A Game Courier Preset for The Toddler

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The Toddler

Uncoded. No rules enforced. No legal moves displayed.

Welcome to Game Courier, where you can play The Toddler and many other Chess variants through online correspondence.

Rules for Jean-Yves Boulay's The Toddler

t-Toddler	E-Emperor	f-Empress	W-Genius	i-Guardian Angel	L-Phoenix	m-Android	X-Nurse	c-Captain	S-Soldier

The Pieces

• The Toddler is the royal piece. It is the child of two other pieces, the Emperor and the Empress. The minor Toddler moves as a non-capturing King as long as one of his parents is still on the Board. It may also trade positions with one of its Nurses (with no limit on the number of exchanges). When both its parents have been captured, the Toddler becomes major. It may now capture, but cannot trade positions with a Nurse any longer.

• The Emperor moves as a Queen.

• The Empress also moves as a Queen. When the Emperor and the Empress see each other, the Empress cannot be captured. Besides, being a protective mother, the Empress can always reach a square adjacent to the Toddler's square, even if that square is occupied by an enemy piece (though not by a friendly piece).

• The Guardian Angel moves as a non-capturing Queen. It prevents adjacent friendly pieces from being captured. It can be captured only when it is threatened by two enemy pieces.
  When the two Guardian Angels are adjacent, all the pieces of the game are protected from capture.

• The Genius also moves as a non-capturing Queen. It prevents adjacent enemy pieces from capturing. It can be captured only when it is threatened by two enemy pieces.
  When the two Geniuses are adjacent, all the pieces of the game are protected from capture.

• The Phoenix has a move which generalizes the move of the Knight. It captures like the Knight, but jumps without capturing to any non-adjacent square of different color.
  Animal solidarity prevents a Phoenix from capturing a Phoenix.

• The Android has the move of a bifurcating Rook. It starts with a neutral Rook's move, followed by a (capturing or non-capturing) Rook's move in the orthogonal direction. (It doesn't matter whether the enemy Genius is adjacent to the bifurcating square.) It may also move and capture as a regular Rook.

• The Nurse moves as a Bishop. It may freely trade positions with its minor Toddler.

• The Soldier is an omni-directionnal Quadra-Pawn. It moves neutrally one square orthogonally, but captures one square diagonally. A Soldier doesn't promote when it reaches the end of the Board, but when a Soldier captures a piece other than a Soldier or a Captain, it then becomes a Captain.

• The Captain moves as a Soldier, but is also allowed a capturing diagonal move followed by a non-capturing orthogonal move, or a non-capturing orthogonal move followed by a capturing diagonal move. (In the latter case, it doesn't matter whether the enemy Genius is adjacent to the bifurcating square.)

Other rules

A player always has the right to pass his turn.

When both players have passed in succession, or when a Toddler which was not in check reaches a square adjacent to the other Toddler's square, the game is a draw. (It doesn't matter whether the Toddler is now in check.)

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 The Toddler, which was made by Jeremy Good.

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

Game Courier, Copyright © Fergus Duniho, 2001-2017