OCP CHESS THE TURK ZX Spectrum 48K and Timex TS 2000 THE TURK A CHESS PROGRAM FOR THE 48K ZX SPECTRUM/TS2000 And say besides that in Aleppo once Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk Beat a Venetian and traduced the stage Othello - W. Shakespeare INTRODUCTION The original Turk was an eighteenth century automaton, a life-size mechanical figure resplendent in Turkish costume and seated behind a wooden cabinet on which a chess board and pieces were placed. Built in 1769 for the amusement of the Vienna Imperial Court by an engineering genius, Wolfgang von Kempelen, the machine played chess with all-comers; moving the pieces with its left hand whilst the doors of the cabinet would be opened to reveal the workings of numerous wheels and cogs. The moves it made were, no doubt, the product of a human player but the fascination lay in trying to guess where the human was hidden, how he followed the game, how he made the automaton move the pieces and how, given these handicaps, the player still managed to win most of his games. Perhaps a small boy was concealed within the body of the figure and was signalled moves by a real chess master amongst the audience. Or perhaps . . . but no matter - however it was done it was a wonderful trick. You now hold in front of you the twentieth century equivalent of that Turk - a chess playing computer. No trickery is involved - just the amazing power of machine code and Sinclair hardware. The Turk challenges you to a game of chess! Do you dare to play the Turk? Page 1 LOADING INSTRUCTIONS Insert cassette into Player, type LOAD "" ENTER. The program will take approximately 5 1/2 minutes to load, respond to the prompt "are you using a colour or black and white television?" and the MENU will be displayed as below:*** - THE TURK: MENU - Select one of the following:- 1. New game 2. Continue old game 3. Blitz chess 4. Demo:- the Turk plays itself 5. Input sequence of moves 6. Replay moves in the game 7. Edit board or setup new position 8. List moves to screen 9. List moves to printer 10. Line print the board 11. Save moves totape 12. Save board to tape 13. Load moves from tape 14. Load board from tape Keying in the number of your choice followed by ENTER selects the MENU option. The DELETE function will operate in case you change your mind. ***NOTE: In addition to our CHESS - THE TURK program we have included a routine that shows off to advantage the versatility of the ZX Spectrum. This demonstration program follows after The Turk on both sides of the cassette; to see for yourself type LOAD "" ENTER. We hope you enjoy it. Page 2 OPTION 1 - NEW GAME Respond to the prompt and select a game level followed by ENTER. Level 1 is the easiest and level 6 is the hardest (and the slowest). Approximate response times are: Level 1 a few seconds Level 2 10 seconds Level 3 90 seconds Level 4 10 minutes Level 5 60 minutes Level 6 6 hours BLACK OR WHITE The Turk will ask you to choose a colour, respond (upper or lower case will do) and the game begins. The board will be laid out as normal and if the user has chosen white the Turk asks for a move. HOW TO MOVE Moves are entered using standard algebraic notation, a move being specified by two pairs of co-ordinates. Thus if white wishes to move his King's Pawn two squares forward he simply types: e2e4 or E2E4 followed by ENTER (the Turk recognises both) If the move is legal the piece will flash and move across the board. Illegal moves are signalled and the Turk will ask for another move to be entered. THE TURK REPLIES The Turk will now compute its responding move. The move being considered is displayed just below the two clocks. The level of play is displayed above the clocks. The game progresses with the user and the Turk moving alternately. If any move attacks the opponent's King the word CHECK appears on the screen. Page 3 HELP: Typing "HELP" causes a move to be suggested. If the user decides to make the suggested move he presses ENTER if not he can remove it using DELETE. BACK: Typing "BACK" causes the board to return to the state it was one move ago. This enables the user to easily correct moves made by mistake. QUIT: Typing "QUIT" returns the user to the MENU. The game continues until one side is mated or both Kings are stalemated. The losing King is toppled onto its side and the Turk returns to the MENU. CASTLING, "EN PASSANT" and PROMOTION CASTLING: This is accomplished by moving the King - the Rook will move automatically. A player may castle at any time provided that normal conditions are met i.e. 1. The King and the Rook have not been moved. 