A couple of games here at Pocket-Monkey don't always automatically recognize all of the conditions where a player wins. In a couple of cases (described below), the losing player must resign the game manually. This is a bug, and it's on our list to fix.
When this happens, folks, if you're the losing player please be gracious and resign the game, using the Resign button. We're sorry for the extra effort, and we will fix these issues, but in the meantime remember you've already lost the game, it's just that the site hasn't recognized it. You're not losing the game when you click Resign; you're just acknowledging that you've lost. It's simply being a good sport.
If you're the winning player in this situation and your opponent doesn't resign when you think they should, please assume that they don't know about the bugs or they don't realize that they've lost (we're not all masters of all the rules!) and politely refer them to this thread. And remember, being gracious in victory is the mark of a true gentleperson.
If absolutely necessary, Jock or I can get involved and take appropriate action, but let's avoid that if we can, eh? :-) If you want to contact us about a game, please do it privately, either via the support email address or by dropping 'jockm' or 'T.J.' a private Pocket-Monkey message.
Here are the games and situations affected:
Checkers (including Kings Corners, etc.) To win a Checkers game, you have to get your opponent in a position where they cannot move. There are two ways to do this: Take all of your opponent's pieces, or trap all of their remaining pieces such that they cannot move. The Pocket-Monkey Checkers (Kings Corners, etc.) game only recognizes the first one (taking all their pieces); if you trap your opponent, they have to resign the game manually.
Mill There's a similar situation in Mill: You win either by taking seven of their nine pieces, or by trapping their pieces so they cannot move at all. The Pocket-Monkey Mill game doesn't detect the second situation; if trapped, the losing player must resign.
Chess Not all checkmates are automatically detected; just as in a face-to-face game where you'd lay your king on its side, if you're checkmated in a game and the site doesn't detect it, please resign it manually.
Again, sorry for the trouble. We will fix these. But in the meantime, remember, we're all here to have fun, and we all lose games sometimes as well as winning. There's no shame in admitting defeat; quite the converse, in fact.
FYI, the Mill problem was fixed a while back, but both the Checkers and Chess bugs are still there. Now that the update is in place it should be easier for me to get in there and fix those. -- T.J. Crowder First Primate Pocket-Monkey.com
Strategy If you arrange your pieces such that you have a mobile piece which is completely unable to move because you've surrounded it with bombs, it should realize that you can't move and end the game in favor of your opponent. Until then, please just resign the game in that situation. -- T.J. Crowder First Primate Pocket-Monkey.com
The Checkers version of this bug was fixed yesterday (details). -- T.J. Crowder First Primate Pocket-Monkey.com
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