Terminal Chess

Terminal Chess is a game of chess you and friends can play against each other using SSH.

Each player will play the board from their perspective.

Project status: Beta version working on main.

Table of Contents

1. Installation
2. Configuring Powershell
3. How to Play
4. To Do

Installation

** Be Aware **: This runs natively on shells that support UTF-8. Tested on fresh installs of:

• Bash
• Fish
• Ksh
• sh
• Tcsh
• Zsh

If you insist on using PowerShell please scroll to the PowerShell Configure section and follow the instructions there.

• Install the following files into the same directory:
  • game_flow.py
  • game_logic.py
  • game_view.py
  • currentgames.json
  • users.json
• Call game_view directly in your shell with python3 \<dir>\game_view.py

I chose to serve it to a specific user when they sign in through ssh to my server.

Configuring Powershell:

You will need to change the default font to one of the following:

• DejaVu Sans
• FreeSerif
• Quivira
• Pecita

I recommend DejaVu or FreeSerif, as I find their shapes to be more distinguishable.

--- The following was necessary in older Windows versions. If you are on Powershell 7/core this can be disregarded.

• Run intl.cpl in console
• Click Administrative tab
• Click Change system locale... button
• Check Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 box
• Click OK
• Restart machine
• Once restarted run Set-ItemProperty HKCU:\Console VirtualTerminalLevel -Type DWORD 1
• Change default font to DejaVu Sans Mono
• Open a new console for changes to take affect
• Play

How to play

• Use long algebraic notation to move pieces
• Movement format = starting square, ending square: b2a3
• Castling king side enter: 0-0 castling queen side enter: 0-0-0
• To request a draw you can enter draw or (=). Your opponent will have to accept for the draw to go through
• To resign enter resign or xx

To Do

• Kick out after 3 failed password attempts
• Implement temporary ban after failed password attempts
• Clean up rules
• Change 'commands' to 'h', 'help' and integrate with rules section
• Make powershell script to automate powershell configuration
• Implement AI to play against
• Separate Piece logic into per-piece files
• Make bash script to spin up and destroy a working instance of this project from procuring local physical space to sign on screen
• Detect Powershell and font used, in client console, if does not support chess pieces change piece from unicode characters to KkQRBP