Visualize move, protection and threat status in chess

47 points by _ology 9 years ago | 11 comments
  • marcusbrown 9 years ago
    Cool!

    I've been thinking to make the exact same thing in Javascript using Chess.js and Chessboard.js

    https://github.com/jhlywa/chess.js/blob/master/README.mdhttp://chessboardjs.com/

    I got a half-working version and will opensource the code once it's ready.

    I think it could be a nice tool to help people starting with the game, but also as an analysis tool for more advanced players.

    [Edit] I just uploaded what I did so far on a server, just in case you want to take a look

    http://www.hotpixel.mx/chess/index.html

    my idea is to use little icons (now really terrible looking) with numbers and playing with opacity to give an idea of the strength for each square of the board. I still have some problems in some cases displaying incorrect numbers, but I hope to fix that as soon as I have some spare time :)

    • amrrs 9 years ago
      Nice. Hope it'd be good if you visualize how opponent's move could affect for the player in the other end.
    • fjarlq 9 years ago
      Cool, good idea!

      I have a couple bits of cosmetic feedback for you:

      I would like the chess pieces to appear much larger within each of their squares, ala http://www.365chess.com/opening.php

      Also, the green border around protected cells is difficult for me to discern. (Might be due to my colorblindness.)

      • _ology 9 years ago
        Thank you for your feedback!

        I can definitely make the pieces larger. I will experiment...

        The the tiny green border is definitely difficult to discern. I will think about how to display protection status more effectively. :)

        • _ology 9 years ago
          Fixes made! 1. Increased piece size, and 2. colored the background of squares if protected, instead of increasing the border size. Thanks again. :)
          • 9 years ago
          • blevinstein 9 years ago
            This is neat!

            I was working on something similar recently: https://github.com/blevinstein/chess_assistant/blob/master/s...

            I had been thinking about ways to analyze the graph of "threats", so I focused on which pieces were threatening which. I wanted to eventually extend this to also include which pieces were threatening which squares, but never got that far.

            • MrQuincle 9 years ago
              Would be nice if there was also an "advanced" mode. Only highlight pieces that have less defenders than attackers. And highlight pins.

              And I assume even more advanced modes highlight perhaps central squares that might be obtained and which open lines. See https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chess_Strategy/Open_lines for a nice example.

              • _ology 9 years ago
                Hm. If I were an advanced player I might be up to creating an advanced mode! ;-)
              • hemapani 9 years ago
                Very cool idea? Do you have a demo or write up about how it works? also would like to know how one can use it.