Play-test applet for chess variants

Introduction

This page contains a tool that can help you play testing your chess-variant designs, by playing those against the generic AI of the Interactive Diagram. You just have to set up the initial position by specifying a board format (and pressing 'Apply'), and moving the pieces you want to participate from the table to the board. (You can drag them one by one, but as long as you are still in setup mode you can make multiple clicks on empty squares to place a bunch of them, and the opponent will automatically be placed as mirror image.) When the setup is as you want it, you can press 'Start Position' to let the computer know you are done. You can then press the 'Play it!' link below the board to start playing your variant against the AI.

You should primarily select the pieces by the desired image; When you are not happy about the move, name or ID that comes with it you can all change these: Just specify what you would like to have instead for a certain piece, and then click the move of that piece in the table. This should immediately display all new values for that piece. If you want to use the same image for two different pieces, you can use the 'Duplicate' button after selecting the piece.

The replacement move has to be entered in Betza notation (the XBetza extensions are understood). For people not familiar with that notation there is an aid for creating it near the bottom of the page; It doesn't handle really complex cases, such as bent sliders or locusts; for those you would really have to type the move. But the chances that you need any of those (that are not already in the table) are quite slim.

Board format Files: Ranks: Promotion zone (ranks): Specify more rules (Also press 'Apply' to enforce these) Stalemate is a win Bare king loses Extinction royalty Asymmetric setup Promotion choice:  Help The IDs of all piece types that can be chosen. Prefixing an ID with * means it is only available when you lost one before. Prefixing an ID with ! means the choice is not available on last rank. The choice can be restricted to a part of the promotion zone by suffixing it with a number. E.g. *Q1*R2BN!P with zone depth 3 means that Pawn is not available on last rank, Q is only available on the last rank, Rook only on the last two ranks. To get Q or R these must have been lost before, while B and N are in unlimited supply. Pieces to shuffle: Help Type the ID of all pieces that should be permuted. A ! prefix to an ID means that pieces of that type should be evenly distributed over square shades, or, if there is only one, stay on its shade. A : prefix to an ID means that a pair of those should always remains placed symmetrically. You can specify more than one shuffle, separated by commas. E.g. KQ,:BN might swap K and Q, and B and N on neither or both wings. Royal pieces: Help Type the ID of all piece types that are royal, concatenated or separated by commas. Spell:    burn freeze charm brake hide protect casted by   Help You can specify one piece (by ID) that should affect its neighbors in the selected way: Prevent enemies from moving (freeze), from capturing (charm), from sliding past (brake), or make them disappear altogether (burn). Friends can be made immune for capture (protect), and friendly sliders can be allowed to hop over them (hide). Board     This diagram plays chess! Play it! The AI will now respond to your moves! (  +  2.5 ply  -  )   After setting up: * Automatic promotion on reaching a square can be specified by putting the promotion pieces on such squares (white POV). Associate this with the promoting piece by clicking its move in the table. * A hole on the morph board denies access to the morphing piece. * Define capture-triggered events by putting the resulting piece or a hole below the piece you capture/that captures you, in the table above.