2. There are no men between King and Rook. and 3. The King is not in check, will not pass through check nor will end up in check. "EN PASSANT": "En passant" captures are made according to the rules of chess, to re-cap for the less experienced these are as follows: 1. The move can only take place after the initial two- square move of a Pawn. 2. The move can only be made by an opposing Pawn that could legally have captured its adversary if it had moved one square. 3. The right to take "en passant" must be exercised at once or the privilege is lost. PROMOTION: When a Pawn reaches the eighth rank the Turk asks what Piece it is to be promoted to - namely Knight, Bishop, Rook or Queen. Page 4 OPTION 2 - CONTINUE OLD GAME Similar to Option 1 except that the pieces are not set up in their starting squares. This option is used in conjunction with options 5, 6 and 7. OPTION 3 - BLITZ CHESS In this mode both clocks count down from a starting time of 5 minutes. Whoever runs our of time first loses the game, so the player must mate or be mated before this happens. The Turk is rather good at this particular game! OPTION 4 - DEMONSTRATION MODE Here the Turk actually plays itself. Holding down any key returns the program to the MENU. OPTION 5 - INPUT SEQUENCE OF MOVES In this mode the Turk asks for both black and white's moves. Here two people could play each other at chess, the Turk simply displaying the board, keeping the times and recording the game. OPTION 6 - REPLAY In this mode the Turk replays the moves stored in its memory. Holding down the ‘S key freezes replay, while pressing the "F" key speeds it up, any other key causes a return to MENU. OPTION 7 - BOARD EDITOR Fully prompted, this mode allows the user to set up the board as he wants it, either starting with a full army and amending their numbers and positions or locating the pieces on a clear board. Ideal for tackling newspaper chess problems or replaying past games of the masters. Page 5 OPTION 8 - LIST MOVES TO SCREEN The Turk lists all the moves in the game using standard chess notation, i.e. X indicates a capture 0 - 0 indicates castling on the King's side 0 - 0 - 0 indicates castling on the Queen's side ep indicates an "en passant" capture Q indicates promotion to Queen OPTION 9 - LIST MOVES TO PRINTER The Turk lists all moves to the printer (if fitted), using standard chess notation as in option 8 above. OPTION 10 - LINE PRINT THE BOARD This mode prints out the actual chess board showing the positions of the various pieces as well as the co-ordinates. OPTION 11 - SAVE MOVES TO TAPE All the moves in the game are saved onto cassette. OPTION 12 - SAVE BOARD TO TAPE The current board position is saved onto cassette. This is useful for users who have had to suspend a game and wish to continue it. OPTION 13 - LOAD MOVES FROM TAPE This complements option 11 and loads the saved moves into the computer. This enables the Turk to perform options 6, 8 and 9 for the loaded game moves i.e. replay and list moves to the screen or printer. Old games can be continued via option 2 (continue old game) after option 6 (replay) has been completed. OPTION 14 - LOAD BOARD FROM TAPE This complements option 12 by re-loading board positions from tape back into the computer making it the current board position for option 2. The last 4 options are used if one wishes to make a permanent record of an interesting game or to store “hall-finished” games for completion at a later date. Page 6 HOW TO? CHANGE SIDES DURING A GAME Type "QUIT", return to MENU, select option 2 then choose the opposite colour. REMOVE THE TURK'S QUEEN (shame on you!) Type "QUIT", return to MENU, select option 7 and prompt 3 (Previous Position), move cursor to the offending Queen's square and press "C" followed by ENTER , respond to prompts and return to your game via option 2. GO BACK TO SOME POINT IN THE GAME Type "QUIT", return to the MENU and select option 6. Hold down any key at the point you wish to start playing from, select option 2. NOTE: to go back one move only type "BACK". CHANGE LEVEL DURING PLAY Type "QUIT", return to MENU and restart the game via option 2 at the new level. If you manage to break out of the program then type GOTO MENU, this will get you started again. Well that's it - all you need to know. May I wish you many pleasant and challenging hours playing chess with the Turk. (c) J. Hutchby 1982 Whilst we try very hard to provide a totally bug.free program it is always conceivable that there is one bug that we have missed. Users who feel that they have identified such a bug or who would like to find out more about our expanding range of super.friendly programs please contact us at the address below. OXFORD COMPUTER PUBLISHING LTD. P.O. BOX 99, OXFORD, ENGLAND Page 7