New Game

This page describes the "New game" dialog, which is used both for creating new game from scratch and creating one based on position saved earlier. This dialog is shown when you call "new game" or "open game" commands; this dialog is also shown first when you are running the HCheckers client.

Since HCheckers is a server-based game, there is no clear concept of "Opening saved game". In any case, when you are starting a new game session, there is a new game created. The only difference is initial position: either the default initial position will be used, or initial position will be loaded from file.

The dialog contains the following options:

• Action. The available actions are:
  • Start a game against computer. This option is the default one.
  • Start a game against human. This will create a game on server, and you will join it as the first player. The game will actually begin when another player will join the game.
  • Join a game against human. This allows you to join the game, which was already created on the server, and which is currently waiting for the second player.
• Rules. Game rules to play by. The supported rules are listed at the Rules page. This option is not available when you are joining to existing game, or when you are loading the game from PDN file.
• Time control. Time control variant to be used for this game. "Do not use" option is always available. Other available options depend on server-side configuration. Examples of available options are:
  • Classic: 45 minutes for first 20 moves plus 15 minutes for the rest of the game
  • Classic: 45 minutes plus 30 seconds for each move
  • Rapid: 10 minutes for the whole game
  • Blitz: 3 minutes plus 2 seconds for each move
  • etc
• User name. The name of user, under which you will be known to HCheckers server within this game. By default, the current user name from operating system is used, but you can pick another one.
• User plays. This defines the color of your pieces. Note that different checkers rules define different order of the first move. In particular, in English checkers, black move first, while in other white move first. This option is not available when joining to existing game.
• Initial board type. This defines the position you will start the game from. The available options are:
  • Use default initial position. Initial position defined by selected rules will be used.
  • Manual initial position setup. HCheckers client will allow you to place pieces manually before starting the game. Refer to this page for description of the process.
  • Use initial board of previous game.
  • Load initial board from FEN file.
  • Load initial board from PDN file.
• Select file. This field is available and mandatory when loading the initial position from PDN or FEN file.
• AI. This defines AI settings preset, which will be used for this game. The list of presets is configured in the preferences dialog. This option is available only when starting a game against computer.
• Games list. This is shown only when you are joining to existing game, or when you are loading initial board from a previous game. The table contains a list of all game sessions which exist on the server.

In the left lower corner of this dialog, there is a button to open the preferences dialog.

When this dialog is shown at HCheckers client startup, it also contains an "Exit" button, allowing you to exit HCheckers without actually starting a game.