nabla: I like the in passing rule as implemented here just fine*(see note). I believe the original game was made that way to make it easier to program, but I don't really know their thinking on it. I've seen the two versions on the Chess Variants site and they don't allow Pawns to move two squares! That eliminates the dealing with in passing Pawn captures, but it makes the game not as good. Those versions don't show the Pawn's coverage squares in the same manner either. Plus you can't go back and review the game, nor even gain information from one of your pieces before it's captured if it is captured the next move. As for their version that doesn't allow you to move in check or leave your King in check, I haven't played it. In my opinion those two versions are very inferior to BrainKing's and It's Your Turn's versions. The only difference I know of between here and IYT is how Promoted Pawns and Extra pieces are shown. Here nothing is shown, on IYT they show the Pawn taken off the board and the promoted piece if it makes a second Queen or extra piece.

Though I will on occasion have one Pawn on the fifth row from me, it's unusual to have many more than that during a game. Often times I'll have the squares to either side of such a Pawn covered and will know if my opponent has tried to sneak by my advanced Pawn. Or I'll know there is no Pawn in the file to one or both sides in which case I don't concern myself with the possibility of missing a passing Pawn.

You guys do point out a problem about what to do when my opponent could slide a Pawn by unbeknownst to me. I deal with it as Reza suggests, or I overlook it and my opponent has tricked me. Thems the breaks. It doesn't happen very often in a game and I think it is a good part of the game having it work the way it does here. In the few instances when it is a possibility, I take care. It's just a click on the Pawn. If it moves forward, you know there's no in passing on the turn. If it stays in place then you just hover the cursor to one of the squares or the only square if you have one side covered and see what happens. Same thing if you have a possibilty of more than one capture with this same Pawn. If the Pawn is blocked from moving straight ahead by another piece, it's even easier. Just move the cursor to it and a hand will appear if it can make the in passing capture. And if there's an addition possible capture, it's still just a click away.
*Writing this has me thinking that you have a point about it automatically showing the possibilty of a passing Pawn capture. It would certainly be consistant with the rest of how the game goes having it shown. I guess either way is OK with me. At least playing on a turn based site where I have the time to check. A live version of Dark Chess would be better to have the passed Pawn shown.

And I use dial up. You guys with the high speed connections are trying my patience. :)

Has anybody found a place or a program that will allow me to play Dark Chess at home? One computer hooked to two monitors placed back to back would be the easy way. With only one monitor it'd be too much of a hassle to play and it'd be too easy to spoil the game by inadvertantly seeing your opponent's view. More monitors would allow kibitzers to see all three views of the game while it's being played. I'd certainly like such a program and would be willing to pay the going rate for a video game of similar complexity. What's that between, $7 and $20? I asked Yahoo! to add Dark Chess to their live games site, but all I got back was some form letter that didn't make me feel like they even read my e-mail to them. Dark Chess live would be lots of fun. With a clock running it'd really make for panic near the end of a speed chess or blitz game. Longer timed games would be very challenging.