Method for processing Board Game Move Record Information

A method for processing board game move information obtained from a board game move-recording device, for the purpose of creating a full and unambiguous record of the moves of the game;

• in which said move information is in the form of a time-ordered sequence of occupancy-change data items indicating which game board playing locations have changed state from being occupied to being unoccupied or from being unoccupied to being occupied, but in which said occupancy-change data items do not further indicate the identity of the game piece occupying each game board playing location;
• said method comprising the following steps:
• i. providing a game board with game pieces, and a board game move-recording device associated therewith;
• ii. arranging the game pieces on the game board in a starting arrangement;
• iii. playing the moves of a game until an ending position is reached;
• iv. creating and initializing a data structure to contain the game record as it is processed and designating said data structure as the primary game record;
• v. based on the move information obtained from the move-recording device, updating the move information in the primary game record by performing the applicable one of the following three steps:
• a. when an illegal move is encountered, eliminating the primary game record, and selecting another of the existing game records as the primary game record;
• b. when an ambiguous move is encountered, creating one additional game record for each possible move, beyond the first such move that can represent the ambiguous move, recording each possible move to its own game record, and then selecting one of the plurality of game records as the primary game record;
• c. when a legal and unambiguous move is encountered, adding that move to the primary game record;
• and
• vi. repeating step (v) until the end of move data for the game is encountered or the last game record is eliminated.

A board game move-recording system, comprising a game board with game pieces, and a board game move-recording device associated therewith, the recording device having:

• means for creating a full and unambiguous record of the moves of the game in which said move information is in the form of a time-ordered sequence of occupancy-change data items indicating which game board playing locations have changed state from being occupied to being unoccupied or from being unoccupied to being occupied, but in which said occupancy-change data items do not further indicate the identity of the game piece occupying each game board playing location;
• means for creating a primary game record;
• means for updating the primary game record as game pieces are moved to and from playing locations;
• means for creating a plurality of game records when an ambiguous move is encountered, with each of the plurality of game records based on each possible move that can represent the ambiguous move;
• means for eliminating game records if the subsequent moves indicate that the possible moves for such game records were not the actual move played.

A method for processing board game move information obtained from a board game move-recording device, for the purpose of creating a full and unambiguous record of the moves of the game;

• in which said move information is in the form of a time-ordered sequence of occupancy-change data items indicating which game board playing locations have changed state from being occupied to being unoccupied or from being unoccupied to being occupied, but in which said occupancy-change data items do not further indicate the identity of the game piece occupying each game board playing location;
• said method comprising the following steps:
• i. providing a game board with game pieces, and a board game move-recording device associated therewith;
• ii. arranging the game pieces on the game board in a starting arrangement;
• iii. creating and initializing a data structure to contain the game record as it is processed and designating said data structure as the primary game record;
• iv. based on the move information obtained from the move-recording device, updating the move information in the primary game record by performing the applicable one of the following three steps:
• a. when an illegal move is encountered, eliminating the primary game record, and selecting another of the existing game records as the primary game record;
• b. when an ambiguous move is encountered, creating one additional game record for each possible move, beyond the first such move that can represent the ambiguous move, recording each possible move to its own game record, and then selecting one of the plurality of game records as the primary game record;
• c. when a legal and unambiguous move is encountered, adding that move to the primary game record;
• and
• v. repeating step (iv) until an end-of-game indicator is received from the move-recording device or the last game record is eliminated.