E X C A L I BU R E L E C T RO N I C S King Ar thur OPERATING MANUAL www.ExcaliburElectronics.com English p. 2 Model No.
ENGLISH ENGLISH ongratulations! You now own King Arthur, not just a terrific chess player, but your own personal chess trainer.
ENGLISH ENGLISH KING ARTHUR TABLE OF CONTENTS, CONTINUED CHAPTER 4: GETTING A RATING AT THE ROUND TABLE 4.1 4.2 CHAPTER 5: SPECIAL MESSAGES FROM CAMELOT 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 . . . .page 19 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 . . . . . . . . . . page 21 Capturing Castling Promoting pawns En passant—taking a pawn in passing 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.
ENGLISH ENGLISH KING ARTHUR 1.2 Finding the pieces CHAPTER 1: The larger compartment lid on the left conveniently stores your chess pieces when they’re not in use. Although one of King Arthur’s breakthrough features permits you to play without using these pieces, let’s start by using them. Open the larger lid in the same method you used in Step 1. Remove the pieces and set them to the side. Then replace the lid. Now you can turn King Arthur right side up, with the Excalibur Knight on the bottom left.
ENGLISH ENGLISH If you make an illegal move, King Arthur will sound a lower tone and display the TO and FROM squares necessary to move the piece back to its previous square. When this happens, you must follow the standard procedure of pushing on the FROM and TO squares to get the piece back in its previous position. Then make a legal move. registered your move. Place the piece gently on its new square.
ENGLISH ENGLISH KING ARTHUR CHAPTER 2: Sensory Board Recognizes your moves. KEY FUNCTIONS & GENERAL LAYOUT RATING Key Physical chess pieces Check your rating. SETUP Key OPTION Key Add or remove pieces and enter special positions. Select many features. CONTRAST Key HINT Key Adjust display contrast. Obtain a hint. WIN Key Rate a win. THREAT Key AUTO Key See the threat! Watch King Arthur play himself. MODE Key Access training features. LEVEL Key Change skill levels.
ENGLISH ENGLISH KING ARTHUR CHAPTER 3: SPECIAL KEYS & FEATURES 3.1 Starting a new game up at your end—close to the LCD. Of course, the labels on the squares can’t change. So when playing White, if King Arthur wants to play what normally would be “E2-E4” for White, he’ll do this by communicating “E7-E5,” which accurately corresponds to your board. Make all moves and choose all options in the normal fashion. If you want to start a new game, simply push the NEW GAME button when it’s not King Arthur’s move.
ENGLISH ENGLISH 3.7 Changing levels of play the number of the current move. If instead you want to display the piece-score of your current position to see quickly who’s ahead in material, turn on the “SCORE” option. The score option totals the following values: Pawns—1, Knights—3, Bishops—3, Rooks—5, and Queen—9. You can change levels by pressing the LEVEL key to increase the level one at a time. Pressing the > key increases the level by 10. Pressing the < key decreases the level by 10.
ENGLISH ENGLISH sound on, “1” - No sound on, or “0” - No sound except for error buzzes. Turn this option off by pressing >. Exit OPTION mode by pressing ON/CLEAR. Even when the sound option is turned off, King Arthur will continue to announce that he has found a move by making his normal sound. He will also sound an alarm when an illegal move is made, and make the “in check” warning sound. Press the BOARD key.
ENGLISH ENGLISH KING ARTHUR CHAPTER 4: GETTING A RATING AT THE ROUND TABLE 4.1 Viewing your rating simply press the RATING key and then press the appropriate key: WIN, DRAW, or LOSS, depending on your result in the game. That’s all there is to it. King Arthur will automatically adjust your rating. However, when you checkmate King Arthur, he will display “LOSE.” Before updating your rating, you must press the NEW GAME key and then the RATING key to register your win.
ENGLISH ENGLISH be displayed. (Stalemate occurs when one of the players has no legal moves but is not in check. Stalemate is one of the ways a game can be drawn.) happens, you can push the THREAT key, and King Arthur will flash the threatening move. Draw Messages 5.5 Draw Game-ending Messages 5.7 Forced checkmates When King Arthur recognizes that a three-fold repetition of the position has occurred, he will display “DRAW.
ENGLISH ENGLISH 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 SET UP feature. (See Chapter 9.) King Arthur immediately recognizes your new piece, and begins thinking about the position 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.
ENGLISH ENGLISH ing. In this mode, King Arthur will search faster and look more deeply into the position. Press > or < to turn FAST on or off. Press CLEAR to exit options mode. the stage of the game, and whether or not the FAST level option is on. 7.4 Infinite search Level 73 is an infinite level. King Arthur will take as long to move as you want him to, or until he finds a mate position in his search. Level 73 is perfect for problem solving (see Chapter 10). You can also play against it.
ENGLISH ENGLISH mating-practice exercises will make sure you know the techniques. After pressing MODE until “TrAIn” appears, again press > until you come to positions without pawns and with the Black king in the middle of the board. These are the mate-training positions. The three different mate-training positions give White, besides his king, either two bishops, two rooks, or the queen. These are excellent exercises, used by the greatest chess teachers in the world.
ENGLISH ENGLISH forth between a book and a chessboard. But with your King Arthur’s special training feature, you’ll find yourself learning the openings extremely quickly, saving yourself many hours—and having fun while you learn! Use this training mode as often as you wish—keep improving your knowledge of opening play! At the beginning of a game, you may choose to learn one of 34 popular book openings. Press MODE until “OP En” is displayed.
ENGLISH ENGLISH automatically give you the winning side. Make the best move you find! King Arthur will give you points for each correct move that you make. The display will show your total great-game score in two digits (zero at the start) on the left. On the right, the display also shows the amount of points you will win if you play the correct next great-game move.
ENGLISH ENGLISH 6. Gaudersen vs. Paul, Melbourne, 1928 This "miniature" of only 15 moves, starts off as a French Defense in which White plays the Advance Variation, placing his pawns on d4 and e5. Black's 8th move, castling, was in this case a blunder because his kingside is attacked by many pieces and not effectively defended. White's sparkling 9. Bxh7+ is an example of a bishop sacrifice that's happened so often it has a name—the "Greek Gift." White's 14.
ENGLISH ENGLISH queen. If 26. … Qxh6, then White plays 27. Qxh6+ and will mate on h7. pieces—for example, from a knight to a queen. Obviously, this feature lets you strengthen your side of the game or the computer’s, resurrect lost pieces, or even move your king out of an imminent checkmate threat.
ENGLISH ENGLISH appears in the right color on your display. Follow this procedure until all the pieces in the problem or position are completely set up. Make sure that King Arthur knows which color is to move— press CONTRAST ( / ) to change the side to move. Finally, press CLEAR to play or to have King Arthur analyze the position. press it until the king is the correct color. (You won’t be permitted to leave the SETUP mode until both the White and Black king are placed.
ENGLISH ENGLISH 10.3 Battery Information 10.4 Limited One-Year Warranty CAUTION: BATTERIES SHOULD BE REMOVED AND REPLACED BY ADULTS ONLY. King Arthur uses 3 AA batteries, not included. Do not mix old and new batteries. Do not mix alkaline, standard (carbon-zinc) or rechargeable (nickel-cadmium) batteries. Do not use rechargeable batteries. To avoid explosion or leakage, do not dispose of batteries in a fire or attempt to recharge standard or alkaline batteries.
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