WAXMAN 1.3w ... Pocket Chess for Windows. Copyright (C) 1992-93 Check-Tech Software, Inc. Box 802411, Chicago, IL 60680. RUNNING THE PROGRAM. You need WINDOWS 3.1 or later to run WAXMAN. Version 3.0 will do, too, but you have to install COMMDLG.DLL (from version 3.1) in your WINDOWS system directory. To start the program, double-click on its icon. To stop, choose EXIT from the GAME menu. Once running, WAXMAN is controlled by commands arranged in a series of menus: 旼컴컴컴쩡컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컫컴컴컴컴쩡컴컴컴컴컴컴쩡컴컴컴컴컴커 � GAME � EDIT � LEVEL � OPTIONS � PLAY � 읕쩡컴컴좔쩡컴컴컴컴컴컴컨컫컴컴컴좔쩡컴컴컴컴컴좔쩡컴컴컴컴켸 쳐New 쳐Edit Position 쳐Time 쳐Analysis 쳐Play! 쳐Load 읕Clear Board 쳐Moves 쳐Flip Board 쳐Take Back 쳐Save 쳐Easy 읕Sound 읕Forward 쳐Print 읕Hash 쳐Replay 쳐Exit 읕About.. GAME. When you start WAXMAN, it is ready for a new game. When a game is in progress, you can start a new game by selecting NEW from the GAME menu. You can also save a game in progress and later resume where you left off by using SAVE and LOAD. PLAY. At the start of a new game, WAXMAN is in its 'referee mode'. This means that it only keeps track of whose move it is, makes sure all entered moves are legal, announces check, checkmate or stalemate, but otherwise stays out of the way. This can be useful if you want to practice a particular opening line or to play over a game from a newspaper or chess magazine. WAXMAN remains passive until invited to play. To do that, choose PLAY! from the PLAY menu. WAXMAN will start playing the side whose move it is at the time. For example, if you want to play White against WAXMAN as Black, make the first move and then select PLAY!; if you want to play Black, select PLAY! immediately at the start of the game. To switch sides, select PLAY! again after WAXMAN made a move. To enter a move, click the mouse on the piece you want to move. Holding the mouse button down, drag the piece where you want it and drop it there by releasing the mouse button. To take back a move, select TAKE BACK from the PLAY menu. Note that this puts WAXMAN back in its passive mode to allow you to undo and re-enter multiple moves. To resume playing, select PLAY! again. To undo a take-back, select FORWARD from the PLAY menu. LEVEL. The level, or strength, of WAXMAN's play is controlled by the time limit - the amount of time in which it must complete a given number of moves. The more time, the stronger its play. The possible settings are anywhere between one minute for all moves (fastest, weakest play) and five hours for every single move (slowest, strongest). The default is ten minutes per game - fairly strong play on a fast machine. For better search performance, particularly in the endgame, WAXMAN uses a hash table in which it stores positions already encountered before so that it does not have to examine them repeatedly. This feature can be turned on and off by checking the HASH box in the LEVEL dialog. Normally, WAXMAN is not idle even while it is waiting for your move, and if you think long and hard, so does it. Checking the EASY box turns this feature off. EDIT. To set up a position, select EDIT POSITION or CLEAR BOARD from the EDIT menu. A checkmark will appear next to the EDIT POSITION entry to indicate that the program is in edit mode, and all other menu items will be disabled (grayed). A 'drawer' with spare chessmen will appear beneath the board. Only pieces that can be legally added to the board appear in the drawer. Neither side can have two kings, or more than six- teen pieces, for example. Likewise, you cannot have two queens and eight pawns because the only way to get another queen is by promoting a pawn. To see how this works, start a new game and then select EDIT POSITION. The drawer will be empty. Grab a white pawn and move it off the board. The pawn will appear in the drawer, along with all the other white pieces which you now can add as if the pawn had been promoted. To move a piece during setup, grab it with the mouse and drag it where you want it - to another square or off the board. Once all the pieces are in place, click on the EDIT POSITION item again to remove the checkmark. The rest of the menu items will be re-enabled and you can start playing. Note that it is always White's move when you set up a position. If this is not what you want (a Black-to-move problem), set up the position with one white piece on the wrong square and then make the first move, moving the piece to its proper square. OPTIONS. When playing black, you may want to turn the board display around so that the black pieces are at the bottom of the board. The FLIP BOARD option lets you do this. If you want to cheat a little during a game, or when having WAXMAN solve a chess problem, choose ANALYSIS from the OPTIONS menu. WAXMAN will display, while still thinking, its intended move and the move it expects you to make in response to that, along with an evaluation of the result. EXTRAS. In this release of WAXMAN, there are a few extra files. They are mate puzzles - some of the positions we use to test the program. Use the LOAD GAME option to load them into the program and see if you can beat WAXMAN at solving them.