Welcome to TypeScript chess. A project illustrating OOP principles where you can play a game of chess on the command line. To install and set up the project refer to Section 1. For instructions on how to play chess using UCI notation refer to Section 2. For future work on the project refer to Section 3.
The recommended versions for this project are Node.js version 20.8.0 and npm (node pacakge manager) version 10.1.0. To check which versions of Node.js and npm are installed run the following commands in your terminal:
node --version
npm --version
Additionally you can use npx (included automatically in newer versions of node) to Switch to the recomended Node.js version.
npm install -g npx
npx [email protected]
To get started you will first need to clone the repository on to your local machine. This can be done by running git clone + THIS_REPOSITORY_URL. Open your terminal or command prompt and run the following command:
git clone https://github.com/Luisgarchi/TScmdChess.git
Once the repository has finished being cloned, navigate into the project directory as follows:
cd tscmdchess
Install the project dependencies using npm:
npm install
Before running the app you need to compile the TypeScript code into JavaScript. The following command will build the project into a new folder called "dist":
npm run build
Optional: This project uses Jest for testing. You can run the tests with:
npm test
Once built, you can run the the application using the start command. This command will execute the compiled Main.js file located in the dist directory.
npm start
The game is played by typing a player's move into the terminal. To do this the application uses a version of chess notation called UCI which stands for Universal Chess Interface. UCI is a version of long algebraic notation where both the starting and ending squares are specified. To make a move a player's peice must be in the starting. For example, to move the white pawn in the image below at "e2" to "e4" you would write the UCI move "e2e4".
Each square on the board has a unique coordinate pair consisting of a letter and a number known as files and ranks respectively. Files refer to the vertical columns of the board labeled a through h starting from the queenside of the board to the kingside. Similarly ranks refer to the vertical rows and are labeled 1 through 8 starting from the white side of the board. All the square on the chess board can be mapped to a file rank pair as illustrated below.
In order to castle using UCI notation the departure square of the king and that of arrival are used. This results in 4 castling moves in UCI notation:
- The white King castling kingside is "e1g1"
- The black King castling kingside is "e8g8"
- The white King castling queenside is "e1c1"
- The black King castling queenside is "e8c8"
The same rules for castling apply: 1. the castling King and Rook have not moved 2. the King does not leave, cross over, or finish on a square attacked by an enemy piece.
In this case, the notation changes to 5 characters, the letter of the piece is added at the end. The allowed letters are:
- q for Queen
- b for Bishop
- n for Knight
- r for Rook
Example: e7e8q for a pawn promotion to Queen (white).
The only functionality not included in the current version involved the posibility of a game resuting in a draw between both players. This occurs when either player is in stalemate, or during 3 fold repetition.
When either player, whose turn it is to move, has no legal moves available and their king is not in check.
When the same position occurs on the board three times. The positions don't need to occur consecutively but can be interspersed with other moves.
The current implementation ties movement mechanics directly to individual chess pieces, which utilize a chess board representation to determine legal moves. A more optimal approach would involve integrating these mechanics within the chess board class itself. This adjustment would enable the capture of illegitimate moves through error handling, providing users with feedback regarding the reason for invalidity. Such enhancement not only refines the user experience but also ensures greater consistency within the move validation process.
Introducing files and ranks surrounding the board representation would simplify position calculation for users. Additionally, incorporating a checkerboard pattern onto the board interface would facilitate easier identification of square positions for users, thereby enhancing the overall usability of the application. Lastly, including a "quit" command that the user(s) can type to exit the application prematurely.