Game Boy
Developer: Park Place Productions Publisher: Hi Tech Expressions
By: GammaBetaAlpha
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Table of Contents
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
How to Play [HOWT]
The New Chessmaster [NEWC]
Donations/Amazon [DONT]
Contact Info [CONT]
Credits [CRED]
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
How to Play
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
[HOWT]
Chess is a very prolific game that has been played for several centuries
in its current form, and for many more years before that in older forms.
Gameplay takes place on an 8 x 8 board. The columns are commonly
referred to by the letters a-h, while the rows are referred to by the numbers 1
-8.
_______________________________
8 | R |Kn | B | Q | K | B |Kn | R | Common terminology is to refer to
|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___| the lower left corner square as 'a1',
7 | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | and the upper right corner as 'h8',
|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___| and so forth. In higher levels of
6 | | | | | | | | | chess you will sometimes hear a player
|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___| say something like 'c5 to d3', meaning
5 | | | | | | | | | they are moving a Knight from the
|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___| square designated c5 to the square
4 | | | | | | | | | designated d3.
|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|
3 | | | | | | | | | On a chess board, a1 is usually
|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___| 'dark', while a2 and b1 are 'light'.
2 | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | A dark square is always surrounded by
|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___| light squares on all sides, and vice
1 | R |Kn | B | Q | K | B |Kn | R | versa. Besides aesthetics, two pieces
|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___| can only travel on one or the other
type of tile (Bishops).
a b c d e f g h
P = Pawn Kn = Knight B = Bishop
R = Rook Q = Queen K = King
Also shown on the chessboard are the placements of the various chess
pieces in the game. For the most part, there is an exact amount of symmetry to
the pieces: the back row each has two Rooks, two Knights, two Bishops and a
Queen and a King for both sides, the second row has eight Pawns for both sides,
Rooks are the furthest piece out on the back rows, Knights slightly more in, and
Bishops inner still. The Queen is always on the 'd' column and the King in the
'e' column (though a variation of the game involves the King and Queen being
reversed in row 8).
Although the actual colors of the pieces may vary, one side is always
designated as the 'white' player, who controls the pieces in rows 1 and 2 at the
beginning of the game, and the other person is designated as the 'black' player,
who controls the pieces in rows 7 and 8. The white player makes the first move,
which can be a crucial advantage or crucially exploited, depending on the type
of game one may prefer to play.
To win a game, a player must be able to 'checkmate' the opponent's King.
To 'check' the King means that you are in a position where you can capture the
King in the next move. To 'checkmate' means that any move the other player does
will bring him into checkmate. Refer to Checkmate section for a little bit more
detail.
------------
Chess Pieces
------------
There are six different pieces in the game of chess, and it is fairly
crucial to know the strengths and limitations of each piece.
Pawn
----
The Pawn is the most basic piece, and each player gets an entire row of
them at the start of the game. The pawn acts as a forward guard, but is severely
limited in what it can do. When moving away from the 2-row or 7-row, you can
make a first move of two tiles forward: for every subsequent move, they can only
go one tile forward.
A pawn can ONLY go forward under normal circumstances. However, when it
comes to trying to capture a piece, things get a little different. A pawn can
only capture a piece that is in one of the two squares that is directly
diagonally opposite of it (ie. if a white pawn is on c5, it can capture a black
piece that is on b6 or d6). On rare occasion, it can also move sideways one
square (see Other Rules --> En Passant).
Rook
----
Each player gets two Rooks, which are on the corner squares of the
board. A Rook can move in each of the four cardinal directions as far as it
wishes to: the only limitation to its movement is that it cannot go past any
other pieces.
Bishop
------
The two bishops, which are next to the King and Queen, can move
diagonally across the board. The most important thing to note is that each
Bishop stays on the color of square that they started on: therefore, the A3
Bishop will always be on a dark square, while the A6 Bishop will always be on a
light square. If one Bishop gets captured during the course of a game, this can
be a vicious hole in your defense. The only limitation to its movement is that
it cannot go past any other pieces.
Knight
------
These pieces will always start in between the Rook and the Bishop. The
Knight is easily the most versatile piece next to the Queen thanks to two unique
properties: first, the Knight moves in an L shape, where it can go two squares
up/down or right/left and then one square right/left and up/down respectively
(or one square and then two squares). Secondly, it can jump over _any_ other
piece that is in the way of its movement.
Queen
-----
Easily the most useful piece on the board barring the Knight for some,
the Queen can move in _any_ direction, across the whole board if the player
wishes. The lone limitations on the Queen is that there is only one on each
side, and she cannot jump over pieces like the Knight can.
King
----
The King is a mixed bag. Like the queen, he can move in any direction.
Unlike the queen, however, he can only move one space at a time. Additionally,
he cannot make any moves that would put him into a 'check' scenario.
-----------
Other Rules
-----------
Here, I outline three special rules that are not often used in chess.
Only one of them is widely known, with the other two being somewhat obscure.
Pawn Advancement
----------------
Throughout the whole game, the pawns are always moving forward, and
never backwards. If a pawn should make it to the end of the opponent's side of
the board (row 8 for a white pawn and row 1 for a black pawn), the pawn can be
'promoted' into a bigger piece - a Bishop, Knight, Rook or Queen. As a Bishop or
Rook is redundant in comparison to a Queen, you should only advance into a
Knight or a Queen.
Castling
--------
Castling is a move that can only be done once per game per player, and
it involves the King and a Rook. First, the following conditions must be true:
•Neither the King nor the Rook can have been moved in the game so far.
