Entering Your Own Opening, Ratings | Excalibur electronic 908-EFG

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Classical Var.

23. Nimzo-Indian Defense, Rubinstein Var.

24. Semi-Slav Defense

25. Queen’s Indian Defense

26. Queen’s Indian Defense, Petrosian Var.

27. Bogolubow Indian Defense

28. Catalan

29. Gruenfeld Defense

30. King’s Indian Defense

31. Modern Benoni Defense

32. Benko Gambit

The moves and explanations of these famous openings are given in many books on chess.

Entering Your Own

Opening

Alexandra also allows you to set up any book opening you want—or even an opening you invent—to practice. Press MULTI-MOVE, then make moves for both sides until the opening position you want to practice is reached. Now press MULTI-MOVE again. Press

CLEAR to play against the computer in this position.

Piece Training

There are five special mini- games. The most famous and successful chess teachers in the world take their beginning stu- dents from the simple to the complex by having them play “mini-games” of chess that concentrate on just one or more types of pieces. Even advanced players practice these basics, just as a concert pianist contin- ues to practice the scales so that they remain second nature. Like any great trainer, Alexandra will play you these special practice games.

First make sure you are at the start of a game by pressing NEW GAME. Now press OPTIONS until “TRAIN” is displayed. Then press the key (queen, bishop, knight, rook, or pawn) of the mini-game you want to try. The mini-games

always include the king and pawns for both sides. In fact, one mini-game contains just this material (press PAWN).

wdwdkdwd 0p0p0p0p wdwdwdwd dwdwdwdw wdwdwdwd dwdwdwdw P)P)P)P) dwdwIwdw

Kings & Pawns Training

The other four mini-games use kings and pawns, but add a dif- ferent single piece to the exer- cise—knight, bishop, rook, and then queen.

Start with the basic king

and pawns mini-game. Make your first move. Your object, as in regular chess, is to checkmate the king. Normally, this means both sides will try to

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force a pawn through to the other side of the board safely to promote it to a queen. You'll learn lots of principles, tricks, and traps in this training mode that will win you many full- fledged chess games!

Ratings

To view your rating, press OPTIONS until “RATE” is displayed. Your current rating appears on the display.

To have your rating change, you must complete a rated game on a tournament or sud- den 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.

17 Finally select the Tournament