Richard's PBeM Server

Introduction to playing Zèrtz on Richards PBeM-server.

This is not an introduction to Zèrtz. If you don't know the game yet but want to learn then you can go and buy it or check the gipf-website (www.gipf.com) for the rules. In any case, you should check the gipf-website to know how the moves of a game are written down.

How to interpret the ASCII-representation of a zèrtz-game

Every hexagon represents one of the tiles that constitute a zèrtz-board. If a tile is removed from the board then the hexagon is replaced by a dot.
White, gray and black marbles are shown on the board as the letters W, G and B in the middle of a hexagon.

The following drawing shows a typical game-situation:

                   A4 B5 C6 D7 E6 F5 G4 
                            __          
                         __/G \__       
                      __/  \__/  \      
                     /  \__/  \__/.  __ 
                   . \__/  \__/  \__/  \
                      . \__/  \__/  \__/
                   .  __/  \__/B \__/  \
                   __/  \__/  \__/  \__/
                  /W \__/B \__/  \__/  \
                  \__/  \__/  \__/  \__/
                  /B \__/  \__/. \__/  \
                  \__/  \__/  \   . \__/
                     \__/  \__/.        
                        \__/  \         
                           \__/         
                                        
                   A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 F1 G1

Coordinates on a zèrtz-board consist of a letter (A-G) and a number (1-7).

The letter indicates the column, the number is the position within the column when you start counting from the bottom. The following drawing should make things clear:

                   A4 B5 C6 D7 E6 F5 G4 
                            __          
                         __/D7\__       
                      __/C6\__/E6\__    
                   __/B5\__/D6\__/F5\__ 
                  /A4\__/C5\__/E5\__/G4\
                  \__/B4\__/D5\__/F4\__/
                  /A3\__/C4\__/E4\__/G3\
                  \__/B3\__/D4\__/F3\__/
                  /A2\__/C3\__/E3\__/G2\
                  \__/B2\__/D3\__/F2\__/
                  /A1\__/C2\__/E2\__/G1\
                  \__/B1\__/D2\__/F1\__/
                     \__/C1\__/E1\__/   
                        \__/D1\__/      
                           \__/         
                                        
                   A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 F1 G1

The extension to the PBeM-server for playing Zèrtz was written by Kurt Van den Branden (kurtvdb@pandora.be). If you find a problem or a bug, let him know.