next to an opposing herald, moving any piece next to an opposing herald that is held in place by your own herald, or checking the opposing king in such a way that the other player has no other option than to make an irreversible move to escape
See the rules page for movement diagrams.
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 default settings file for Panoply, which was made by Daniel Zacharias.
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.