You already know, from
Chapter 3, section 3.7, how to
select the level King Arthur is
playing at. With his 72 levels of
play, King Arthur can adjust
himself to play you a competi-
tive game, no matter what your
level of skill! It’s more fun and
more educational to select a
level that gives both you and
King Arthur a reasonable chance
of winning. Try to find a level at
which you win about half the
time. As you get better, simply
adjust King Arthur’s playing
level so he can “improve” as you
do!
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ENGLISH
and press your king down on its
FROM
square (if castling king-
side,
E1
). Then move and press
your king down on its
TO
square
(if castling kingside,
G1
). King
Arthur automatically recognizes
castling maneuvers after the
king is moved two squares. He
then reminds you, by displaying
the proper
FROM
square, to com-
plete castling by moving the
rook. Move the rook in the rou-
tine manner, pushing on its
TO
and
FROM
squares normally.
Remember, you must always
move the King first when
castling!
6.3
Promoting Pawns
When a pawn reaches the
other end of the board, official
chess rules say that you can pro-
mote it to a more valuable piece.
To promote a pawn, make your
pawn move to the last rank in
the normal manner. King Arthur
will automatically promote the
pawn to a queen, since this is the
best choice in nearly every case.
In the unlikely event you want to
promote your pawn to a piece
other than a queen, use King
Arthur’s
SETUP
feature. (See
Chapter 9.)
King Arthur immediately rec-
ognizes your new piece, and
begins thinking about the posi-
tion in order to move. When the
computer pushes a pawn to your
back row or rank, it will always
promote to a queen. Remember
to change the piece on the board
after either side promotes a
pawn. When promoting a pawn
to a queen and the original
queen is still on the board, chess
players frequently mark the new
queen with an upside-down
rook.
6.4
En Passant —
taking a pawn in passing
For an
en passant
capture,
press the
FROM
and
TO
squares
of the capturing pawn. The
square of the pawn being cap-
tured will then appear on the dis-
play. This is to remind you to
remove the captured pawn. You
must press down on the captured
pawn before removing it from
the board.
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ENGLISH
KING ARTHUR
CHAPTER 7:
TOO HARD? TOO EASY?
ALL ABOUT LEVELS
7.1
Beginner levels
The first four levels (1, 2, 3
and 4) are beginner levels and
take approximately 4, 8, 12 and
16 seconds per move, respec-
tively.
7.2
Fixed ply levels
Level 5 is a fixed 1-ply (one-
half move) search.
7.3
Timed levels
Levels 6 through 15 take
about 1 second per level num-
ber, so level 10 will average
about 10 seconds per move.
Levels 16 through 72 take about
2 seconds per level numbers.
The amount of time taken will
vary depending on the position,
the stage of the game, and
whether or not the
FAST
level
option is on.
