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Games

Draughts

Draughts on an inlaid maple and walnut board: Russian draughts with flying kings, English draughts and giveaway. Taking is compulsory and goes on while anything can be taken; the computer plays at five levels, from a beginner to a master that sees every capture to its end, or you play a friend at the same table.

By Mykhailo Makarov

Draughts — Actual application image
Actual application image

What happens

Men move one square diagonally forward and take by jumping over an enemy piece to the empty square beyond; taking is compulsory, and a capture goes on while anything can be taken – the pieces taken stay on the board until it is over and cannot be jumped twice. A man that reaches the far rank becomes a king. In Russian draughts men also take backwards, kings fly along the diagonals, a man crowned in the middle of a capture goes on as a king, and White begins. In English draughts men take forwards only, kings move one square, the crowning ends the move, and Black begins. In giveaway the side that loses all its pieces or is left without a move wins. A game is drawn by threefold repetition, by fifteen moves of kings without a capture (forty in English draughts), or by a king against a king. The computer searches with alpha-beta, a transposition table, late move reductions and killer moves, and follows every capture to its end.

Try this

Click a piece, then the square to move it to; for a capture with several routes, click the landings in turn. The right mouse button turns the table, the wheel zooms.

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Chess — Actual application image

Games

Chess

Chess on a lacquered board with turned ivory and ebony chessmen: castling, en passant, promotion, check and mate, stalemate and the draws by repetition, by the fifty-move rule and for lack of material. Play the computer at five levels, from a beginner who leaves pieces hanging to a searcher that looks several moves deep and follows every exchange to its end, play a friend, or watch a demo game.

Go — Actual application image

Games

Go

The oldest board game still played: place stones to surround more of the board than your opponent, take the stones you enclose, and count the area at the end. Boards of 9, 13 and 19 lines, handicap stones, ko and superko, area scoring with komi. Play the computer at five levels, from a novice that plays out a few hundred random games before each move to a master that plays out up to two hundred thousand across the processor’s cores, play a friend at the same table, or watch the computer play itself.

Backgammon and nardy — Actual application image

Games

Backgammon and nardy

Long nardy, the game of the Caucasus and Central Asia, and short nardy, known in the West as backgammon, on a walnut board with ivory and ebony checkers and dice that tumble to rest. Every legal way to play a roll is offered step by step; the computer judges positions with the small neural networks of 3D Nardy, taught by playing itself, at five levels from a novice that misjudges on purpose to a master that looks a roll ahead. Play the computer, a friend at the same table, or watch a demo game.