Contents

Making moves

Cancelling a move

Undo (reverse) a move

Auto Moving

Entering Player names

Options


Making Moves
Moving pieces

As long as the Must Jump Rule is in force, moving is done like so:

To move a piece one space (not a jump):

1.	Click on the piece with either mouse button.  The piece turns light blue.

2.	Click on the new location with either mouse button.  The piece moves there.

To jump over one of your opponent's pieces:

1.	Click on the piece which you are going to move with either mouse button.  The piece turns light blue.

2.	Click on the new location with either mouse button.  The piece moves there, the jumped opponent's piece disappears, and your Pieces captured score increases by one.

To jump over more than one of your opponent's pieces:

1.	Click on the piece which you are going to move with either mouse button.  The piece turns light blue.

2.	Click on the first new location with either mouse button.  Another blue piece appears there, indicating the first jump.

3.	If more than two jumps, repeat step #2 for all but the last jump.

4.	Click on the last location with either mouse button.  The piece moves there, the jumped opponent's pieces disappear, and your Pieces captured score increases by the number of pieces you jumped.

If the Must Jump rule is not enabled, then the right mouse button must be used to make multiple jumps:

1.	Click on the piece which you are going to move with either mouse button.  The piece turns light blue.

2.	Click on the first intermediate location with the right mouse button.  Another blue piece appears there, indicating the first jump.

3.	If more than two jumps, repeat step #2 for all but the last jump.

4.	Click on the last location with the right mouse button.  Note that with Must Jump off, this could be at a point where there are still more jumps available (but for whatever reason you choose not to take them).  The piece moves there, the jumped opponent's pieces disappear, and your Pieces captured score increases by the number of pieces you jumped.

See also:

Changing your mind before you finish a move

Undo (reverse) a move


Cancelling a Move
Canceling a Move

After you select the piece to move (turning it light blue), you can cancel the move by clicking on the light blue piece with either mouse button.  The piece returns to its original color and you can start the move again.

If you're in the middle of a multiple-jump move, you can cancel the steps in reverse order: click the last location (light blue piece), it disappears.  If you continue back to where the piece was when the move started, it returns to its original color and you can start the move again.


Undo (reverse) a Move

The button marked Undo allows you to reverse the last move completed.  It returns the moved piece to its original location, and replaces any pieces which were captured by a jump.

When the last player to move was a real person:

Press Undo to reverse the last move.  The player can then move again.

When the last player to move was the computer (Auto button down):

When you press Undo to reverse the last move, the player's Auto button will be raised to keep the computer from immediately repeating its move.  You'll be notified of this via a message box (you can avoid having this box pop up by raising the Auto button yourself before you press Undo).

If it was really your last move you wanted to reverse, press Undo a second time.  You may then try your move again.

Once you're ready for the computer to resume moving, press its Auto button back down.


Auto Moving

To have the computer automatically move one of the players, press the Auto button (located next to the Player Name box) so that it's in the down position.

To turn off automatic moving at any time, press the Auto button again (returning it to the up position).

The computer's skill and personality are set on the Options box.


Player Name box

The Player Name boxes are located below (for Red player) and above (for Black player) the Pieces captured indicators.

If you click in the box, then type in the name of the player, the name will be used to prompt for moves, and shown in the winner dialog box.


Auto Skill Levels

The Auto Skill Level settings determine how the computer determines the next move for a player when the Auto button for that player is down.

The level corresponds to how far ahead the computer looks at possible sequences of moves before selecting the combination which it feels maximizes its chances to capture pieces!

Level 0 is the stupid setting - the computer only looks at whether it has any immediate opportunities to jump; Level 5 is the smartest setting, and Levels 2, 3, and 4 are, of course, in between.

Note: at levels 4 and 5, you might find yourself waiting for the computer to make up its mind, especially if Must jump is not selected.


Must Jump rule

In tournament play, if you have the opportunity to jump one of your opponent's pieces, you must do so.  This allows additional strategy (and challenge) as you can sacrifice your own pieces to force your opponent to make particular moves.

By default this rule is turned on.  If you turn it off, you'll find that Automatic play may be slower, since the computer has to consider more possible moves (with Must jump on, it won't bother considering non-jump moves when jumps are available).

Whenever you attempt a non-jumping move when a jump is available, you'll be notified by a message box (unless you turn it off by un-checking Show must jump help in the Options box).


Options

Must Jump

When checked, the Must Jump rule is enforced.

Show must jump help

When checked, and you attempt to violate the Must Jump rule, a reminder box is displayed before the move is refused.

Show hints

When checked, "hints" appear for various of the controls and displays whenever the mouse cursor pauses over them.

Low squares color...

Allows you to select the color for the lowered (non-playing) squares.

Auto Player configurations

Skill level

Determines the "skillful" the computer is when moving.

Aggressive/Conservative

Adjusts the "personality" used by the computer when moving.

Suicidal

When checked, reverses the computer's goal (to allow for Suicide play).


Personality

When the computer attempts a move, it looks at all combinations of moves and counter-moves as far ahead as its Skill level specifies.  It assigns points for captures (positive for taking an opponent's piece, negative for losing its own piece) and for moving toward the "king" row.

It then selects the move with maximum points.

Note that a sequence of moves which includes a one-for-one swap of pieces might have the same point value as one which has no captures.

If more than one move yields the same number of points, Aggressive and Conservative settings affect how it picks from among these moves:

If neither Aggressive or Conservative is checked, the computer randomly selects from the available moves.

If Aggressive is checked, it will select the move which results in the most loss of pieces.

If Conservative is checked it will select the move which results in the least loss of pieces.


Suicide
Suicide Play

In Suicide play, the object of the game is reversed: the player to lose all his or her pieces first is the winner.

To play Suicide against the computer, check the Suicidal setting found in the Options box.