Would be practical if this module was merged with http://drupal.org/project/chessboard .

I would like to be able to enter chess situation exports from elsewhere and import them into this module to have the situation in the export rendered and placed on a chessboard which would then let me set two players and proceed with normal/single moves in the new chess game..

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Leeteq’s picture

Leeteq commented
Title: Merge with the other Chess module? » Merge with the Chessboard module?
EoinBailey’s picture

EoinBailey commented
Assigned: Unassigned » EoinBailey

The ability to enter a specific start state is what you are after, right? I haven't used the chessboard module yet, but I did just check out the code.

It shouldn't be too hard to add in this ability. I can add a form that would allow the starting state to be specified by the game creator, and then the game would proceed as normal.

If this is not what you're after, let me know what is you want, but I like this idea anyway, so I'll probably add this in too regardless! I'll add it to the feature list.

Leeteq’s picture

Leeteq commented

Many online chess servers allow to export the chess game at any stage during the game. That export is in a "international format", which several services can import. It is just a standard way of storing the moves in sequence up until the point where the export was taken. So by importing it, you will get just that situation in the game, and should be able to continue the game from there.

That is a great competence building and learning tool, in addition to allowing the players to pick especially interesting and exciting positions, which may raise the enthusiasm too. Whenever an interesting situation occurs, with several potentially good moves, one can do an export, then import it back after the game and explore the alternative routes too.

EoinBailey’s picture

EoinBailey commented

That is cool. Can you point me to the format, so I can follow it. It would be silly to start exporting in a different way, and it would be nice to be able to import from a number of different services.

Does the chessboard module follow the format? It does mention the 'FEN' syntax, and another syntax for importing. My knowledge of this side of chess is non-existent.

Leeteq’s picture

Leeteq commented

Sure, forgot to mention its name (PGN) in my previous post... Here is a description from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Game_Notation

"Portable Game Notation (PGN) is a computer-processible format for recording chess games (both the moves and related data); many chess programs recognize this extremely popular format due to its accessibility by ordinary ASCII editors, including word processors capable of importing and exporting plain ASCII.

PGN is structured "for easy reading and writing by human users and for easy parsing and generation by computer programs." The chess moves themselves are given in algebraic chess notation. The usual filename extension is ".pgn"."

and see also this general description;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_notation

Here is an example on how a PGN export looks like/what it contains, taken from www.redhatpawn.com:

PGN export: (I have made the numbers general, the number of digits are correct but may vary)

[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.chess-site.xyz"]
[Date "2008.11.01"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Player1"]
[Black "Player2"]
[WhiteRating "1111"]
[BlackRating "2222"]
[WhiteELO "1111"]
[BlackELO "2222"]
[Result "*"]
[Gameid "123456"]

1. e4 e5 2. d4 d5 3. dxe5 dxe4 4. Ng1e2 b6 5. f3 exf3 6. gxf3 Qd8xd1
7. Ke1xd1 Ng8e7 8. c4 Ne7c6 9. Bf1g2 Bc8b7 10. Bc1e3 Bf8c5 11. Kd1d2 O-O
12. Nb1c3 Nb8a6 13. Nc3d5 Ra8d8 14. Ne2f4 Bc5xe3 15. Kd2xe3 Rf8e8 *

Leeteq’s picture

Leeteq commented

From that second link:

"# Portable Game Notation (PGN). This is the most common of several notations that have emerged based upon algebraic chess notation, for recording chess games in a format suitable for computer processing.

# Forsyth-Edwards Notation. (FEN). A single line format which gives the current positions of pieces on a board, to enable generation of a board in something other than the initial array of pieces. It also contains other information such as castling rights, move number, and color on move. It is incorporated into the PGN standard as a Tag Pair in conjunction with the SetUp tag."

EoinBailey’s picture

EoinBailey commented

Thanks for the info. I'll look into this.

eric_a’s picture

eric_a commented

Hi Tim, hi Eoin, hi all you chess lovers here,

I'm the new maintainer of Chessboard Renderer. I have a vision of Chess taking advantage of a Chessboard Renderer API.
Let's keep an eye on eachother's projects!

EoinBailey’s picture

EoinBailey commented

Sounds like a good idea.

I'm still (foolishly??) hopeful to have some more free time in the next few months and dive back into this.

eric_a’s picture

eric_a commented

Chessboard Renderer 6.x-1.0 will be released very, very soon! After 7.x-1.0 is done, you can count on me filling up the Chess issue queue ;-)
You´re all very welcome to contribute one way or the other. Reviewers please take a look here: http://drupal.org/project/issues/chessboard?text=&status=8&priorities=Al...

Cheers,
Eric

Leeteq’s picture

Leeteq commented
Version: 5.x-0.07 » 6.x-1.x-dev

Ref. #1540506: Merge Chess and vChess modules? (with maintainership offer), where a discussion with the maintainer of the http://drupal.org/project/vchess module goes on.
I really think that a merge is interesting.

Could it be an idea if THIS module focused on providing flexibility for simple/small "block displays" and relied on vchess for the actual chess functionality?