4PlayerChess

A Python/Qt application for the 4-Player Chess Teams variant to perform analysis. This project is a work in progress.

Latest Release: version 0.10.0

You can check for updates from the application menu (4PlayerChess > Check for Updates...). (In case of an SSL error, make sure certifi is installed: pip3 install certifi.)

Features

• Rotatable board with move, turn and piece highlighting
• Drag & drop or click to move pieces
• Right-click to draw arrows (drag) and highlight squares
• Mouseover coordinates
• (Pseudo-)Legal move and castling availability check
• Legal move indicators
• Clickable move list with support for variations and annotations
• Load and save games and set positions with FEN4 and PGN4 (chess.com compatible)
• Editable player name and rating labels
• Save preferences

Getting Started

This program is cross-platform compatible (macOS, Linux, Windows). The following instructions will guide you to install the prerequisites and run the program.

Prerequisites

• Python3
• PyQt5

Install & Run

Follow the instructions for your operating system. If you are not familiar with the command line interface:

• The cd command is used to change directory, e.g. cd path/to/directory
  • Type cd or cd ~ to go to your home directory
  • Type cd / to go to the root directory
  • Type cd .. to go to the parent directory of the current directory
  • Type cd - to go to the previous directory you were in
• The ls (macOS & Linux) or dir (Windows) command will list the contents of the current directory

macOS

Open Terminal to enter the commands at the following steps.

1. Install package manager Homebrew to install Python3 (or install Python3 manually and skip to 3.):

   /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
   

2. Install Python3:

   brew install python3
   

3. Install PyQt5:

   pip3 install pyqt5
   

4. Navigate to the /4PlayerChess directory and run the main file:

   cd path/to/directory
   python3 4pc.py
   

Windows

Open Command Prompt (open Windows menu and search "command") to enter the commands at the following steps.

1. Launch Python3 installer to install Python3 manually and make sure to check the options to add Python3 to environment variables or PATH and to include pip. Alternatively, install package manager Chocolatey:

   @"%SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoProfile -InputFormat None -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET "PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin"
   

   And install Python3 with Chocolatey:

   choco install python
   

2. Install PyQt5:

   py -m pip install pyqt5
   

3. Navigate to the /4PlayerChess directory and run the main file:

   cd path/to/directory
   py 4pc.py
   

Linux

Open a terminal to enter the commands at the following steps.

1. Use package manager to install or update Python3, e.g. on Ubuntu:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get -y upgrade
   sudo apt-get install -y python3.6
   

2. Install pip:

   sudo apt-get install -y python3-pip
   

3. Install PyQt5:

   pip3 install pyqt5
   

4. Navigate to the /4PlayerChess directory and run the main file:

   cd path/to/directory
   python3 4pc.py
   

Notes

• Multiple versions of Python may be (pre-)installed. If so, use python3 and pip3 for Python3 (python and pip are for Python2). Check the version and update Python3 to the latest version, if needed.

  • python3 --version (macOS)
  • python3 -V (Linux)
  • py -v (Windows)

• On Windows, if Python version < 3.6, use python instead of py. To force latest version 3, use py -3, if needed.

Contribute / Contact

If you would like to contribute to this project, feel free to create a pull request. Contact: GDII (or GammaDeltaII on Discord).

Repository

https://github.com/GammaDeltaII/4PlayerChess

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See the COPYING file for details.