Excalibur electronic Ivan II - Manual (Page 9)

Mating-practice positions
To win at chess, you have to
know how to checkmate! Just
knowing that you have enough
material to mate doesn't earn
you the point. Ivan II, the
Conqueror Talking Chess Set's
mating-practice exercises will
make sure you know the tech-
niques.
After pressing
OPTIONS
until
TRAIN
appears, again press the
key until you come to posi-
tions without pawns and with
the Black king in the middle of
the board. These are the mate-
training positions. The three dif-
ferent mate-training positions
give White, besides his king,
either two bishops, two rooks, or
the queen. These are excellent
exercises, used by the greatest
chess teachers in the world. In
all three positions you can force
mate in a number of ways. Work
on these mate-training exercises
until you can mate Black effi-
ciently.
Ratings
To view your rating, press the
RATING
key. Your current rating
appears on the display.
To have your rating change,
you must complete a rated game
on a tournament or sudden death
level.
When you are ready to play a
rated game, select the
RATE
option.
1. Press the
OPTIONS
key
repeatedly until you see RATE
appear.
2. Press the or the key
to turn the option On.
3. Press
CLEAR
.
Finally select the Tournament
LEVEL
or
SUDDEN DEATH LEVEL
you wish to play against.
When an ‘O’ appears on the
display, the game you are play-
ing can be rated. Since the game
you are playing is rated, you
cannot ask for a
HINT
, nor
TAKE -
BACK
a bad move, nor use
SETUP
to improve your position.
You also cannot use the
NEW
GAME
key to start over during a
rated game.
These conditions attempt to
allow you to experience what it
is like to play a game against an
opponent in a rated tournament.
In rated tournaments a chess
clock is always used, so that you
play your moves within agreed
upon time limits. Ivan II, the
Conqueror Talking Chess Set
has the chess clock built in to it.
If you attempt to use the
HINT
,
SETUP
,
TAKEBACK
, or
NEW GAME
keys during your rated game,
IVAN will ask “ARE YOU
SURE
”, and say what result
(draw, win, or loss) will be
scored if you press the
YES
key.
During a rated game if you are
winning by 9.0 or more points
and want LCD Chess to resign,
press
MODE
then
NEW GAME
.
IVAN will say “ARE YOU
SURE I LOSE
”. IVAN will then
wait for you to press
YES
.
Using Setup Mode
At any time during a game
when it is your move, you may
change the position on the board
by adding a piece, removing a
piece, or changing any of the
pieces—for example, from a
queen to a knight.
Removing A Piece
Press the
SETUP
key. Then on
the large sensory board, press
the square the piece is on until
the square on your display is
empty. Press
CLEAR
to continue
the game.
Adding or Changing
a Piece
Press the
SETUP
key. Next
press the key that indictaes the
type of piece you want to place
on the board. Then on the large
sensory board, press the square
on the sensory board until the
piece appears as the correct
color on your display board.
Press
CLEAR
to continue the
game.
Setting Up Special
Positions
This is another terrific feature
that allows you to solve prob-
lems that you see in magazines
or newspapers, or that you make
up yourself. It also allows you to
enter game positions you want
to play, or that you want Ivan II,
the Conqueror Talking Chess
Setto look at, perhaps using the
INFINITE SEARCH
level.
Normally, it is easier to start
from an empty board to set up
such problems. So first, press
the
OPTIONS
key repeatedly until
CLRBR
(clear board) is dis-
played. Now press the
SETUP
key. You’ll see that your display
board is automatically cleared.
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