1. Making moves
This tutorial is on making moves in truly quantum chess.
In the early alpha version, players can move all of the pieces on the board. The game will check that any move is followed by a move with a piece of different color, but it will let anybody with a link to the board to make moves.
The game can still be exciting to play, if the players are honest. Just like the ordinary chess match with a regular, non-electronic chessboard.
This is likely to change in the future versions.
All pieces in quantum chess mimic the moves that their ordinary chess counterparts can make.
- Suppose the chessboard looks like this:
- Click on the piece with which you would like to make a move. The square of the piece should be highlighted with green.
- Click on the square (empty or occupied) on which you would like to make a move with your piece. In case there's an opponent's piece at this square, it will be captured.
At this point, there's no mechanism for undoing completed moves.
When you've already selected a piece and want to make a move with another piece, click on the selected piece two times.
The most important modification of the game rules is the ability to make quantum moves.
A quantum move consists of one or two consequential moves made with the same piece. After the quantum move is made, the whole chessboard enters a quantum superposition of two chessboards:
- On one of the two chessboards of the superposition (which are also called harmonics) the quantum move has succeeded, meaning that the piece has moved once or twice.
- On another harmonic the quantum move failed, meaning that the piece hasn't moved at all.
Example: white queen is in a superposition of being at D1 and at F4. This situation was initiated by a quantum move from D1 through F3 to F4.
You can't capture your opponent's pieces with quantum moves.
How does one perceive the quantum superposition?
This is easy! Simply accept that the whole ensemble of chessboards (aka harmonics) exists at the same time. You are now playing on both chessboards simultaneously.
There's also a probabilistic interpretation. One could say that the white queen is at D1 with 50% probability and at F4 with 50% probability. However, this is not completely true: the position of the queen isn't predetermined. It is completely unknown, not just to you, but in principle. Both harmonics exist in their own way!
The probabilistic interpretation reigns when it comes to measurements. In some situations the game decides to determine the position of the white queen. In this case it assigns one of the above positions randomly, each with the probability of 50%.
You can find a lot more on our page on superpositions of measurements.
Simple!
- Suppose that the chessboard looks like this:
- Select (by tapping) the piece with which you'd like to make a quantum move. This should highlight it with green.
- Tap again on the selected piece to initiate the quantum move. This should highlight it with purple. Purple means quantum!
- Tap on the intermediate square of the quantum move (for the example above, this should be F3). This should highlight it as green.
- Tap on the final square of the quantum move, or on the same square again if you want your quantum move to be a single move. In the example above, this square would be F4.
