BLITZ-DRAUGHTS FOR WINDOWS ---------------------------- BLITZ DRAUGHTS, and this document file, are COPYRIGHT PC SOLUTIONS, All rights are reserved. Welcome to BLITZ DRAUGHTS, the worlds strongest shareware draughts program! Please note that shareware is * NOT * free software - if you use it, you are obliged to pay for it. You can become a legitimate registered user by purchasing any our program-packs - details will be given when you run BLITZ. You will need to be a very good player to beat BLITZ, even on a very low level of play. Remember that the F5 key enables two-player/set-up mode, so you can enter the moves of a game to set up a position, or use the computer as a display for two human players. Note that you can also change the X-Y size of the board - have fun with checkers on a 5x7 board! BLITZ is the ONLY program able to do this. Note that black pieces come out yellow - if they were black, they would be invisible! I choose what I think is the most pleasing combination. BLITZ has all the features that you would expect from a commercial chess program, ie. fast ALPHA-BETA tree search, opening book (for the 8 by 8 game), and much more. The response time is used as a GAME- AVERAGE - sometimes the computer takes longer, but in the long run it is accurate. The total time taken is given as #Sec, and total moves as #Mov, at the top right of the screen. The SHAPE FUNCTION inverts all black squares for grey and visa versa - this is most effective on odd-sized board shapes. When BLITZ returns a score of +/-30000, a win/loss is in sight, and the compter is playing perfectly! If you like SHAREWARE-BLITZ, please buy the full version, on GAMES- -PACK-1, which has extra Strength Levels, position Edit, Game Replay/ Load/Save/Backtrack and more. It also plays a MUCH stronger, faster game - indeed tests show that it outplays ALL other commercial draughts programs at this time. PLEASE support quality shareware like this!! PLAYING THE GAME ------------------ DRAUGHTS is traditionally played on the BLACK squares of an 8 by 8 chess board - BLITZ can re-size the board, but for clarity let us discuss the 8 by 8 game. The squares are numbered from 1 (bott right) to 32 (top left), with black men on squares 1-12 and white on squares 21-32. Men move diagonally forward onto empty squares, or jump over and capture an opponent if there's a clear space behind it. One VERY important rule - IF YOU CAN JUMP, YOU MUST! If, after jumping, the same piece can jump again, IT MUST! One exception to this rule - when a man reaches the KING-ROW (the 8th), and is made into a KING, it may NOT make any futher jumps - until the next move! When a man becomes a KING, it can move in all 4 diagonal directions. When one side has no legal moves left, that side loses the game! Commands DURING PLAY:- ESC - Abort back to main menu - for new game or exit. -,+ - Alter average response time in seconds - ZERO for beginners. F1 - Show moves, ie. all of your movable pieces. F2 - Make me take your go. F4 - Display board numbering. F5 - Toggle two-player/setup mode on/off. F6 - Invert board upside-down. F12 - Help screens.. v - View (Load and replay) a game from disk. CTRL-B Best line display toggle. Installing BLITZ DRAUGHTS on WINDOWS. ------------------------------------- To install BLITZ DRAUGHTS to run under windows, follow these steps:- 1) Run windows, and select the GAMES group. 2) Hold the ALT key down, and double-click the mouse at an empty position where you want BLITZ DRAUGHTS to appear. 3) The cursor will be in the DESCRIPTION box - type the name of the program - ie. BLITZ DRAUGHTS. 4) Now click the cursor on the COMMAND LINE box, and enter the path for BLITZ DRAUGHTS - ie. C:\BLITZ\BLITZ52W.EXE - if in doubt, use the BROWSE option. 5) Now click on the CHANGE ICON box - you will be asked to select an icon from the Program Manager. Click OK on that, then enter the path for BLITZ DRAUGHTS - ie. C:\BLITZ\BLITZ.ICO or use browse again. 6) Click on OK, and you are ready to go! BACKGROUND INFO ----------------- +------------------------+ |::: 32::: 31::: 30::: 29| White side, moving down. | 28::: 27::: 26::: 25:::| |::: 24::: 23::: 22::: 21| | 20::: 19::: 18::: 17:::| |::: 16::: 15::: 14::: 13| Board numbering for English draughts. | 12::: 11::: 10::: 9 :::| |::: 8 ::: 7 ::: 6 ::: 5 | | 4 ::: 3 ::: 2 ::: 1 :::| Black side, moving up. +------------------------+ You will find the end-game problems given below on the disk with BLITZ - you can select the VIEW option, then play through them, a step at a time. Remember that the Registered version gives you the option to save, annotate and replay your own game positions and problems as well! Draughts is a much under