Chess

Work in progress...

Configure your Postgres credentials

Before you start the Phoenix server make sure you have set the following environment variables

• POSTGRES_USER environment variable to your Postgres username
• POSTGRES_PASSWORD environment variable to your Postgres password
• CHESS_SECRET_KEY environment variable with the result of the mix phx.gen.secret command (it generates a secure secret key for the session management in your app)

Start your server

To start your Phoenix server:

• Run mix setup to install and setup dependencies
• Start Phoenix endpoint with mix phx.server or inside IEx with iex -S mix phx.server

Accessing the application

Once the server is running you can

• Local machine: visit http://localhost:4000/games (you will be prompted to log in or sign up)

If you would like to access the application from another device in your local network you should

• Acquire the local IP address of your computer (for example 192.168.1.200)
  • ifconfig for Linux/macOS
  • ipconfig for Windows
• Substitute localhost with that IP address (for example http://192.168.1.200:4000/games)

Once logged in

Once you have successfully logged in go ahead and press the New Game button to start playing.

However the game won't start unless there are two clients attempting to start a game.

To start open a different browser on your local machine, access the app through it and click New Game. You should see the chessboard on both browsers.

Connecting from an external device as the second client will also work of course.

The game isn't perfect, but it has the essentials

• Timers (synchronized with internal server timers)
• The ability to resign, and offer a draw
• En passant, castling, promotions
• A working move register

TODO

• Improve frontend in the game window
  • Timer positioning
  • Move register
  • Background
• Add chatting functionality for players and spectators