•There cannot be any spaces between the King or the Rook.
•If the King were to move two spaces towards the Rook, neither square
can put the King in 'check'.
In the case of either player, it would look like this.
_______________________________
| R | | | | K | | | R | Where all squares between the
|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___| Rook(s) are empty).
'Castling' involves the King moving TWO spaces towards the Rook, while
the Rook takes the place of the first square that the King crossed into.
_______________________________
| R | | | | | R | K | | If the King castles to the right.
|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|
_______________________________
| | | K | R | | | | R | If the King castles to the left.
|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|
En Passant
----------
You usually will not encounter this. However, every so often you may
face a player who does not actually know about this rule.
For this rule to work, you need to have a pawn on row 4 (black player)
or row 5 (white player). Additionally, the opposing player must have a pawn on
row 2/7 that is one square to the right or left of your pawn, and two up/down.
He must then move the pawn down two spaces, so it is _right next_ to your pawn.
When this occurs, you can move your pawn diagonally one space as if the other
player only moved the pawn one space. Hence, you would capture the pawn 'en
passant', or 'in passing' of the square it went to.
___ ___ ___
| P1| | | | |
|___| |___| |___| And Pawn 1 is captured 'en
| | --> | | ---> | P2| passant' by Pawn 2.
|___|___ |___|___ |___|___
| | P2| | P1| P2| | | |
|___|___| |___|___| |___|___|
Initial Pawn Moves 2
Position Spaces Forward
--------
Checking
--------
The goal of the game is to capture the other King's player. To do this,
you must first put a piece in position that can capture the King's player the
next move. If the other player cannot move his king out of a position that would
get him captured, or put a piece in front of his King as a blocker/sacrifice,
then he is considered to be in 'checkmate', which wins the game.
The most important thing to note is that you HAVE TO be checking the
King in the first place. If you do not have him in Check, but any subsequent
move that is made will be a Check, you have what is called a 'Stalemate' - the
King is not in Check, but any move he makes puts him in Checking position. This
can be frustrating because a stalemate is usually treated as a 'draw' despite
the inferior position of one player.
For more information on stalemates, see Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalemate
------------------
Chess in this Game
------------------
Although there is nothing vaguely fancy about The Chessmaster, it
follows every rule of the game properly.
---------
Resources
---------
Chess.com
http://www.chess.com/
Jon Edwards: U.S. Correspondence Chess Champion
http://www.princeton.edu/~jedwards/cif/intro.html
Checkmate!: My First Chess Book (Everyman Chess) (Garry Kasparov)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1857443586?ie=UTF8&tag=raofavigafa-
20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1857443586
--------
Settings
--------
Mate in X Moves - How far ahead the CPU will think ahead. 'Mate in 1 Move' means
it will take actions that will let it set-up in 1 move, while
Mate in 5 Moves means it will take longer to checkmate you,
but subsequently also box you in further.
Level X - Default Level 1, with a pair of Newcomer difficulties. This decides
the difficulty of the CPU.
Deep Thinking - When toggled on, the CPU thinks further ahead.
Opening Book - When toggled on, the CPU will play out the same few moves.
Teaching Mode - When toggled on, gives the player tips.
Coordinates - When toggled on, the rows and columns will be labeled 1-8 and A-H,
respectively.
Chess Clock - When toggled on, a clock is in place.
Touching Rule - When toggled on, once you put a piece down you cannot take the
move back.
White Visible - When toggled on, the white pieces are visible (why you would
want them to be invisible is beyond me).
Black Visible - When toggled on, the black pieces are visible.
White on X - White will by default be on the bottom of the board. You can toggle
this so white will be on the top, or on the left or right with the
board played left-right instead of up-down.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
The New Chessmaster
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
[NEWC]
The Chessmaster was rereleased a short while after the original release
under the title 'The New Chessmaster'. The only changes, aside from the obvious
name change, are a smoother interface with the settings. There are absolutely
no other changes between the two editions of The Chessmaster.
The New Chessmaster is also known as 'The Chessmaster: Special Edition'.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Donations/Amazon
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
[DONT]
I don't really care too much about donations, but if you are feeling
generous, feel free to send one via PayPal to gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT
com
Alternatively, if you ever order any items from Amazon.com, go to the
link below. You do not have to buy anything right away, but (if you do not clear
browser cookies often) any items you buy within the next 90 days will count as a
'referral order' to me, meaning I get anywhere from 4-6% as a referral/affiliate
payment of what you ordered (ie. order $100 worth of stuff, I get $4-6 from
Amazon.com)
www.amazon.com/?&camp=212361&linkCode=wsw&tag=raofavigafa-20&creative=391881
Other than that, considering this FAQ is for an obscure old game, if you
have any other obscure old games that you do not play anymore, consider sending
them to me (I will even pay the shipping cost!). I write FAQs for plenty of
obscure old games with no FAQs, and having a physical copy of the game (and even
better, a manual) is superior to not. You can email me if interested at
gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Contact Info
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
[CONT]
Although I believe I have found everything there is to find in this
game, there is occasionally the possibility of some super secret level in an
obscure game that was never found because it was too obscure, or the like. If
you have anything that you feel needs to be includes, feel free to email me at
gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
If you have any other information to contribute or notice any errors,
again, shoot me a notice at gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
If you wish to host this guide, or use information from it, consider the
FAQ semi-public domain: you can host it without asking and derive information
from it word-for-word if you wish, but keep the document unchanged if hosting it
and give credit where due if using information
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Credits
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
[CRED]
________________________________________________________________________________
©2010 GammaBetaAlpha FAQs
