Checkers

Column Checkers

Like checkers type games and Bushka, column checkers is about a simple two-men-three-squares scenario: on the left a black and a white man are on adjacent squares. Put the cursor on the picture and see the white man jumping the black man, landing on the third square and removing the jumped man from play. That's checkers type capture. On the right an identical situation. Put the cursor on the picture and see the white man jumping the black man and taking it along underneath as a prisoner, landing on the third square. That's column checkers capture.

The following situations constitute a draw:

• A player has at least one piece left, and cannot move
• 3-fold repetition of the same position with the same player to move
• Mutual agreement

The first situation may even happen if a player has still one or more men in hand, although we never encountered it. A position is conceivable in which the entering player is not under attack, but has no square left on the board where he can enter without putting himself under attack.
The second situation has implications in some endgames with very few pieces.

The first diagram shows the board, which is initially empty.

• Capture is obligatory and has precedence in both phases
• A player captures the top man of an opponent's piece on an adjacent square, by jumping the piece with is own piece, taking the top man along under it, and landing on the square immediately beyond, which must exist and be vacant for the capture to take place
• Majority capture precedes: if the capturing piece can continue its course in a similar fashion in any direction except a 180 degrees turn, it must do so, taking care beforehand to establish the route that brings the maximum number of captured men. If there's more than one way to meet this criterion, the player is free to choose
• In a multiple capture the capturing piece may visit a square more than once as well as jump a piece more than once!

The capture of a single man reduces the number of pieces on the board by one. Since there is no mechanism to increase the number of pieces, a game of Emergo is always 'spiraling upward', that is, the number of pieces steadily decreases while their size increases.

The next sequence is only to illustrate mechanics. It is not a game position because then white would have to enter a man. White moves F4-E4 as indicated, and black must take the majority capture H4xF4xD4, which leads to the position in the second diagram.

• Entering is only allowed on vacant squares. If the player to move cannot make a capture, then entering a man has precedence over moving a piece
• He may not enter more than one man, unless his opponent has all twelve men on the board, in which case he must enter his remaining men as one piece. This piece is called the shadowpiece

A player may still have several men in hand while his opponent has all men on the board. This is always the result of one player entering while the other must capture. It is not at all unusual: creating a large shadowpiece is a very valid strategic goal, particularly for black.

White may not, on his very first move, enter on the central square (E5). Apart from that there's only one condition for entering a man or the shadowpiece alike:

• Entering may not force an opponent into making a capture, unless the entering player is already being attacked by his opponent!

• If the player to move cannot make a capture and does not have any men in hand, he must move a piece to an adjacent square. There are no restrictions except that the square must be vacant

Emergo requires Zillions of Games version 2.0 or higher.

Most things are pretty straightforward. One thing that might not be immediately clear is how to enter a shadowpiece: simply drop the remaining pieces on the same position (you'll have to do this yourself).

Zillions plays Emergo like a beginner, lacking a strategic concept, but then so will you, probably. Zillions is pretty decent in the tactics department so you may get surprised yet. To get a real opponent, set the thinking time per move to "Match My Time".

Some more tips:

• Enable "Smart Moves", it makes entering as easy as simply clicking on the target square and will also help a lot with forced moves (there'll be many).
• Enable "Highlight Movable" or toggle it temporarily by pressing the "F7" key. Especially handy when you wonder why the program won't allow you to move what you want.

Still, using Zillions of Games for playing Emergo requires some additional pointers. Operating a 3D game on a 2D computer screen calls for some tricks, especially since a large stack might obscure another piece.

You pick up a piece, be it a single man or a stack of men, by the bottom man and drop it on the target square. However, you'll find that won't be as easy as it sounds, altough it often does work this way. The reason is technical and unavoidable with Zillions of Games when one doesn't want the board blown up out of proportions. Moreover, picking up a piece is easy compared to dropping it on the target square, because the pointer turns into an open hand when you're good to pick up but there's no such visual feedback for the target.
That's where the small violet arrows come into play. There's no problem at all using these as the pick-up or drop-down positions. They're small but adequate (I hope). They also allow you to pick up a piece that's obscured by another, like the white piece on D7 in the diagram above.

There are also some display quirks to be mildly aware of.
First, when you move a piece only a small portion will be dragged. Don't worry though, when you drop it the rest of the piece will follow quickly.
Second, sometimes the pieces won't be redrawn completely, e.g. when you pick something up only to release it on the same position or when you move a piece that's obscuring or obscured by another, like in the diagram above. Still don't worry, you can correct the display by forcing a redraw, for instance by hitting the "F7" key. You can also ignore such anomolies: moving a 'broken' piece will restore its display too.
Third, as you see above, an obscured piece (sometimes) shows some part through the obscuring one. I might claim this is intentional, but that would be lying; it's simply Zillions behavior and I wouldn't know how to prevent it. But these occurrences will be very rare.