Warning words and illegal moves

[gulo]

Many games end with a fatal mistake where a player either, as defender, fails to see that the king is threatened (check), moves the king into a square where he can be immediately captured, or, as attacker, fails to see that there’s an opening for the king (especially in the historical variants).

This ends many games prematurely which could have otherwise developed interestingly.

Therefore I suggest:

1. Programming the game so defending players are not allowed to move their king into a square where he can be immediately captured.

[EDIT: Alternatively we can introduce a move take back option which can be offered if the otherwise winning side chooses. In a head to head irl, I’d always tell my opponent to make another move, same if they open up a line for me to escape through immediately.]


2. Introducing the historical warning words into the online game. As I wrote elsewhere:

I also included the warning words both from Tablut and Tawlbwrdd, since I think that brings a lot of flavour to the game when played face to face.

Tablut has:
- Raichi (hole/opening)
- Tuichu (through them)

Tawlbwrdd has:
- Gwrheill (goes hale)
- Gwiliwch eich brenin (watch your king)

Tawlbwrdd's "gwrheill" I interpreted as "goes hale”, from Old Norse "gengr heill" (literally "it goes healthy/hale"), which should be said when you wish to place any piece unharmed between two enemy pieces/squares. This word was not translated in the original attempt in Murray's interpretation, and no satisfactory Welsh translation seems viable (not sure where Wikipedia's interpretation "I am your liegeman" comes from, since it's not from the original) [turns out that proposal was put forward by Martha Bayless in "Alea, Tæfl, and Related Games: Vocabulary and Context" (2005), but I don’t know her arguments for that since I haven’t been able to access her text yet]. It makes sense that a game whose name itself [may be] a Norse borrowing, "Taflborð", has a Norse-derived warning word in the mix.

"Gwiliwch eich brenin" is a bit tricky in the original since the description is hard to understand, but my interpretation is that it's basically a way to say "check" when the king is threatened.

In the compiled variants I rendered the warning words, like this:

Goes hale! - when placing one of your pieces
unharmed between two enemy pieces.
Hole! - if there’s an opening for the king.
Through! - if there are two openings.
Hnefinn! (the king!) - if the king
is threatened by the next move.

[Draganov]

I think a better solution would be to add "Undo" button. When a player click on undo button, the other player should be able to approve or reject the move undo.
I don't like some programming restrictions since sometimes (especially in tournaments) when the whites are losing, they could decide to try one last attempt to escape by placing their king in a position where he can be captured on the next move but if the blacks don't see it, the whites will gain advantage.

[gulo]

I think, on second thought, I agree about the programming. Some kind of undo/move take back option would be preferable…

What do you think about the warning words?

[Draganov]

Warning words sounds appropriate in casual live play. I think it is not needed when playing online. In chess you can say check when attacking the king but it is not applicable in real chess tournaments.