| Special Moves
Capturing En Passant: En passant, or taking in passing, allows a Pawn five rows up from its own side to capture an enemy Pawn that has taken a two-space move to land right beside it. The attacking Pawn moves diagonally into the space the other Pawn just moved over, and it captures the Pawn. It's important to remember that you must capture a given Pawn en passant immediately after its two-space move, or lose the opportunity.
Castling: The Rook can also be used in Castling, a special move that can be played only once. All of the following conditions must apply before you can Castle: Neither the King nor the Rook you wish to Castle with (either the King's or Queen's Rook) has moved yet; there are no pieces between the King and that Rook; and the King is neither in check, Castling through check, nor Castling into check. To Castle, the King moves two squares toward the Rook and then the Rook jumps over it to the adjacent empty square. The King must move first; otherwise, it's just a Rook move. This is the only play where the King can move more than one space and where the Rook can jump over a chess piece.
The Playing Area
The Interface: The chessboard is displayed on the left of the screen. On the right, you will see both your name and your opponent's, the clock, and the "notation pane," where the record of moves is displayed. By default the clock is set to “None,” which means no turn limit.
The Clock: To start a timed game you must first set the clocks. Each player is responsible for setting their own clock. Use the scrollbar next to the clock to set your game's time limit: "None" for no time limit, or from one minute ("1:00") to two hours ("2:00.") -- a period on the right of the time indicates hours as opposed to minutes. You may use the chat window on the bottom to negotiate time limits with your opponent.
The game will begin once you and your opponent have pressed the Start Game button. | |
