Nova Chess 1.11 03/28/1996 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nova Chess is a chessprogram for MS-DOS. Requirements: CPU 80386 or better installed mouse driver Copyright: Nova Chess is Freeware. It may be copied and used without charge. It is not allowed to sell this software nor to make any modifications to it. All rights are reserved by the author. The author is not responsible for any possible damage caused by the use of this software. Controls: - The menu appears when the mousepointer is placed at the top of the screen and vanishes when the mousepointer is moved downwards. If a topic on the menubar is selected, you may exit without making a selection by pressing the right mousebutton. - To make a move click seperatly on the FROM square and on the TO square. To deactivate a selected piece just click on it again. - To stop the computer from calculating a move press the right mousebutton. The computer will make its move immediately. - With the following function keys you can change the colors. There are 64 colors to choose from. The specified function key increases the value by 1, together with SHIFT it decreases the value by 1. F1 - changes the color of the black squares F2 - changes the color of the white squares F3 - changes the color of the black pieces F4 - changes the color of the white pieces F5 - changes the color of the border F6 - changes the color of the text F7 - changes the color of the background F8 - changes the color of the overscan F9, SHIFT+F9, F10 and SHIFT+F10 show default colors. Menubar: GAME New Starts a new game. Change sides Switches the sides without turning the board. The computer starts to compute its move immediately. Rotate board Turns the board without switching the sides. Take back Takes back a halfmove. You are allowed to take back as many moves as you wish. Alternatively you may use +. Exit All changes you have made to colors, levels and options will be saved. After this the program terminates. Note: The actual game can't be saved. LEVELS Time Specifies the time the computer will take for calculating its move. The program stays within the selected time-limit. Depth The program stops calculating when it reaches the specified depth. This setting is used to limit the horizon of the program in order to reduce its strength. Beginners should use the setting 1. The computer may take some time to calculate a move if you choose 6 or more halfmoves (depends on the number of pieces on the board). OPTIONS Sound Toggles the sound on/off. The sound isn't correct if you run Nova Chess under Windows. Random The computer does not only play the best move but less good ones, too. The program is slower with this setting on. Show ML The line of best moves (=main line) is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Beginners get some hints by examining the second move of this line because the computer calculated it as the best response. INFO Controls Short information about the controls. Nova Chess Information about Nova Chess. Nova Chess was not designed to replace professional chessprograms according to strength and functionality. New versions will be uploaded to the ChessForum on CompuServe. Thomas Starke CIS 101532,1007