rated and neglected game, often derided as a 'kids' game, and looked down upon by exponents of games like chess. This view is unjustified, as the game offers characteristics and suppleties simply not found in any other board game. And despite of over 200 years of research and analysis of the game, there is still plenty of new play to be found by the adventurous player. In a way, the virtue of the game is actually in its limited piece movement and mobility, since this forces you think in terms of warding off threats at a much deeper level than you would do in a game like chess, that has a larger mobility. The most important rule is that if you can jump YOU MUST! This leads to fascinating combinations, often sparked by cunning material sacrifice. Consider this problem:- Black Man on 4, Black king on 6, White men on 7 and 12. Black to play and win. (or B 4,K6 : W 7,12 in standard notation.) View PROB01.B on disk. The winning move is 4-8! White MUST jump 12-3, its man at 3 becoming a king. Now black moves his king 6-2! White now only has 1 move, 3-8, since its man at 7 cannot move, and black simply jumps the 2 pieces 2-11,11-4 and wins! Here is another problem:- B 1,2,6 : W 11,18,27 with black to play & win. (View PROB02.B on disk) The key move for black is 2-7 !! White replies 11-2, and the new king HAS to stop at 2 to be crowned, it cannot go on and make further jumps. Black now plays 1-5, White must jump 2-9 and black wins with 5-14,14-23,23-32. Now a harder problem:- (Composed by D.Oldbury) W 6,10,14,15,18,19,22,23,27 : B 1,3,7,12,K13,20,K25,26 White to play and win. (View PROB03.B on disk) Sage/Blitz can see the 17 move solution in about 1 second on a 486!! 27-24! 20-27, 14-9, 7-14, 15-11, 1-10, 11-7, 13-6, 18-9-2, 25-18, 23-14, 10-17, 19-16, 3-10, 2-6, 12-19, 6-15-24-31-22-13 White wins. OK, having done something to convince you of the beauty of the game, let us backtrack, and consider how you should approach actual play. In the broadest terms, getting a man up, without your opponent having any compensating advantage, will usually win you the game. In the opening, beginners often lose pieces by pushing them forward too far and too fast. Another common mistake is to break up your back rank WITHOUT FORCING YOUR OPPONENT TO DO THE SAME. Your back rank is protection against your opponent getting a king, and also provides some protection against piercing shots and combinations. So, for black, it is a good idea to keep the pieces at 1,2,3,6,7 intact for as long as possible. Note that I have excluded squares 4 & 8 - these are the SINGLE CORNER squares, and it is usually safe to evacuate these squares at an early stage - it is hard to get through for a king here, and even when you do, the king can often be held by a defender at square 3. By contrast, you should take particular care to defend your DOUBLE CORNER squares at 1 & 5 - this is a good place to break through for a king. For this reason, black will often keep men at 1 & 3 right through until the late stages of a game - this is called the BRIDGE defence. White usually has to place a man on square 10 before he can march through for a king. The BRIDGE can also tie up white men at square 12 (3 holds it) and 5 (1 holds it) - these are called the DOG-HOLES, and white should avoid going into these squares if at all possible. A good way to for White to attack blacks double corner is by occupying or controlling squares 14, 18 and 23 - this line-up is called the DYKE formation. Of course all the above applies equally WHITES back defence squares as well - for instance the White BRIDGE is at squares 30 & 32. To get to grips with the game, let us examine the classic openings - first let us look at blacks opening moves, strongest first. 11-15 - Considered to be Blacks strongest - dominating the center. 11-16 - The BRISTOL also good for black, often followed by 24-20, 16-19 with black attacking 19. 9-14 - The DOUBLE-CORNER - much under rated, often followed by 22-18, 5-9, 25-22 with many traps laying in wait for white. 10-15 - The KELSO - While superficially looking strong, it does tend to jam up blacks single corner a little. 10-14 - The DENNY, an even opening, often followed with 22-18, 11-16. 12-16 - The DUNDEE - weak for black, since 24-20 cramps his Single Corner. 9-13 - The EDINBURGH - while traditionally considered weak for black since White's 22-18 grabs the center, modern analysis reveals later counterplay for Black if played correctly. The 11-15 move deserves special consideration - it is draughts equivalant to E2-E4 in chess! White has 7 replies, all of them good! In decending order of strength they are ...
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