• Do I have to use a password?
  
• How do I make a move?
  
• How can I play in real-time?
  
• How do I know when my opponent moved?
  
• How do I castle?
  
• Can I make special moves like castling and pawn promotion?
  
• How do I promote a pawn to another piece?
  
• Will the board notify me when the game is over?
  
• I Quit! How do I resign from the Game?
  
• Where is my Options window?
  
• The Dark Squares don't show up when I print my chess board.
  
• What are the Rules of the Game?
  
• What is the "En Passant" move?
  

Do I have to use a password?

No! You do not have to use a password to play Virtual Chess. However to protect your board from others you should use the password feature. Every game starts without passwords. The first time a player makes a valid move accompanied by a password, it is set and fixed for the rest of the game. Thereafter any attempt to move without the right password is rejected. This prevents onlookers from fiddling with the game pieces. Each player has their own password to stop them from fiddling with each other's pieces.

If you don't submit a password (and you haven't already set one), no password is expected. This is a feature but is open to abuse if someone happens across the board and sets the password themselves. For this reason both players should make their first moves quickly, with accompanying passwords, to set them before someone with not so good intentions comes along to mess with it.

How do I make a move?

Use the Options board located to the right of your chess board to make each move. Simply type in the move you want to make. For example, if you want to move a pawn from position E2 to the position E4 you would enter this in the options board where it says "move". Enter "e2-e4", then type in a simple password in the box below it and click "update". Your move will now be made and e-mailed to your opponent.

If you do not see your options board to the right of your main chess board, look at your status bar at the bottom of your browser and if you have a second window there, click it, it will bring up your options board.

If you don't see a second window and you don't have an options board available you may have a JavaScript problem.

See "Where is my option board?" on this page.

How can I play in real-time?

With the new automatic reload feature each board will reload to check for updates. It defaults at 90 seconds but can be changed by you to fit the speed of your game. It will range from 20 seconds to 15 minutes time. Each move is also e-mailed to your opponent (if email address was entered when the board was made) so you know exactly when your opponent moved.

How do I know when my opponent moved?

You will be notified via e-mail the instant your opponent has made his/her move. The script will automatically send your move and any comments you have to your opponent and visa-versa, instantly.
See "How do I play in real-time?" above.
NOTE: For security reasons the Virtual Chess Set never reveals any players e-mail address to anyone.

You can make special moves like castling and pawn promotion.

The Virtual Chess Set detects and rejects attempts to make illegal moves. There are three times when you may make a special move: these are, specifically, castling, capturing en passant, and pawn promotion.
1). To indicate a castling move, move the king two squares (like in regular chess) the rook will move automatically.
2). To take En Passant, move the capturing pawn onto the empty square behind the captured pawn (like a regular chess-set).
3). When a pawn qualifies for promotion, the Virtual Chess Set will ask you what it wants to be. Simply select your piece.

Will the board notify me when the game is over?

The Virtual Chess Set does not detect stalemate or checkmate conditions. This is up to the players. By definition no move is legal from a checkmate position so therefore no move is possible from a checkmate position, however be aware that the Virtual Chess Set will, in its ignorance, allow a game to pass through a stalemate condition without comment.

How do I resign from the Game?

To resign, you simple move your King onto the space of your opponents King. You will be given an option to continue with the resigning or not. You must enter your password a second time. If you resign, your opponent wins the match.

Where is my options window?

UPDATE: The Javascript option board has since been replaced with static boards. This problem should no longer exist.

There are a couple of reason for the options board not to be available.

1). Because we use JavaScript to create the options board it comes up in the form of a "Pop-Up" window, so if you use "Pop-Up" blocker software you will have to disable it to use the JavaScript options window or you can select the "Disable Javascript" Button at the bottom of the page.

2). It has come to our attention that some AOL Browsers have a Java/JavaScript issue with our script. This bug causes the options board to be blank or to not show up at all. Some AOL users MUST select the "Disable Javascript" button at the bottom of their board page to create an options board in order to make their moves.

If you are not using an AOL browser and your not using a Pop-Up Blocker and you still don't see an options board to the right of the main chess board and you don't have a second window showing in your status bar at the bottom of your browser you may have a Java problem. Either your browser is not JavaScript compatible or the "Use Java" option is not enabled in your browser.
If you are not sure if your Java is Enabled, simply click here and we will check it for you.

Either way, the work around for this problems is to simply click on the "Disable JavaScript" button at the bottom of your chess board page. The options board will now be set to the right of your main chess board. Everything else should work the same.

What are the Official Rules of the Game?

The Rules of Chess
The game of chess is played by two opponents by moving pieces on a square board.

