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Alter Way v.1.1
Benefit 
AlterWay is the second program in the Chess Puzzles Series.
It is aimed at developing heuristic and
combinatory thinking as well as at improving the skill of distributing one's attention over the whole
chessboard and taking decisions under conditions of time deficit. In the practical chess aspect the program
helps consolidate knowledge about the chess pieces (their movements and captures), and trains the ability
to make fast and accurate calculations; of particular importance is the fact that the program teaches to
take note of available/prospective interaction between/among pieces and make perfect use of it.
Game Rules
Pieces of both colours are involved in the game. You play for one side (you can
have any units except King and pawns) and the computer plays for the other (the
opposing side can have any units except King). The choice of the side you will
play for is entirely up to you. Any movements made on the board are your moves,
the computer only devises puzzling positions and passively watches your actions,
waiting for your error. Your task is to capture all of the other side's pieces;
but each of your moves must be a capture. That is, no non-capturing moves may be
played.
If you succeed in capturing all of the opposing pieces, you win. But if there
arises a situation when no more immediate captures can be played and on the
chessboard still remains at least one enemy piece, you lose. Besides, you also
lose when you have failed to perform the task within the allotted time interval.
What can be easier than to capture all pieces, you may say. However, that
"simplicity" is deceptive. Because in almost any situation you will be faced with
the possibility of not one but several seemingly alternative captures. And in
each of such situations you will have to make a correct choice, deciding what to
capture next and what route to follow. Thus, you will not be able to complete the
task successfully unless you quickly discover and execute an optimum sequence of
captures. But to do that will require much intellectual effort on your part! In a
lot of the tasks the goal can be achieved in several ways, though. The optimality
of the route you have chosen is not evaluated by the program and does not affect
the result. You can capture any one of the opponent's units by any one of your
own units (provided that the capture is legal). It is not necessary to use all of
the available units to eliminate the opponent's army: if you have several pieces,
and are able to capture all enemy units using just one of them (e.g. a Queen),
still it is a victory for you.
Features
The game has two modes: Play and Training. Play mode incorporates 10 levels of
difficulty. The difficulty of a particular task is determined by the number of
enemy pieces you must capture, the number of pieces at your disposal, and the
time interval in which you must cope with the task. The more pieces are on the
board, the more alternatives are available and hence the harder is the task.
All playing tasks are newly generated by the program, their number being virtually
unlimited and the possibility of encountering the same situation twice
practically equalling zero.
For each task you have coped with the program gives
you a certain number of points. The higher the difficulty level, the more points
you get.
To unlock all the features you must register.
Example
Try to solve the foollowing task of 5th difficulty level:
What should be the right sequence of capturing the computer's pieces? You need to
figure out everything in advance and start acting only afterwards. Because if in
the end only one enemy piece remains on the chessboard, you lose.
Download the latest version
(1.1, November 11, 1998)
AlterWay © 1999
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