Explore the moo:

Welcome to: Cosmic rage!

By Nathan Tech!

Web view

You are in the web view for viewing help files online in your browser.
Viewing category gadgets..
back to help list

gadgets help: Chess

Overview

Chess is a game stretching back over 1000 years and has seen many different iterations throughout its existence. Modern chess most closely resembles European chess from the 1500s and is played in many different settings today from speed chess to the more traditional strategic methods used in popularized media. Here on CR, we bring you an off-shoot of battle chess, a version of the game where pieces battle over squares at the point of capture, though players may opt out of this mode using the MODE command on the chess set before the game begins.

Basics

During a game of chess, each player takes turns moving a piece in order to further a strategy which enables them to either capture or completely trap their enemy's king while preventing their own king from being endangered. Each class of piece has different rules governing their movement which are outlined in the next section of this help file.
In order to capture an enemy piece, your piece must not be blocked by an allied piece (with the exception of knights), and your piece must be able to land on the enemy piece via its valid moves. Chess pieces always stop once a piece is captured or engaged in battle. If the battle mode is on, the two pieces will fight over the square, and the winner keeps it. Otherwise, the piece is simply captured by the attacking piece if the battle mode is off. How best to win fights between pieces will be further explained in another section of this document.
Some games me be played on a timer. This means that both players start with the same amount of time on their respective clocks which only run down while it is their turn. As soon as it becomes the other player's turn, their clock begins running and the other pauses. If a win condition has not been reached by the time the clock reaches zero, the one with time remaining will win.
A king is in check if your opponent's next move will be able to capture it directly, and the only pieces that will be allowed to move during your turn are ones which can get your king out of danger. While this could be the king itself, there may be other pieces which could step between your king and the attacking enemy or capture it, so always keep your options open.
A checkmate occurs when none of your pieces still on the board can move to prevent your king being captured, either because several enemy pieces would threaten it no matter where it moved or because it is trapped by your own pieces. Use your best judgement to determine how to avoid checkmate as that is the end of the game once it happens.
A stalemate occurs when neither side can end the game because it is impossible to capture the other king. This most often happens if there are only two kings left on the board with absolutely no one else, and putting the opponent in check simply results in them moving out of check though other stalemate game states likely do exist.

Basic Piece Movement Rules

We have attempted to represent all of the standard methods of movement for each chess piece and have even included some special moves such as castling and pawn promotion, and while this help file is by no means a comprehensive explanation of how to play the game, we will at least include information on how each piece moves for complete beginners so that the maximum amount of people can enjoy this time-warn game.
Pawns: These pieces are usually considered the weakest pieces and only move forward on the board. During their first move, they can either take one step forward or two, though after their first move has been made, they may only move one square at a time. When capturing, they must move diagonally one square to capture that piece, and this is the only time they may move diagonally.
Rooks: These pieces may move as far as they wish in any of the perpendicular or orthogonal directions and are only blocked by allies and pieces they wish to capture.
Bishops: Like rooks, bishops may move as far as they wish, though they may only move diagonally and are blocked by allied and pieces they wish to capture.
Knights: Knights are the only chess piece that can jump over another piece regardless of alliance, and they must move in one direction by one square then perpendicular for two spaces or two spaces in the first direction and perpendicular for one space, always describing a right angle in their move. For example, if you have a knight at B1, you may either move two forward then one to the right to C3 or two forward and one to the left to A3. Conversely, you could move two to the right and one up to D2 assuming there is no allied piece at its destination. The knight will always capture the piece it lands on if its an enemy.
The Queen: Queens may move as far as they wish and they can go in any of the standard eight directions, both diagonally and orthogonally, only being blocked by another piece.
The King: This piece is the most important piece to protect as if it gets captured or cannot move out of danger, you lose the entire game. It can move in any of the eight directions but can only move a maximum of one square at a time with a few very special exceptions. If your king is able to be captured the next turn by your opponent, the game will alert you that your king is in check, and only moves that will get you out of check will be valid at this time. As such, if you have no ideas and are at a loss, you may always go to each of your pieces and type VALID to see what move will save you.

Special Moves

Pawn Promotion: If one of your pawns manages to reach the other side of the board unscathed and actually makes it to the final rank, you will be presented with the option to promote it into another one of the higher ranked pieces: Rook, Bishop, Knight, or Queen. Your pawn will transform, and you can continue on with that new piece.
Castling with your King: As mentioned above, sometimes, the king can move more than one square. If the squares between your king and king's-side rook are empty while the king is not in check, those two pieces can swap positions. To achieve this, select your king and drop it on top of your allied rook, and the game will do the rest. A similar move can be performed on the queen's-side rook, though the three squares between that rook and the king must be empty. For example, For white to castle on their king side, F1 and G1 must be empty, the king must not be in check, and both the king on E1 and the rook on H1 must not have moved yet. Select the king and drop on H1, and the rook will move to F1 with the king coming to rest on G1.

