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| Download Chess Miner
, v.1.1 (self-extracted
file, 239kb). First levels are free!
If you like the program you can register and
buy a fully functional version online. Just click
on the Buy button below.
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Post, fax, and voice
registration are also available
here. Program costs $19.95. If you want to order
a CD, click
here.
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IBM PC-486
Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP
Graphics display adapter VGA or SVGA
Mouse or keyboard
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Chess Miner is the first program in the Chess Puzzles
Series. It is intended to improve one's concentration,
memory, spatial imagination, and the skill to discover
regularities. It also helps consolidate one's knowledge
about chess pieces and their possible motions about
the chessboard.
Only white pieces are involved in the game (officers,
but no pawns!). The computer makes moves with them.
You are the miner, and only mines are at your disposal.
A move by the program consists in a single shift of
a piece along a certain route. Your move consists in
the placing of a mine. Moves by both playing sides alternate.
Yours is always the first one.
Your aim is to "undermine" all white pieces
by means of the mines. You have to discover what route
each piece follows and then place mines on each square
of that route.
A route is a certain sequence of squares along which
a piece moves, obeying the rules of the "big"
game of chess as it does so. The length of a route,
i.e. the number of squares it consists of, varies from
1 to 5. The number of pieces also ranges between 1 and
5; the length of their circuits may be different.
Unless undermined, a piece always travels along a route
twice. Lap No. 1 "outlines" the circuit; lap
No. 2 serves to prompt the human player to mark the
whole extent of the route by mines, starting on the
square where the piece is currently standing. A piece
is regarded to have been undermined, and vanishes from
the board, if on each square of its current route it
steps on a mine. As soon as you have eliminated the
last piece, you win. If you have failed to undermine
a piece in due time, the chessman changes the route.
As soon as any piece has reached the end of its third
route for the second time, you lose.
The game has two modes: Play and Training. Play mode
incorporates 10 levels of difficulty. The difficulty
of a given task depends on the number of pieces involved
and on the length of route of each piece. The more pieces
are present and the longer their routes, the harder
is the user's task. All tasks are generated by the program.
The number of possible positions is practically infinite,
therefore the possibility of a position being encountered
twice is in the vicinity of zero. For each task you
have coped with the program gives you a certain number
of points. The higher the difficulty level, the more
points you get
To take a look at the screen shot of the game please
click on the image Example or click here.
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