The Board
The chess board is made up of 64 equal squares in colour alternately light (the "white" squares) and dark (the "black" squares). The chess board is positioned between the players so that the square in the corner to the right of each player is white. The 8 rows of squares running between the edges of the chess board nearest the two players are called "ranks". The 8 rows of squares running at right angles to the ranks are called "files". The rows of squares of the same colour touching at the corners are called diagonals.

The Pieces
At the start of the game one player has 16 light coloured pieces (the "White" pieces) and the other player has 16 dark coloured pieces (the Black pieces). The pieces consist of one King, one Queen, two Rooks, two Knights, two Bishops and eight Pawns. Each player"s pieces are initially positioned on the board to cover the two ranks nearest the player. The Rooks occupy the two corner squares in the first rank, the Knights occupy the two squares next to the Rooks on the first rank, the Bishops occupy the two squares next to the Knights on the first rank, the King and Queen occupy the two centre squares on the first rank such that the King is on a square of the opposite colour to itself, and the Pawns occupy the whole of the second rank.

Play
The two players move alternately, each player making one move at a time. The player who has the White pieces makes the first move. Except for castling, a move is the transfer of a piece from one square to another square which is either vacant or occupied by an opponent"s piece. No piece, except the Rook when castling or the Knight, can cross a square occupied by another piece. A piece played to a square occupied by an opponent"s piece takes the opponent"s piece as part of the same move, and removes it from the board.

Moves
The King, except for castling, can move to any adjacent square that is not attacked by an opponent"s piece.

Castling is a move of the King and Rook, counted as a single move, in which the King is transferred from it"s original square to either of the nearest squares of the same colour in the same rank, then the rook towards which the King has moved is transferred over the King to the square the King has just crossed.
Castling may not be performed if the King has already been moved, or with a Rook that has already been moved. Castling may not be performed if there is any piece between the King and the Rook involved, or if the squares that the King is on or that it must cross or that it will occupy is being attacked by an opponent"s piece.

The Queen can move to any square on the rank, file or diagonal on which it is placed.

The Rook can move to any square on the rank or file on which it is placed.

The Knight can move one square along the rank or file plus one square along a diagonal moving away from the square it left.

The Pawn can move only forward. Except when making a capture, it may advance on it"s first move one or two vacant squares along the file on which it is placed, and on subsequent moves one vacant square along the file on which it is placed. When making a capture it advances on one square along either of the diagonals on which it is placed. A Pawn attacking a square crossed by an opponent"s Pawn which has advanced two squares on the previous move can capture the pawn as though the latter had only advanced one square. This capture can only be made on the move immediately following such advance, and is known as "en passant". On reaching the end of a file a Pawn is immediately exchanged, as part of the same move, for a Queen, Rook, Knight or Bishop of the same colour at the player"s choice. This is called "Pawn promotion".

Check
The King is in check when it"s square is attacked by an opponent"s piece. The check must be averted on the move immediately following, otherwise it is "mate". Check can be averted either by taking the attacking piece, moving a piece between the attacking piece (unless the attacking piece is a Knight), or moving the King.

The End of the Game
The game is won for the player who has mated the opponent"s King. The game is considered won for the player whose opponent resigns. When using clocks, the game is won by the player whose opponent exceeds their allotted time. The game is drawn under any of the following circumstances:

1. When the King of the player whose turn it is to move is not in check, but such player cannot make a legal move. This is called "stalemate".

2. On demand by either player when the same position appears three times, the same player having the move each time. The position is considered the same if pieces of the same kind and colour occupy the same squares, and the possible moves of all pieces are the same.

3. On demand by the player who"s turn it is to move if at least fifty moves have been made by each player without a capture of a piece and without a Pawn move having been made.

4. By agreement between the two players.

My page prints in black and white only.

To print a page in color and to see your chess board printed properly your browser must be set to print background colors and images. Most browsers default are set up to print in black and white only. This saves ink and most people want to print black and white pages anyway.
All browsers are different but in Microsoft's Internet Explorer v 4.x - 6.x, you can go to (Tools - Internet Options - Advanced), then scroll down to (printing) and select "Print background colors and images". Click "Apply" and you should be able to print in color.
As for the other browsers you will have to look around under the options or preferences to find a button to change the default so you can print in color.
With this change you should be able to see the dark and light squares along with the images of the chess pieces on the printed chess board clearly.

What is the "En Passant" move?

Perhaps the most obscure and least used moves in Chess is called En Passant. It can only occur when a player exercises his option to move his pawn two squares on its initial movement. When this happens, the opposing player has the option to take the moved pawn "en passant" as if it had only moved one square. This option, though, only stays open for one move

If you have any questions about the Chess.Cardilla.com Chess Set please contact us at Chess Support and we will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Please Enjoy!