A Game Courier Preset for Universal Chess

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Universal Chess

Initial code only. No rules enforced. No legal moves displayed.

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.

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

Rules of Universal Chess

The starting position is randomly determined in both boards. The game is played on the left board. The pieces placed on the right board must be dropped during the game. In general, all the rules of FIDE chess apply, except that here there is no castling.

 King - Standard king.
 Queen - Standard queen.
 Amazon - A compound of queen and knight. It may move each time [or turn] like queen OR like knight.
 Chancellor - Also known as Marshall. It may move each turn like rook OR like knight.
 Archbishop - Also known as Cardinal. It may move each turn like bishop OR like knight.

 Archbishoprider - Also known as cardinalrider or unicorn: a compound of bishop and nightrider; it may move each turn like bishop OR like nightrider.
 Knight - Standard knight.
 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.
 Rook - Standard rook.
 RF - A compound of rook and ferz better known as dragon king; it may move each turn like rook OR like ferz.
 BW - A compound of bishop and wazir better known as dragon horse; it may move each turn like bishop OR like wazir.
 Crooked Bishop/Wazir - A compound of crooked bishop and wazir; it may move each turn like crooked bishop OR like wazir.
 NW - A compound of knight and wazir; it may move each turn like knight OR like wazir.
 NF - A compound of knight and ferz; it may move each turn like knight OR like ferz.
 NG - A compound of knight and guard; it may move each turn like knight OR like a guard [guard=non royal king].
 Gryphon - It steps one space diagonally then slides like a rook.
 Aanca - It steps one space orthogonally then slides like a bishop.

 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.

 ND - A compound of knight and dabbabah; it may move each turn like knight OR like dabbabah.
 NE - A compound of knight and alfil or elephant; it may move each turn like knight OR like alfil.
 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 hollow squares) and spotted gryphon (red "X"):

 Rose - A circular nightrider.
 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".
 Paovao - A compound of cannon and vao.

Drops performance:

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 on any empty square of the 1st row of each side, and can only be made to replace a piece that has disappeared from the board due to some exchange. 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. There is no condition on the exact turn in which to make the drops, but the logical thing would be to do it immediately after the exchanges as part of a regular move, that is, it's allowed to make any normal move and at the same time make a drop.  

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. In such cases the following rule apply:

PREGAME RULE: If the preset generates any particular position such that White checkmates Blue (or viceversa) in the first turn or could capture any undefended pawn, then the preset will be deleted and a new one will be issued.

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 Universal Chess, which was made by Carlos Cetina.

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

Game Courier, Copyright © Fergus Duniho, 2001-2017