                      Welcome to CHESS 0.5 !


CHESS 0.5 was written by Larry Atkin, coauthor of the world championship
chess program CHESS 4.6.  The version you will play is written in Pascal.
It runs in the native mode on the VAX-11/780. Please report any bugs to
Ron Bauman (LDP).

The board layout is:

			8  --**--**--**--**
			7  **--**--**--**--
			6  --**--**--**--**
			5  **--**--**--**--
		ranks	4  --**--**--**--**
			3  **--**--**--**--
			2  --**--**--**--**
			1  **--**--**--**--
			   Q Q Q Q K K K K
			    R N B     B N R
				files

Each square of the board is uniquely identified by its file and rank.  For
example, White's queen rook occupies white's QR1. Black's queen rook occupies
black's QR1. Each piece of each side has a one-letter identifier.

			P : pawn
			R : rook
			N : knight
			B : bishop
			Q : queen
			K : king

An opening move might be P-K4, indicating the king's pawn is to be advanced
two squares from its present position.

CHESS 0.5 will indicate an ambiguous move. Indicate the piece or position
uniquely by appending a location after the piece identifier, i.e., P/K5*P.

CHESS 0.5 checks all moves for legality. Illegal moves are not allowed.

Castling is legal. O-O specifies a king-side castle, O-O-O a queen-side.

Pawn promotion is allowed. Specify the piece type (R,N,B,or Q) with the
move, i.e., P-K8=Q.

CHESS 0.5 also allows enpassant capture.

There are a number of commands that the program will accept.

	INIT	Initialize for a new game.
	END	Exit CHESS 0.5
	GO n	Computer should move, where n is the number
		of consecutive moves by both sides to be made.
	PRINT	Display the current piece positions on the board.
	PO	Print options. These include the side to move and
		castling options.
	SAVE	Save the current positions. The program will indicate
		the number that can entered with the UNS command to
		retrieve the position.
	UNS n	Retrieve a previously saved board. n is the board number
		to be retrieved.

CHESS 0.5 plays by default a game that will challenge beginners an inter-
mediate players.  If a more challenging game is desired, enter the command
LET FNODEL 1000.  This will increase the computer's lookahead ability but
also increase the time required by the computer to make a move.


Good luck!


