Poker SOS

1. Initial Setup

1. Chess Pieces Names And Meanings
2. 4 Player Chess Rules

I loved reading 'Playing Chess with God' by Verne R. It's a very well written, informative, meaty book about an 18 year old Prussian man, Henning Dietzel's beginning in Talcahuano, Chile, prospecting for gold on the onset of the California gold rush and his business adventures during the heights of the California gold rush, guano and nitrate businesses in Atacama, Peru. I am not a professional reader or editor, but I do have a book collection of over 3,000 titles and have collected books for 45 years and could not resist turning a few pages of Playing Chess With God, by Verne Albright. One way I look at a book to assess its value is to randomly search for sentences and I must admit I am easily turned off. Gods Strategy Summary: The goal is to build around the (1) God bonus in the early-mid game with Mars and to finish your lineup with the second God (Zeus) in the late game. The (1) bonus gives 50% cooldown reduction, the second – 50% more (diminishing returns make it an effective 75% CDR with both Gods). In the early 1980s Ken Thompson, working at the Bell Laboratories, generated one of the world’s first chess endgame databases — king and queen vs king and rook. At the time he explained to Frederic Friedel how this revolutionary new technology worked. He did it in the form of a parable: God calculating the 32-piece endgame and playing chess. It is an amusing thought experiment that has.

The Bible is a cosmic chess match. God vs Satan, Good vs Evil, Angels vs Demons. Satan would stop at nothing to destroy the Messiah that was prophesied to 'Crush his head' in the Garden of Eden! The entire Bible is a chess match between God and Satan.

The game requires a regular chess set (board and pieces) and a regular 52-card deck. The initial setup is illustrated in the figure below.
The chess pieces are placed in the regular initial position. The four Aces are extracted from the deck and are placed on one side of the board, in what is called the hero deck. The top card of the hero deck is always visible (face-up).
Then the deck is shuffled and each player is dealt four cards, known as battle cards, and for each territory (White's half of the board and Black's half of the board) three cards, known as field cards, are placed face down on one side of the board.
We say that each player owns his half of the board (his territory): White owns lines 1-4 and Black owns lines 5-8.
Each player may at any time secretly consult his own field cards (the three field cards placed face down in his own territory).
2. Gameplay

Starting with White and alternating turns between Black and White, each player performs the following actions on his turn. We denote the player acting on his turn as A, and the other player as B.

1. A makes a move on the chess board.
2. If the move is not a piece capture (pawn captures do count as piece captures), then the player may discard one of his battle cards, i.e., throw away one of his battle cards and getting dealt a new card from the deck. A's turn ends (skip next steps).
3. If the move is a piece capture, then B verbally states whether or not he wants to defend in battle. If B refuses to defend, then A discards one battle card, then A's turn ends (skip next steps).
4. If the move is a piece capture and B has chosen to defend (by saying anything along the lines of 'I defend', 'show me what you got' or 'the Gods are on my side so I'll see you on the battlefield'), then the following sequence applies:
1. The owner of the territory where the battle is fought (i.e., where the piece being captured is located) reveals his field cards.
2. A (the attacker) discards one of his battle cards.
3. A chooses and declares whether he attacks high or low (whether the battle will be played as an Omaha Hi hand or as an Omaha Lo hand, respectively).
4. Both players reveal their battle cards to be used as 4-card Omaha hands.
5. The Chess Gods decide the outcome of the battle: two more cards are dealt face up next to the revealed field cards, and together the five field cards represent the Omaha board on which each player's hand is evaluated based on the Omaha poker rules. For the Omaha Lo variation, no minimum qualifier is required (e.g., no '8-or-better' rule).
6. The winner of the Omaha hand is considered to be the winner of the battle.
5. After the battle is complete:
1. If A won the battle, then the piece capture is completed. Then perform Battle Cleanup (section 3), then A's turn ends.
2. If B won the battle, then the piece capture fails, the two pieces involved in the capture are placed back to their original positions, and A may make a different non-capturing legal move with the same attacking piece (the piece attempting to capture B's piece), provided that such a move exists. Then perform Hero Summoning (section 4), then perform Battle Cleanup (section 3), then A's turn ends.
3. If the battle was a tie, then the piece capture fails, the two pieces involved in the capture are placed back to their original positions, then perform Battle Cleanup (section 3), then it is A's turn again (move back to step 1).

1. The player has lost the battle.
2. The player did not hold a Hero card when the battle was fought.
3. By replacing a battle card from the losing player's hand with the Hero card, the resulting 4-card hand would have won the battle.

1. B captures the same piece that executed the capture in move 1a (i.e., A may defend if B captures a different piece).
2. B executes the capture as a response to move 1a (i.e., A may defend if B captures the piece in a later move).

Chess Pieces Names And Meanings

4 Player Chess Rules

1. A King may move in check (including castle into a check position).
2. A King in check does not have to move away from check.
3. When a player attempts to capture the enemy King, the other player must defend in battle (unless the Undefendable Exchange Rule (section 5) applies, in which case the King is captured and the game ends).
4. A player may castle 'through' check.