to the original move, you can

TAKENBACK

press the key to replay the MOVEmove or moves.

3.7

 

 

Changing levels of play

You can change levels by

pressing the

LEVEL

key to

increase the level one at a time.

Pressing the > key increases the

level by 10. Pressing the < key

decreases the level by 10. (See

chapter 7 for a full explanation

of levels.)

 

 

3.8 Display options

 

You have quite a choice of

information that King Arthur

will display for you. All of these

options are made available by

pressing the

OPTION

key until

they are displayed. Then press >

to turn these options ON or OFF.

Press the CLEAR key to exit

OPTION.

 

 

Displaying total

 

game time used:

normally

Your King

Arthur

shows the time taken for each move. With the “TotAL” option, you can instead choose to have 14

the total game time displayed.

Displaying

the position score:

Your display normally shows the number of the current move. If instead you want to display the piece-score of your current position to see quickly who’s ahead in material, turn on the “SCORE” option. The score option totals the following val- ues: Pawns—1, Knights—3, Bishops—3, Rooks—5, and Queen—9.

3.9Forcing King Arthur to move immediately

To interrupt King Arthur while he’s thinking and make him move immediately, press the key. King Arthur will makeMOVE the best move he’s found

so far. This feature can be very useful on higher levels, when King Arthur may take a while thinking about his moves.

3.3 Getting Hints

If you don’t know which move to make, or you simply

want to see what King Arthur

would recommend, press , and the display will showHINTyou the move King Arthur believes to be best.

To show all legal moves for a selected piece, press the

button until is displayedOPTION. Press the HELPkey to turn on

>

the optionMOVE. The display will

show . Exit mode by pressingHELP / OPTION.

ON CLEAR

3.11 Displaying threats King Arthur will tell you when

there is a serious threat by dis- playing the “!” sign. (See also Section 5.4.) When this hap- pens, you can push the

key, and King Arthur willTHREATflash the threatening move.

3.12 Peeking into King Arthur’s brain on higher levels

At levels 6 and above, you can actually see what King Arthur is

“thinking.” Press until “InFO” is displayedOPTION. Turn this option on by pressing > or <. Exit OPTION. mode by pressing

ON/CLEAR

15

When turned on, this option will display the score, depth of search (number of moves King Arthur is “thinking ahead”), best move he is considering, and clock times. These will be dis- played while the computer is thinking at its higher levels.

3.13 Replaying a variation This feature is used best when

playing without the physical pieces (See 3.5, above.) When you want to take back a whole

series of moves, press then

. King ArthurAUTO will takeTAKEBACKback all moves in his mem- ory. If you change your mind, you can replay the entire string of moves by immediately press-

ing . (When “rPLAY” is no longerMOVEshown on the display, the last move of the variation has been reached.)

3.14

Practicing blindfold chess Very good players sometimes

amaze people by playing with- out looking at the pieces and board. King Arthur gives you a

Page 8
Image 8
Excalibur electronic 915-W manual Changing levels of play, Display options, Forcing King Arthur to move immediately