robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (04/27/84)
References: Although this is a version of checkers, I suspect it is primarily of interest to chess players because of its complexity. Beautiful, bewildering combinations a few moves deep show up continuously in this game. I learned this game from Joe Tamargo in 1958. Set up the usual board for a normal game of checkers. The dark squares, where all the pieces start, is heaven; the light color is hell. Offboard is limbo. The board is a torus, that is -- both the sides and ends are connected. Every square on the board has the same number of neighbor squares. When one player has no pieces in heaven, his opponent wins. Checker "men" move as in checkers -- diagonally forward (including the forward paths allowed by the torus board). Checker kings move diagonally backwards and forwards. Kings are created only by CAPTURE (see below), not by reaching the "end" of the board; there is no end. The capture rules: Pieces are jumped over as in regular checkers. A player must make at least a single capture if able to capture on a turn. The rules for disposing of a jumped piece are special: As a piece is jumped, it is moved an odd number of squares to the jumping player's LEFT (horizontally). The checker will thus move 1,3,5, or 7 squares (remember the sides of the board are connected). The piece is moved to the first of these squares that satisifies these conditions: - either the square is empty, - or it is inhabited by a man (not a king) of the same color as the jumped piece. If none of the four squares meet either of these conditions, the jumped piece is moved into limbo, that is -- off the board and permanently out of the game. If a jumped piece winds up on top of a man of its color, the double piece is now permanently a king and can move and jump backwards as well as forwards. Note that a jumped piece moves from heaven to hell or vice versa. Therefore you will find that you are playing two loosely connected games -- checkers in heaven, and losing checkers in hell. A game may end by draw (mutual agreement) if it is obvious that neither player can make progress. A game should probably be called a draw if no capture is made in 20 moves by each player. If you try the game, please let me know... - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) allegra!eosp1!robison decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison princeton!eosp1!robison