Chess-variant play-test tool     You can drag pieces from the table to the board, or place several of the same type by clicking multiple squares. Press the absentee button for participating pieces not in the setup. (Inaccessible board squares)      Click on piece name to see its move diagram. ID white nr black nr name move P 99 99 pawn ifmnDfmWfceF P 99 99 shatranj pawn fmWfcF P 99 99 omega pawn fmWfceFifmW* P 99 99 wildebeest pawn fmW*fceF P 99 99 berolina pawn fmFfceWifnmA P 99 99 asian pawn fW N 99 99 knight N B 99 99 bishop B R 99 99 rook R Q 99 99 queen Q K 99 99 king KisO2 K 99 99 (fast-castling) king KispO9 A 99 99 archbishop BN C 99 99 chancellor RN Z 99 99 amazon QN W 99 99 wazir W F 99 99 ferz F D 99 99 dababba D E 99 99 elephant A C 99 99 camel C Z 99 99 zebra Z G 99 99 giraffe FX F 99 99 frog FH G 99 99 wildebeest NC H 99 99 hawk ADGH S 99 99 squirrel NAD L 99 99 lion KNAD T 99 99 tiger - C 99 99 crocodile - K 99 99 kangaroo - R 99 99 ram - O 99 99 ox - S 99 99 snake [vW?B] O 99 99 osprey [D?B] R 99 99 rhino [W?B] U 99 99 unicorn [N?B] G 99 99 gryphon [F?R] D 99 99 dragon - G 99 99 grasshopper gQ V 99 99 vao mBcpB C 99 99 cannon mRcpR L 99 99 leo mQcpQ W 99 99 wide knight sN N 99 99 narrow knight vN C 99 99 charging knight fhNbFbsW C 99 99 charging rook fsRbFbW H 99 99 half-duck (lion) HFD F 99 99 fad FAD L 99 99 fibnif (lancer) FvN B 99 99 bede BD P 99 99 pegasus - N 99 99 nightrider NN C 99 99 camelrider CC D 99 99 dababbarider DD E 99 99 elephantrider AA A 99 99 amazonrider QNN E 99 99 elephantrider ferz FAA E 99 99 elephantrider wazir WAA E 99 99 elephant dabbabarider ADD D 99 99 dabbabarider ferz FDD D 99 99 dabbabarider wazir WDD W 99 99 wazirknight WN F 99 99 ferzknight FN M 99 99 modern elephant FA P 99 99 phoenix WA A 99 99 alibaba AD K 99 99 kirin FD W 99 99 woody rook WD C 99 99 camelwazir WC C 99 99 camelferz FC C 99 99 camelguard KC C 99 99 champion WAD W 99 99 wizard FC M 99 99 mage - F 99 99 fool fI M 99 99 man K G 99 99 guard KAD A 99 99 archer - D 99 99 duke - M 99 99 minister - F 99 99 falcon nCnZ H 99 99 halfbishop B3 H 99 99 halfrook R4 H 99 99 halfqueen Q3 F 99 99 flag - S 99 99 steward mWcF L 99 99 lance fR H 99 99 horse ffN C 99 99 copper vWfF S 99 99 silver FfW G 99 99 gold WfF +P 99 99 tokin WfF +L 99 99 promoted lance WfF +N 99 99 promoted knight WfF +S 99 99 promoted silver WfF H 99 99 dragon horse BW D 99 99 dragon king RF B 99 99 badger - B 99 99 ballista - B 99 99 bat - B 99 99 bentferzhero - B 99 99 benthero - B 99 99 bentshaman - B 99 99 bentwazirshaman - B 99 99 bird2 - B 99 99 bishopinv - B 99 99 bishoppawn - B 99 99 blindmonkey - B 99 99 blindtiger - B 99 99 butterfly - C 99 99 camelbishop - C 99 99 camelrook - C 99 99 cannonpawn - C 99 99 cardinal1 - C 99 99 cardinal2 - C 99 99 cardinalinv - C 99 99 cardinalrider - C 99 99 chameleon - C 99 99 chancellor1 - C 99 99 chancellor2 - C 99 99 chancellorinv - C 99 99 chancellorrider - C 99 99 checker - C 99 99 checkerking - C 99 99 chinesecock - C 99 99 coiledserpent - C 99 99 condor - C 99 99 coordinator - C 99 99 coordinator2 - C 99 99 crookedbishop - D 99 99 desertferz - D 99 99 desertwazir - D 99 99 diplomat - D 99 99 drunkelephant - E 99 99 edgehog - E 99 99 elephantferzshaman - E 99 99 elephantknight - E 99 99 elephantwazirshaman - E 99 99 equesrex - E 99 99 evilwolf - F 99 99 ferociousleopard - F 99 99 flexibleknight - F 99 99 flyingbishop - F 99 99 flyingqueen - F 99 99 flyingrook - F 99 99 fortyeight - F 99 99 forwardchancellorprince - G 99 99 general - G 99 99 giant - G 99 99 gnu - G 99 99 goldpashtun - G 99 99 goldrider - H 99 99 halflingbishop - H 99 99 halflingrook - H 99 99 hare - H 99 99 highpriestess - H 99 99 horseferz - H 99 99 horsegeneral - H 99 99 horsewazir - I 99 99 immobilizer - I 99 99 irongeneral - J 99 99 javelin - J 99 99 jumpinggeneral - K 99 99 kingbishop - K 99 99 kinginv - K 99 99 kingrook - K 99 99 knightdabbabah - K 99 99 knightferzdabbabah - K 99 99 knightgeneral - K 99 99 knightguard - K 99 99 knightinv - K 99 99 knightpawn - K 99 99 knightwazirdabbabah - L 99 99 letter - L 99 99 letterpawn - L 99 99 longleaper - M 99 99 mammoth - N 99 99 nespearman - N 99 99 nspearman - N 99 99 nwspearman - O 99 99 oldmonkey - O 99 99 ostrich - O 99 99 owl - P 99 99 pawninv - P 99 99 pawnknight - P 99 99 pegacorn - P 99 99 plane - Q 99 99 queeninv - Q 99 99 quickpawn - R 99 99 recliningdragon - R 99 99 rookinv - R 99 99 rookpawn - R 99 99 rose - S 99 99 sabretooth - S 99 99 scorpion - S 99 99 scout - S 99 99 sergeant - S 99 99 ship - S 99 99 sidemover - S 99 99 sidemovergeneral - S 99 99 silverpashtun - S 99 99 silverrider - S 99 99 sissa - S 99 99 skibishop - S 99 99 skiqueen - S 99 99 skirook - S 99 99 skiskibishop - S 99 99 skiskiqueen - S 99 99 skiskirook - S 99 99 slidinggeneral - S 99 99 spider - S 99 99 squirrelgeneral - S 99 99 star - S 99 99 stone - S 99 99 stonegeneral - S 99 99 sun - T 99 99 templar - T 99 99 templarpawn - T 99 99 thief - T 99 99 tilegeneral - T 99 99 tripleelephant - T 99 99 tripleelephantwarmachine - T 99 99 triplewarmachine - T 99 99 twistedknight - V 99 99 verticalmover - V 99 99 verticalmovergeneral - W 99 99 warmachineferzhero - W 99 99 warmachinewazirhero - W 99 99 wheel4 - W 99 99 wheel6 - W 99 99 wheel8 - W 99 99 wildebeestferz - W 99 99 wildebeestgeneral - W 99 99 wildebeestwazir - W 99 99 withdrawer - W 99 99 wolf - Z 99 99 zebrabishop - Z 99 99 zebraferz - Z 99 99 zebrawazir - Z 99 99 zigzaggeneral - Betza move description: (aid below) New piece name: New piece ID: (Leave empty to keep old) Morphing & Confining For defining automatic promotions First specify the desired new values above, then click on the move of the piece in the table that should get those.

