Excalibur 712 Operating Manual page 8

Piece Training
You can practice in eight different train-
ing positions. There are five special mini-
games and three mating-practice posi-
tions.
Mini-game positions
The most famous and successful chess
teachers in the world take their beginning
students from the simple to the complex
by having them play "mini-games" of
chess that concentrate on just one or more
types of pieces. Even advanced players
practice these basics, just as a concert
pianist continues to practice the scales so
that they remain second nature. Like any
great trainer, IVAN will play you these
special practice games.
First make sure you are at the start of a
game by pressing NEW GAME. Now
press OPTIONS until TRAIN
played. Then press the u key. Look at the
LCD to see which of the mini-games are
displayed. You'll see that the mini-games
always include the king and pawns for
both sides. In fact, one mini-game con-
tains just this material. The other four
mini-games use kings and pawns, but add
a different single piece to the exercise-
knight, bishop, rook, and then queen.
Start with the basic king and pawns mini-
game.
Make your first move. Your object, as in
regular chess, is to checkmate the king.
Normally, this means both sides will try
to force a pawn through to the other side
of the board safely to promote it to a
queen. You'll learn lots of principles,
tricks, and traps in this training mode that
will win you many full-fledged chess
games!
TRAIN is dis-
Mating-practice positions
To win at chess, you have to know how to
checkmate! Just knowing that you have
enough material to mate doesn't earn you
the point. IVAN's mating-practice exer-
cises will make sure you know the tech-
niques.
After pressing OPTIONS until TRAIN
appears, again press the u key until you
come to positions without pawns and
with the Black king in the middle of the
board. These are the mate-training posi-
tions. The three different mate-training
positions give White, besides his king,
either two bishops, two rooks, or the
queen. These are excellent exercises,
used by the greatest chess teachers in the
world. In all three positions you can force
mate in a number of ways. Work on these
mate-training exercises until you can
mate Black efficiently.
Ratings
To view your rating, press the RATING
key. Your current rating appears on the
display.
To have your rating change, you must
complete a rated game on a tournament
or sudden death level.
When you are ready to play a rated game,
select the RATE RATE option.
1. Press the OPTIONS key repeatedly
until you see RATE RATE appear.
2. Press the t or the u key to turn the
option On.
3. Press CLEAR.
Finally select the Tournament Level or
Sudden Death Level you wish to play
against.
8
TRAIN