Battle Chess Specifics

As mentioned previously, the chess boards can be toggled between battle chess and ordinary chess. When in ordinary chess mode, none of the information within this section will apply.
Before the game, you are given the option to set up your pieces with the setup command, typed while focused on one of your pieces. Each piece has three stats you can directly control, one stat which changes passively, and three stats which are changed as a result of the first three.
Changeable stats:
1. Armor slots: Controls how much armor your piece will have.
2. Health slots: Controls how much hp your pieces will have.
3. Damage slots: Dictates how much damage your piece is capable of doing.
Affected Stats:
1. Armor: Each armor slot grants two to your piece's armor class.
2. HP: Each health slot grants your piece 3 HP on top of the 5 hp it gets as its base health.
3. Damage: Each damage slot grants your piece the potential to deal one extra damage on top of the one base damage.
Passive Stat:
1. Maximum Strength: Also known as the max slots, this stat determines how many slots each piece has. By default, pawns usually have two, bishops and rooks have three, knights have four, queens have five, and kings have six. However, this number increases under the following conditions.
1. All pieces on board when you win a game gain 0.5 to their max slots.
2. All pieces still on board when you lose a game gain 0.4 max slots.
3. When a piece successfully resists being captured, it gains 0.3 max slots.
4. When a piece successfully captures an enemy piece, it gains 0.2 max slots.
5. When a piece is a captured member of the winning side, it gains 0.1 max slots at the end of the game.
Each piece can increase until it hits 10.0 max slots at which point it will no longer advance. Furthermore, pieces with 10.0 strength may warn their players if a certain move will put them in danger of being captured, though one should not rely on it, especially if one does not own the chess set.
Once you move to capture a piece, you cannot take it back. The only thing you can do is sit back and watch, hoping your piece is strong enough to win. However, during combat and even before, you can get info on the current health of your piece and its opponent by typing info on the square where the piece is hanging out. Sometimes, in battle chess, capturing is not the answer even if you would normally do so as you may not win, even with the stronger piece.
An example of stats you might see are below.
a tall tentacle vacus squad commander
Type: king
Maximum strength: 6. 0.0% on the way to increase.
Health: 14
Armor class: 6
Maximum damage: 1
The first line is the name of the piece, and the second is the class of chess piece it is. Maximum strength is how many slots you can assign stats to, and the second bit of information on that line just tells you how long until your chess piece will aquire another slot." 14 health indicates that three health slots were assigned, increasing the five health by nine. the six armor class means that three armor slots were added. Finally, the one attack means that no damage slots were added, meaning that this piece will always deal one damage when it succeeds on an attack.
During a capture, the attacking piece goes first, rolling a d20 against the enemy's armor class. If it rolls a natural twenty or rolls above the armor class, it gets to roll for damage. A natural twenty will grant it automatic maximum damage. Otherwise, it will roll between one and its damage rating and deal that much to the enemy piece. If it rolls a one, it will miss its attack, even if the enemy has no armor class at all. Assuming the other piece is still alive, it will retaliate. This continues until one of them is dead and the square is either captured or defended.

Conclusion

Armed with the knowledge of both Cosmic Rage's version of battle chess and normal chess, you are now equipped to start playing. However, there are so many strategies and tacks one could take with this game, as it is far more than the rules and information laid down here. In fact, the Internet probably has far more comprehensive strategies you could employ, so if you are interested in what more there is to offer, go out and get it! there are several YouTube channels devoted to chess, though you can't mention them in character. A few final notes before you soldier on.
1. The game of chess is completely IC. While dragons have likely devised strategy board games in the past and still play them to this day, humans are the originators of chess as we know it in the real world with Ryuchi having adapted the version of battle chess you will be playing.
2. The chess boards are holographic. Though pieces may be described as several meters tall or may look alive, they are in fact holographic projections on a board that is one foot squared.
3. You are free to roleplay hooking the chessboard up to your holodeck and playing with full-sized pieces, though there is currently no mechanic requiring the chess board to be linked to a holodeck in order to be used.
4. There is no reason why further chess sets won't be designed and released, so keep an eye out in character for more fun chess set themes.
5. Chess boards and chess sets can be purchased where one would purchase games, and they can be found on the shopping network.
Thank you for reading, and enjoy all the chess things. Until we battle again, checkmate!

Outside Board Commands

load into : Load a chess set into the board for play. The first person to load their set will play as white on the first and second rank, and the second will play on the seventh and eighth rank.
Eject : (If you have a chess set loaded and no game is in progress) Ejects and unloads your chess set and its pieces.
Mode : Toggle the battle chess mode. (Can only be performed when no game is in progress)
Start : Begin a game. Both players must have chess sets loaded, and the opponent must agree to play.
END : Prematurely end a game of chess. Your opponent must agree to end, and doing so will eject both chess sets.
clock : Set the timer on the chess board. Entering zero minutes will disable the clock.
View : Starts the board viewing mode from where you control your pieces, set up stats, and get information about yourself and your opponent.

In Board Commands

L*ook: Look at the square you are focused on
INFO: Get info about the pieces on the square you are focused on
Setup: Readjust stats on a chess piece you are focused on
: (Such as A5 or D1) Shift your focus to that square on the board
: Enter a cardinal direction to move one square in that direction.
Peer : Look from your current position in a direction to the edge of the board (Useful for getting an overview of where several pieces are at once)
Turn: Check who's turn it is
time: Check how much time is left on the clocks during timed game play
Sel*ect: Select a piece for movement. Select again to unselect it.
Valid: View valid moves for a piece you are focused on if it belongs to you.
Dr*op: Drop a piece on a square you are focused on if its a valid move
Done/Exit: Exit this mode
--------- End of file -------
Back to the top of the file
Back to help file list

Why not explore the moo!