A Game Courier Preset for UC-24
NOTICE: The setup shown here has been modified from the original setup thanks to running code for this game. If this game randomizes the setup, then you may expect to see a different setup when you actually play the game.
Rules of UC-24
In general all the rules of standard Chess hold, save there is no castling.
The position of the major pieces is determined randomly on both boards. The game takes place in the one on the left, being the setup settled asymmetrically with respect to White to Blue sides. Pieces placed on the right board must be dropped during the game on the left one according to this order:
1st that of A1/A8
2nd that of B1/B8
3rd that of C1/C8
......
8th that of H1/H8
9th that of A2/A7
And so on.
Drops must be made in any empty square of the first row of each side, and can only be made to replace a piece that has disappeared from the board due to some exchange. There is no condition on the exact turn in which to make the drop, but the logical thing would be to do it immediately after the exchange as part of a regular move, that is, it's allowed to make any normal move and at the same time make a drop.
The basic concept is "exchange" which happens when a piece that captures another is immediately captured: A captures B and C captures A, that is, player X wins B by losing A while player Y wins A by losing B. We can also say that player X makes a capture while player Y makes a re-capture.
If a piece is not recaptured immediately, then the piece that was captured will be considered an "absolute loss" for the victim and will not have the right to replace it. Similarly, a piece that is exchanged for a pawn will not have the right to be replaced.
1
King - standard king.
2
Queen - standard queen.
3
Rook - standard rook.
4
Knight - standard knight.
5
Amazon - Compound of queen and knight. It may move each turn like queen or like knight.
6
Sissa - It moves each time as Rook AND Bishop following a movement pattern of the form nR+nB or nB+nR, where n is any whole number. nR+nB means "first n squares like Rook followed by n squares like Bishop"; nB+nR means "first n squares like Bishop followed by n squares like Rook". Then, if for instance n=5, Sissa MUST MOVE 5 squares as Rook followed by 5 squares as Bishop or viceversa. There is no restriction on the movement direction of the second stage respecting to the first. Sissa doesn't leap. All squares it passes by must be empty. The following image shows its way of movement.
From c3, Sissa can reach the squares marked with green circlets by moving nightrider-wise; squares marked with red circlets are reached by moving rook-wise.
The i6 square is reached by c3-f3-i6. The c3-f6-i6 path is obstructed by the Blue's King. Likewise, f9 is reached via c3-f6-f9, not by c3-c6-f9 that is obstructed by the Bishop.
c8 is reached via c3-h3-c8, not via c3-h8-c8 that is obstructed by the g8-Pawn; c1 is reached via c3-a1-c1 or via c3-a3-c1 but not by c3-e3-c1 nor c3-e1-c1 that are both obstructed by the d2-Pawn.
a2, a4, b5, d5 and e4 can be reached by moving either like Mao or like Moa; b1 only like Moa; d1 is inaccessible due to the obstruction of White's King and d2-Pawn.
Concluding, the Bishop can be captured by 4 paths: c3-e3-c5 or c3-e5-c5 or c3-a3-c5 or c3-a5-c5. The Queen can only be captured by c3-e5-e7 since c3-c5-e7 is obstructed by the Bishop.
Here is another diagram showing all the squares it can reach from the center of an empty 15x15 board:
7
Rose - A circular nightrider.
8
Dancing Horse - It is an ubi- ubi limited to ONLY two leaps. It may move and capture like standard knight, and also may make two consecutive knight leaps, the second leap in ANY direction respecting to the first. Jeremy Gabriel Good called this piece at 2007 "knightzee".
9
The dragon icon represents a piece conceived by David Paulowich that initially he named it "chainsaw" but recently [December 2008] he is thinking to change its name to "dragon". It is a strong piece. The following diagram shows its way of movement, a compound of rook (red circlets) and spotted gryphon (green circlets), that is, after taking a step like ferz it can continue jumping like dabbabah rider:
10
Archbishoprider - Also known as cardinalrider or unicorn: a compound of bishop and nightrider; it may move each turn like bishop or like nightrider.
11
Nightrider - It can make a move like a knight, but then can continue to move in the same direction. Thus, it can make one or more successive knight-leaps, all in the same direction: the spaces visited by all but the last jump must be empty.
12
Gryphon - It steps one space diagonally then slides like a rook.
13
Aanca - It steps one space orthogonally then slides like a bishop.
14
Marshall - Also known as Chancellor. It may move each turn like rook or like knight.
15
Cardinal - Also known as Archbishop. It may move each turn like bishop or like knight.
16
RF - Compound of rook and ferz better known as dragon king; it may move each turn like rook or like ferz.
17
BW - Compound of bishop and wazir better known as dragon horse; it may move each turn like bishop or like wazir.
18
ND - Compound of knight and dabbabah; it may move each turn like knight or like dabbabah.
19
NE - Compound of knight and alfil or elephant; it may move each turn like knight or like alfil.
20
NG - Compound of knight and guard; it may move each turn like knight or like a guard [guard=non royal king].
21
NW - Compound of knight and wazir; it may move each turn like knight or like wazir.
22
NF - Compound of knight and ferz; it may move each turn like knight or like ferz.
23
Harvestman - It may move either like wazir or like wazir and then continue like crooked bishop.
24 
PaoVao - Compound of pao and vao. Also known as leo. It may move each turn like pao or like vao.
Pawns are standard and must promote when they reach the opponent's home row or first row in this manner:
The first promoted pawn will be promoted by the last piece of the dropping order.
The second promoted pawn will be promoted by the penultimate piece of the dropping order.
And so on following the inverse order.
Due to the presence of powerful pieces it's possible that the preset generates certain starting positions in which White could capture any undefended pawn or checkmates Blue in the first turn. Of course, this would not be a problem if the preset were programmed to exclude these cases, but since doing so is out of my possibilities, I propose two ways of dealing with the situation:
1) Delete the preset and proceed to generate a new one.
2) Keep the preset by prohibiting problematic moves.
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 asymmetric settings file for UC-24, which was made by Carlos Cetina.
Game Courier was created, programmed and written by Fergus Duniho.
Game Courier, Copyright © Fergus Duniho, 2001-2017
WWW Page Created: 15 August 2001