This final program is devoted to the game of Draughts. You will be given the opportunity to challenge the computer and demonstrate your superiority in one of the most complicated of board games. As a computer owner, you have no doubt encountered versions of this game before, but it is very likely that they were much shorter and did not play to such a high standard. This program has been designed to play the best possible game while keeping the time taken for each move down to well below one minute. Playing instructions When the game is executed you will be offered the first move, after which the game progresses in the normal manner with each player taking alternate turns, you moving the 'red' pieces and the computer the 'blue'. The program obeys all the normal rules of the game, including 'huffing' which means that if it is possible to take an opponent's piece then this must be done, otherwise the opponent may remove your offending piece (huff the piece) from the board. The game continues, with the time taken by both players being indicated at the bottom of the screen, until one player loses all his pieces or there is no legal move available, at which time the game is declared to be stalemate. Throughout the game full legality checks will be performed on all your moves and it will therefore be necessary to use skill as opposed to unfair tactics in order to defeat the computer. |