Move definition aid

In the pane below you can define moves of a piece by clicking the squares it should be allowed to move to. First click defines a leaper move to the square. A second click would convert this to a slider/rider move that repeats that step/leap. A third click would remove the move again.

To limit the range of a slider you can click the first square along its path that it should not be able to reach. Clicking on the piece takes away all its moves, and thus clears the entire pane.

Once you are happy with the move diagram you created in the entry panel, press one of the buttons to the right of it to add the move to the Betza description text entry. (Don't forget to clear that first, by pressing 'Clear All'!) You have a choice to add it as move-only, capture-only or both.

Before you click one of these buttons you can specify a few other properties of the move through tick boxes: whether it is to be used as initial move (i.e. on pieces that have not moved before), whether it should hop over one other piece (only sensible with rider moves), or whether it should be non-jumping (not sensible with leaps to adjacent squares). You would only rarely need any of those, so by default the checkboxes are unticked.

Note that you can always edit the move description that you created this way before you actually assign it to a piece in the table. E.g. when you needed a range limitation on a slider too large to fit into the panel; you would just specify a smaller range, and change the number in the resulting definition by typing.

As an example: to specify a FIDE Pawn you would click the square before the piece (forward is up!) and enter it by pressing 'Move-only'. Then you would click the squares diagonally in front, tick 'Also as en-passant capture', and press 'Capture-only'. Finally you would click the square two steps in front of the piece, tick the 'Initial move' and 'Non-jumping' checkboxes, and again press 'Move-only'. That should have filled the Betza move-description text entry with the Betza notation for the move of the FIDE Pawn.

Last revised by H. G. Muller.