King arthur chapter 7, Too hard? too easy? all about levels – Excalibur electronic 915-W User Manual

Page 12

Advertising
background image

You already know, from

Chapter 3, section 3.7, how to

select the level King Arthur is

playing at. With his 72 levels of

play, King Arthur can adjust

himself to play you a competi-

tive game, no matter what your

level of skill! It’s more fun and

more educational to select a

level that gives both you and

King Arthur a reasonable chance

of winning. Try to find a level at

which you win about half the

time. As you get better, simply

adjust King Arthur’s playing

level so he can “improve” as you

do!

23

ENGLISH

and press your king down on its

FROM

square (if castling king-

side, E1). Then move and press

your king down on its

TO

square

(if castling kingside, G1). King

Arthur automatically recognizes

castling maneuvers after the

king is moved two squares. He

then reminds you, by displaying

the proper

FROM

square, to com-

plete castling by moving the

rook. Move the rook in the rou-

tine manner, pushing on its

TO

and

FROM

squares normally.

Remember, you must always

move the King first when

castling!

6.3

Promoting Pawns

When a pawn reaches the

other end of the board, official

chess rules say that you can pro-

mote it to a more valuable piece.

To promote a pawn, make your

pawn move to the last rank in

the normal manner. King Arthur

will automatically promote the

pawn to a queen, since this is the

best choice in nearly every case.

In the unlikely event you want to

promote your pawn to a piece

other than a queen, use King

Arthur’s

SETUP

feature. (See

Chapter 9.)

King Arthur immediately rec-

ognizes your new piece, and

begins thinking about the posi-

tion in order to move. When the

computer pushes a pawn to your

back row or rank, it will always

promote to a queen. Remember

to change the piece on the board

after either side promotes a

pawn. When promoting a pawn

to a queen and the original

queen is still on the board, chess

players frequently mark the new

queen with an upside-down

rook.

6.4

En Passant —

taking a pawn in passing

For an en passant capture,

press the

FROM

and

TO

squares

of the capturing pawn. The

square of the pawn being cap-

tured will then appear on the dis-

play. This is to remind you to

remove the captured pawn. You

must press down on the captured

pawn before removing it from

the board.

22

ENGLISH

KING ARTHUR

CHAPTER 7:

TOO HARD? TOO EASY?

ALL ABOUT LEVELS

7.1

Beginner levels

The first four levels (1, 2, 3

and 4) are beginner levels and

take approximately 4, 8, 12 and

16 seconds per move, respec-

tively.

7.2

Fixed ply levels

Level 5 is a fixed 1-ply (one-

half move) search.

7.3

Timed levels

Levels 6 through 15 take

about 1 second per level num-

ber, so level 10 will average

about 10 seconds per move.

Levels 16 through 72 take about

2 seconds per level numbers.

The amount of time taken will

vary depending on the position,

the stage of the game, and

whether or not the

FAST

level

option is on.

Advertising