I hadn't really paid much attention to contracts before the discussion last week, but I figured it would be fun to enter V.J. Rada's competition, if only for practice with writing legalistic documents. (I get the impression that subgames like this are probably better suited to actual rules, or birthday tournament regulations, but that wasn't what was on my mind at the time.)
What do people think of this? Would you take part if I actually created this contract? More importantly, can you see any loopholes or mistakes? --- PREAMBLE. This contract is to be interpreted as if it were capable of defining switches. (Parties to this contract are ENCOURAGED to vote for any Proposal that would enable backing documents to define switches possessed by the assets those backing documents define.) In this contract, the words "take", "castle", "check" and "checkmate" and their conjugations are to be interpreted according to their generally accepted definitions in the context of the game of chess. Where this contract contradicts itself, later statements take precedence over earlier ones. Anyone can become a party to this contract, or cease to be a party to this contract, by announcement. This contract is willing to receive coins. DEFINITION OF CHESS PIECES. Chess pieces are a class of asset defined by this contract. Pawns, Rooks, Knights, Bishops, Queens and Kings are classes of chess piece defined by this contract. Ownership of chess pieces is restricted to Agora. Chess pieces can only be created, transferred or destroyed except as described in this contract. Each chess piece has a Colour switch whose possible values are Black and White, and a Position switch, whose possible values are any Unit of Land whose Latitude and Longitude are each between -3 and 4 inclusive. A chess piece is "at X" if its Position switch is set to the Unit of Land associated with X. If the Cartographor is a party to this contract, e is the recordkeepor for chess pieces. INITIAL SETUP. The following chess pieces are hereby created in the possession of this contract: White Pawns at (3, -3), (3, -2), (3, -1), (3, 0), (3, 1), (3, 2), (3, 3) and (3, 4); White Rooks at (4, -3) and (4, 4); White Knights at (4, -2) and (4, 3); White Bishops at (4, -1) and (4, 2); a White Queen at (4, 0); a White King at (4, 1); Black Pawns at (-2, -3), (-2, -2), (-2, -1), (-2, 0), (-2, 1), (-2, 2), (-2, 3) and (-2, 4); Black Rooks at (-3, -3) and (-3, 4); Black Knights at (-3, -2) and (-3, 3); Black Bishops at (-3, -1) and (-3, 2); a Black Queen at (-3, 0); and a Black King at (-3, 1). HOW TO MOVE PIECES. To move a given chess piece to a given Unit of Land is to flip the Position of that chess piece to that Unit of Land. Any party to this contract MAY, by announcement, move a chess piece. All other terms of this contract notwithstanding, people MUST NOT move chess pieces if doing so would not comply with the generally accepted rules of the game of chess, taking the direction of positive Latitude to be the direction of motion of Black Pawns. When a chess piece is taken, it is destroyed. When a person moves or creates a chess piece such that a chess piece is taken or a King is in check, e SHOULD draw attention to this fact in the same message. TAKING TURNS. When a party to this contract moves a White chess piece for the first time, e becomes considered "White" for the purposes of this contract, and when a party to this contract moves a Black chess piece for the first time, e becomes considered "Black" for the purposes of this contract. Black people CANNOT move White chess pieces and White people CANNOT move Black chess pieces. The current turn is a singleton switch with possible values "White's turn" (the default value) and "Black's turn". While it is White's turn, people CANNOT move Black chess pieces, and while it is Black's turn, parties CANNOT move White chess pieces. It is flipped to White's turn whenever a Black chess piece is moved, and it is flipped to Black's turn whenever a White chess piece is moved. SPECIAL MOVES. When a Pawn is moved to a Unit of Land with a Latitude of -3 or 4, the person who moved the Pawn CAN and MUST in the same message, by announcement, create a Knight, Bishop, Rook or Queen with the same Colour and Position as the Pawn and then destroy the Pawn. When a King is castled, the person who castled the King CAN and MUST in the same message move a Rook with the same Colour as the King. WINNING. When a King is checkmated, it is destroyed. People CANNOT move chess pieces if fewer than two Kings exist. In a timely fashion after a King is destroyed, parties to this contract SHOULD agree between themselves some reward for Black people (if the destroyed King was White) or White people (if the destroyed King was Black). CLEANING UP. When this contract is destroyed, all chess pieces are destroyed. --- Personally, I think it would be a little more interesting if it actually interacted in any way with the status of land, but the only sensible way I can think of is to prevent chess pieces from being moved to aether, as a way of encouraging more expansion, and that cuts out half the chessboard. -twg
