Excalibur electronic E123 manual Draw Messages, Game-Ending Messages, Screen Symbols, Auto Play

Draw Messages

During the game, your LCD Chess will display the word drAU if a three-time repetition of position occurs, or if there has been no pawn moved and no exchanges for 50 moves. When either of these situation takes place, the rules of chess state that a player can claim a draw. If you wish, you can ignore the message and continue the game. When a stalemate is reached, the display will show StAL.

Game-Ending Messages

LCD Chess will announce mate in two (MAtE2) and mate in three (MAtE3). It will also display +MAtE when exe- cuting a checkmate or when you check- mate LCD Chess.

Screen Symbols

When a ‘+’ appears on the screen, it is a reminder that you are in check. When an ‘=’ appears, it indicates you are in two human player mode. And lastly when an ‘!’ appears on the screen, you are being warned that one of your pieces is threat- ened with capture. (This is similar to the friendly "en garde" warning sometimes used by human players when they are attacking an opponent’s queen.) To see which of your pieces is threatened, press the OPTIONS key.

Auto Play

If you would like to watch the computer finish a game for you automatically, press the OPTIONS key repeatedly until the option PLYr is showing. Use the + but- ton to change the number of players to zero. Press CLEAR to exit the OPTIONS mode. Now press the GO key twice and watch the game play itself. You may stop

auto play at any time by pressing the GO key. Doing so will set the number of play- ers back to one.

Book Opening Trainer

LCD Chess makes it easy for you to learn the same openings that world chess champions play! At the beginning of a game, you may choose to learn one of 32 popular book openings—ways to begin the game—used by chess masters. Press the OPTIONS key to display OPEN, and then press the + or - button to select the number of the opening you want to learn. (See below.) Press the CLEAR key to return to normal play.

Now play a move. If your move is not the correct opening move, an error buzz will sound. To learn the correct move press HINT. When the computer comes back with its move, you will briefly see the word OPEN on the screen if you have another opening move to make. If the word OPEN does not appear, you may continue normal play sinceyou have com- pleted the training for that opening line.

The names of the openings are:

1.Ruy Lopez, Open Defense

2.Ruy Lopez, Zaitsev Defense

3.Ruy Lopez, Exchange

4.Scotch Game

5.Scotch Four Knights

6.Giuoco Piano

7.Two Knights Defense

8.Four Knights

9.Petroff’s Defense

10.Sicilian Alapin Variation

11.Sicilian, Najdorf Variation

12.Sicilian, Dragon Variation

13.Sicilian, Keres Attack

14.Caro-Kann Defense

15.Panov-Botvinnik Attack

16.Caro-Kann Excahnge Variation

6