Amazons beta announcement

[John Williams <williams@cs.byu.edu>]

Shogi has been such a success, that I am back for an encore.

I hereby announce to pbmserv-dev, the beta-test release of Amazons.


What is Amazons?

  "Amazons, perhaps the best new abstract board game of the decade."
	- NOST <http://www.accelnet.com/NOST/variant.htm>

  "Amazons has been received with enthusiasm in abstract gaming circles, 
   and is being actively played in postal and e-mail play"
	- World Game Review <http://members.aol.com/wgreview/page3.html>


What are the rules?
 
  Amazons is played on a 10x10 board.

  Each player has 4 pieces.  White's amazons are on a4, d1, g1, and j4.
  Black's amazons are on a7, d10, g10, and j7.

  White moves first, and turns alternate.  Each turn consists of two parts,
  and both parts are mandatory.

    1.  The player first moves one of his amazons.  Amazons move as a 
        chess queen (any number of spaces horizontally, vertically, or
        diagonally).  Amazons may not jump over or land on other pieces
	or arrows.

    2.  Next, the amazon which moved "fires an arrow".  An arrow moves
        the same as an amazon starting from where the amazon stopped.
        Arrows may not jump over or land on other pieces or arrows.

  The arrows act as immovable blocks to all arrows and amazons.

  The last player able to finish a turn wins the game.

  ("help amazons" will tell you the same thing.)


I will accept the first 5 challengers.  Those reading this are encouraged
to find any bugs I may have missed by challenging others.  

Amazons is much simpler than shogi, so I expect that the beta test stage
will be fairly short. 

~ John Williams, userid sharkey