medea positionMedea introduces the "Transmitter" featured in Chakra to the world of Draughts.

The image shows the board and the pieces in their initial position. Pieces move one square straight or diagonally forward and capture omni-directional, but orthogonally only, by the short leap. Kings move along unobstructed lines as the Queen in Chess, and capture orthogonally only, by the long leap. Witin this framework, all capture conventions of International Draughts apply, so ...
  • Capture is compulsory
  • Majority capture precedes (the king counting as 1 piece)
  • A capture must be completed before the captured pieces are taken off the board
  • In the course of a capture, a square may be visited more than once but a piece may not be captured twice
  • A capturing man only promotes if it ends its move on the back row

The Transmitter
The Transmitter consists of two parts called chakra's. In one respect a chakra is a piece: on his turn a player may move a vacant chakra, just as any other piece. A chakra moves like a king in Chess, but it can only move if it is vacant itself, and the target square is vacant too. A chakra may never move onto another chakra of either color.
In all other respects the chakra is a square, so any piece may move onto a vacant chakra as if it weren't there, and kings may move over chakras as if they weren't there. A piece occupying a chakra may be captured like any other piece, while a chakra itself cannot be captured.

Basic property
The basic property of the Transmitter is this: if a piece makes a non-capturing move onto a vacant chakra of it's own color, and the other chakra is either vacant or occupied by an opponent's piece, then the piece is transmitted to the other chakra, capturing the opponent's piece as the case may be. If the second chakra is occupied by a piece of like color, the Transmitter doesn't work and the result of the move will be that the player occupies both his chakras. Note that a man can be promoted instantly by having one chakra in front of it, and the other on the backrow.

Capture using the Transmitter
New is that not all capture is by the short or long jump. If a piece captures using the transmitter, it captures by replacement. Capture by replacement is inherently restricted to one piece at the time, so any multiple capture precedes over it.
In case of a choice between a capture of a single piece by a jump, or capture through the Transmitter by replacement, the player is free to choose.
If capture by replacement is the only available capture, then it is compulsory, like all capture.

Object
Barring the Transmitter, if a player loses all his pieces he has lost. Draws may occur, but a 2 versus 1 kings' endgame can be won by the majority player.


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