Excalibur electronic 404-2 - Manuel (Page 17)

CHECKERS
Changing Games
After you have installed the batter-
ies, the display will show the chess
board with all the pieces on their
starting squares. The LCD will also
show 01CHESS. This indicates you
are at the first move of the game
and ready to play chess. If it does
not display 01CHESS, press ACL
using the stylus.
Whenever CHESS is shown on the
display, you may change to
Checkers by pressing the 2nd key,
and then pressing the START key.
The LCD display will show
01CHECr and will also show the
checkerboard with all the pieces on
their starting squares.
To change back to Chess press the
2nd key, then press the START key.
Remember, you can only change
games when CHESS or CHECr is
showing on the display.
The Basics of Checkers
Each player gets 12 checkers and
places his men on all of the dark
squares in the first three rows in
front of him. In contrast to chess,
Black moves first. But like chess,
the first player normally moves
from the "bottom" of the LCD
Pawn is diagrammed below:
3. A Pawn can be promoted if it
advances all the way to the far side
of the board. It is immediately pro-
moted, as part of the same move,
into a Queen, Rook, Bishop, or
Knight, whichever its owner choos-
es. Since a Queen is the most
powerful piece, it is nearly always
chosen as the promotion piece.
Through the promotion process,
there may be more than one
Queen on the board at the same
time.
Some Tips on Chess
1. Castle your King into safety as
soon as possible.
2. If you control the center squares
you will achieve an advantage. To
do this, move your center Pawns
and develop your Bishops and
Knights early in the game.
3. Take advantage of capture situ-
ations, particulary if you will gain
material.
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