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If the two bishops travel on the same color squares, then all 64 squares can be covered by the eight pieces. However, if the bishops must travel on opposite colors, then the maximum number of squares that can be covered is 63. See Eight Pieces Cannot Cover a Chess Board for a complete discussion.
Here is one of several possible 63 square solutions for ...
32
It's wrong because the rules say so:
2.1 The chessboard is composed of an 8 x 8 grid of 64 equal squares alternately light (the ‘white’ squares) and dark (the ‘black’ squares).
The chessboard is placed between the players in such a way that the near corner square to the right of the player is white.
Of course, those rules are based on what has been common ...
28
From the FIDE Laws of Chess, article 7.6:
If, during a game, it is found that any piece has been displaced from its correct square the position before the irregularity shall be reinstated. If the position immediately before the irregularity cannot be determined, the game shall continue from the last identifiable position prior to the irregularity. The ...
23
PyChess has about 20 fonts and SVGs bundled in its source code:
20
You can use the SVG rendering functionalities of python-chess. This will allow you to create a SVG-formatted visualisation of any board position loaded using python-chess.
FEN to SVG
For example, given a FEN as input (say we save our python script as boardtosvg.py)
Using python3 and the python-chess library version 0.30.1
import chess
import chess.svg
import ...
15
You might look for a chess set font. Here are several. Licensing information is included. It looks like they have been scanned from old books in some cases.
13
Unicode has chess piece icons in it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_symbols_in_Unicode
This means you could look for a font which includes the chess symbol unicode block and has a license which fits your purpose. Most fonts are in TrueType format which is already vector-based and can be converted to SVG with Apache SVG Font Converter. This would mean ...
12
You hold yourself to a higher standard than your opponent, for politeness' sake.
So you let him play an alternative move after you kindly point out that it was perhaps not the best available, but you are acquiring a habit of caution by adhering strictly to the laws of the game for your own moves.
The point is to be moral, polite and extremely smug at the ...
10
I had the same problem which (to some extent) I've managed to overcome.
I didn't ever get enough chances to practice OTB games so I could never get used to it. My solution was to play online games with a real board in front of me. I made myself play out the moves on the board and used my computer only to get my opponents move and to enter mine. As long as ...
10
Some websites offer "coordinate drills". I'm not sure how effective they are for learning, but you can certainly give them a try. I found it to be surprisingly entertaining to try to beat my personal record number of coordinates per minute (or whatever the time limit is). Here are the two I know of, but maybe there are others (and maybe there are apps, as ...
9
I have not tried to do exactly chess set but I have some experience (really basic) with doing things from wood. I will tell what I learned from my experience, and may be someone more experienced can refine it.
Crafting from wood is not really that hard (on amateur level). You need:
material (basically wood and in the beginning almost any wood is acceptable,...
8
The only old documents I find available online from the Deutsche Schachzeitung periodical are from Volumes 20, 21, 44, 45, 56, 57, which are available at the Internet Archive. So if you really are after Pauls' exact article for historical reasons, you might have to track down a hard copy of Volume 29 at a library.
On the other hand, if you are primarily ...
8
Yes, of course it's possible. I've done it a lot professionally. However, there is no tool that just takes a PGN chess game and convert it into images. You will need to do some programming, not very hard.
Here is a link on how one can generate machine learning data set on chess. You should be able to reuse the code. I highlighted the part that will relate ...
8
They're both equally natural, they just start at a different square. But that choice is arbitrary anyway. Printing to a terminal is one of the least critical things a chess engine does with a board, and looping can go in the other direction just as easily.
If you want to be able to easily copy algorithms or code from examples or other engines (the license of ...
8
Since over the board chess is played with each player's pieces starting on the side closest to them, the natural board orientation is with your own pieces on the bottom. This is the default orientation when a game starts on all the major chess-playing sites and is how all the top players like Nakamura, Carlsen, etc. play when they stream on Twitch. It is not ...
7
0x88 is just the name of the system. The actual length of the board array is 128.
The name comes from the fact that a bitwise AND can be performed the index of a square (range is 0 to 127) and 0x88. If the result is non-zero, then the square is not on the board. This happens because 0x88 is 10001000 in binary and every square on the board will have the ...
7
This page contains a lot of information about DGT boards, including the patent, detailed description of technologies and algorithms used. Many additional references are provided, too. It is definitely an interesting read!
7
Nothing is stopping you from playing chess in a 4x4, 6x6 or 9x9 board. In ancient times people have tried such approaches.
To answer why 64 squares, I have to answer a bit mathematically. Let me start with this:
[Chess, in] its early form in the 6th century was known as chaturaṅga, which translates as "four divisions (of the military)": infantry, cavalry,...
7
Yes, that's a "square". The word "cell" is never used. E.g. from the Wikipedia article:
Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid.
The 64 squares alternate in color and are referred to as light and dark squares.
Or, if you prefer a dictionary:
3 : any of the quadrilateral spaces ...
6
That sentence is taken out of context. I copy here the text of the full paragraph, which answers your question:
If the game is not to be played rigorously, according to the rules above mentioned, then moderate your desire of victory over your adversary, and be pleased with one over yourself. Snatch not eagerly at every advantage offered by his unskilfulness ...
6
For people stumbling on this question: volume 29 is available online though Google Books since februari 2015.
6
I assume you are referring to DGT-style electronic boards.
I think the main purpose of those boards is to broadcast chessgames - e. g. on a beamer in the playing venue or on the internet. It is also useful (if it doesn't fail) for blitz games or, more generally, in any game situation where none of the players write down their moves any more if you need to ...
6
Capablanca advocated for a 10x10 chess board. He was concerned that chess was getting played out, that there were far too many draws, so his response to that problem was to create two new pieces and play the game on a 10x10 board with ten pawns and ten pieces.
Eight, being a power of two, makes for an easily drawn board:
1) Start with a big square.
2) ...
6
Yes, there are boards that record moves made automatically. This link should give you ample information about so called DGT-boards.
Because DGT-boards are pretty expensive, maybe you want to take a look at this discussion, in which the Novag Citrine board computer is proposed as a slightly cheaper alternative.
If the Novag is still too expensive, I would ...
6
You don't need to be a professional to participate in a tournament, you just have to sign up for the tournament (as long as it's not by invitation only or has minimum rating requirements). You may need to register with your national chess federation first.
As for becoming a professional, I'm not one but I guess the old "practice, practice, practice!" rule ...
5
Same here, I had trouble playing with actual wooden chess before, especially with real chess clocks. The solution is to engage yourself in chess by playing in actual chess games.
Join to local chess clubs or play with your friends with actual chess boards. Soon playing with an actual chessboard and online games will have no difference.
It took me 3 months ...
5
It is one of many forms of three-player chess, apparently called 3 Man Chess. Rules are explained here.
5
To become a professional player who makes a living from tournaments, you really need a GM+ level. Even as a GM, you might find yourself struggling for your bills.
Raise your FIDE to 2500, come back then we talk.
5
I don't think there's anything in the game that's strictly tied to the colors of the squares. You can still number the ranks and files from the bottom-left corner and e.g. Bishops would start on opposite colors than usual, but the diagonal moves still work the same.
Though, if you set the board up using the mnemonic that the queens are placed on squares ...
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