Welcome to K-Chess, the chess program with the lot.
K-Chess allows you to play with two opponents, one person against the computer, or the computer against itself. To move, pick up a piece with the mouse and drag it and drop it where you want it. Or just type in the move that you want to perform. {
The main part of the screen is occupied by the Board and the Pieces on it. To the right of the the board is the Status
Window which displays information about the game's progress. Above this window is the Menu
Bar from which all functions of the game can be operated. And at the bottom of the screen is the Status
Line which displays important Check and end game information. ]
You can get all sorts of helpful information by clicking on squares on the board with the right mouse button, selecting Hint or Help from the Menu Bar, or by watching the movements in the Status Window. In fact, K-Chess can help you to play better by showing you more information about the game, and even letting you see some of its own workings.
Drag Mode
You are in Drag mode, where you can move or resize a Window on the Desktop. 2
You entered Drag mode by clicking and holding with the mouse button on the window's Title Bar (along the top) or the Resize icon (at the bottom right corner). You can now move the mouse around to either Move or Resize the window. Release the mouse button to save the new size or location of the window.
Text File Viewer
A Text File Viewer shows the contents of any file in normal text format. The following arrow keys may be used to move about in the file.
<Up> Move up one line
<Down> Move down one line
<Right> Move right one column
<Left> Move left one column
<PageUp> Move one page up
<PageDown> Move one page down
<Home> Move to start of current line
<End> Move to end of current line
<Ctrl+PageUp> Move to top of file
<Ctrl+PageDown> Move to bottom of file
The Desktop
The Desktop is the main part of the screen that you can see. It is comprised of the chess
board on the left and the Status
window on the right. The desktop may also contain Windows and Dialog
Boxes of different types at various times.
The Board
The Chess Board is the main area covering the left and centre of the screen, and is of course where all the action of the game takes place. Pieces may be moved in one of two ways:
1. Drag and drop the piece with the mouse where you want it to go. If the move is invalid then the piece will jump back to its original location and allow you to make another move. Note: to Castle, move the King the two squares and the Rook will automatically jump over it.
2. Type in the move in an unambiguous form, as in "e2e4". As you begin to type, the Enter
dialog
box will pop up to show you what you have entered. Press <Enter> or the [OK] button to perform the move. Note: moves may be entered in any combination of upper and lower case. A
At any time you may get help on the game in the following ways:
a) Click on a square with the left mouse button. If the square contains a piece, then all the squares to which that piece can move are highlighted. If the square is empty, then all the squares which contain a piece which threaten that square are highlighted. U
b) Press <Alt-I> or select Move
Hint to display a suggested move that can be made.
c) Look under the "Best Line" section of the Status
Window to the right of the screen to see the steps that the computer is thinking about as it works.
The Pieces
The Pieces are drawn as follows:
++++
King Queen Rook
P
Bishop Knight Pawn
The colours in which the pieces are displayed may be altered by selecting Colours from the Window
pulldown
menu.
Entering and Displaying Moves
K-Chess uses a slight variation on the algebraic system to enter and display moves. On long form moves specify the name of the piece, the starting square, and the destination square. %
The following piece names are used: H
K = King
Q = Queen
B = Bishop
N = Knight
R = Rook
P = Pawn
Squares are identified by the rank (1-8 starting from white's end of the board) and file (A-H starting from white's Queen side). A
If moves are entered through the keyboard they do not need to be complete, they need only be unambiguous. For example, enter the starting square and the destination square as in "e2e4", or the piece and destination square as in "Pe4", or just the destination square "e4" if there is only one piece that can move there. {
The move list in the Status
Window displays the complete piece name and starting and destination squares, except that for pawn moves the piece is left blank. A minus sign "-" between the starting and destination squares indicates a normal moves, and an "x" indicates that a piece was taken. A plus sign "+" after the moves indicates Check, and an asterisk "*" indicates Mate.
Status Window
The Status Window is the area on the main screen to the right of the board, between the Menu
Bar and the Status
Line. It is really a permanent dialog
box which displays information about the status and progress of the game. `
The first line specifies the turn number, and which player (white or black) has the next move.
The second line indictes the mode of play: Auto Play, One Player, or Two Player. Auto Play mode is chosen by selecting Auto
Play from the Move
pulldown
menu, and One or Two player modes are selected from the Options
dialog
box. L
The next two lines show the game clock, both overall, and for each player. ~
The following lines show some of the values assigned to each combination of moves that the computer opponent is working out.
Below this is the list of all moves in the game so far. This list may be scrolled backwards by clicking on the right hand edge of the list.
The Best Line indicator shows what the computer opponent is working on, and is followed by a list of the best possible moves for each opponent. This can be very helpful information!
Promotion dialog box
The Promotion dialog
box is displayed when a Pawn advances to the opposite end of the board. It allows a piece to be selected which the Pawn will be promoted to: either a Queen, Rook, Knight or Bishop.
Use the <Tab> key to select the desired piece and press <Enter>, or simply double click on the desired piece with the mouse. This will close the dialog box and promote the pawn to the selected piece.
Windows
Each Window on the Desktop has a Frame, a Title, and one or more Icons and Controls for handling the window and its contents. There may also be one or more Buttons to perform specific actions relating to the window.
There is a Close icon [
] in the top left corner of every window. Click on this with the left mouse button to close the window. =
Grab the Title Bar with the mouse to move the whole window.
There may be a Zoom icon in the top right corner of the window. If the window is full size (Maximised), the Zoom icon will look like [
]. Click on it with the left mouse button to Restore the window to its "normal" size. If the window is in its Restored state, then the icon will look like [
]. Click on it to Maximise it again. Edit and View windows start out the full size of the desktop, therefore their Restored and Maximised size is initially the same. $
There may also be a Resize icon
in the bottom right of the window. Grab this with the mouse to change the size of the window.
Normal windows are usually "non-modal", which means they do not take control of the desktop while they are active. You may open and close them and switch between them as you like. ;
Note that Dialog
Boxes are just special kinds of Windows.
Dialog Boxes
Dialog Boxes are special types of Windows. Like any other window, they have a Frame, a Title, and a Close icon. However, they cannot normally be resized. W
Dialog boxes are usually shown to inform you of something that is happening, warn of possible consequences of an action, or ask fo
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