The Game

On loading, the screen will clear and you can then select one of the five options:

1. Play,
2. Blitz,
3. Analyse,
4. Replay, or
5. Quit.

Enter the initial letter of the option required.

Play

After you have selected your colour and the level of play (1-6), the chess board will be displayed. When it is your turn to move, a clock display will indicate the total time you take. Enter your move by typing in the square you are moving from, followed by the square you are moving to, in standard algebraic notation.

For example, to make the opening move P-K4, enter e2-e4; you do not have to enter the hyphen - the computer will put it in for you.

The machine will reject all illegal moves.

If you make a bad move, wait until the computer has replied, then press DELETE. This will return the board to the position before the 'mistake', and you can try again. You can also resign by pressing ESCAPE; this will return you to the starting options.

To castle, move the King to the necessary square and the Rook will be moved automatically, providing that you are in a position where castling is legal. For example, a white Queen's side castle is entered as e1-c1.

To capture en passent, move your pawn to the appropriate square, and the computer's pawn will be taken, if en passent capture is legal. Thus to capture a black pawn on e5 with a white pawn on f5, enter f5-e4.

Blitz

In this option, you are allowed only ten seconds to make a move; if you exceed the time limit you will lose your move. The computer plays at level 1 in this mode.

Analysis

You are first asked if you wish to recall a position; only select this option if you have previously saved a position. Each square is now 'blinked' in turn. You can insert a piece at the current square by entering the initial of the piece (use N for a Knight), the colour (B or W) and a number 0 or 1 to indicate that the piece has not/has moved previously.

Pressing the space bar deletes a piece from a square; pressing RETURN leaves the square unchanged, and DELETE allows you to step back. When the board is set up as required, press the '.' key. You can now save the position, and store it on tape if required (see next section). Now select your colour, the level of play and the side to move first.

Replay

At the end of a game you are returned to the starting otions. If you select replay, you can re-run the moves made in the last game by pressing the space bar. You can save the list of moves, and any board position you have stored, by leaving the game with the 'Quit' option, or by pressing BREAK and entering:

*SAVE GAME 1900 1C00 (RETURN)

You can reload a saved game at any time after pressing BREAK with the *LOAD command. When it has loaded, type OLD (RETURN) followed by RUN (RETURN), then select the Replay option, and you will be able to step through the game.

When the program reaches the end of the move list, it returns to the standard options: by selecting "Analyse" you can choose your colour and level, and continue the game where it was terminated.

The tape supplied contains a game between Spassky and Fischer (Reykjavik, 1972); you can study the game move by move by pressing the Space Bar in 'Replay' mode. Please note that selecting the 'Play' option initialises the Game List Pointer, so that to see the game you must enter 'Replay' immediately after reading the tape.

Quit

This returns you to Basic. You can re-run the chess program after typing OLD (RETURN).

Loading

*LOAD"CHESS" (RETURN)
RUN (RETURN)