TChess - Play the Chess in the terminal

TChess is a simple chess game in terminal. With this program, you can play chess in terminal.

This software is licensed under MIT.

Installation

You can install it with pip:

$ pip install tchess

To start a game:

$ tchess
# OR
$ python3 -m tchess

Also if you don't want use pip, you can clone this project and:

$ cd /path/to/tchess
$ python3 tchess 

Command python3 tchess will run the tchess.

Get Started

Tchess can save your game in a file, then you can continue that game later. If you run the above command, game will be saved in game.tchess file in current working directory. Also Tchess can handle online multiplayer game on local network (P2P).

But you can customize the file:

$ tchess my-game.bin

Also if you played a game and closed that and now you want to continue that game, only give file name as argument:

$ tchess my-old-game.bin

(The .bin extension is a example, you can name it whatever you want).

Basics

Basic command line usage:

$ tchess [options...] [?game-file-name]

Cli options

• --help: shows the help
• --help --verbose: show full help
• --version|-v: shows version of the tchess
• --no-ansi: disables the Ansi color chars
• --replay: play the saved game
• --replay --replay-speed=[speed]: delay between play frame (for example 3(secound) or 0.5)
• --dont-check-terminal: do not check terminal size
• --player-white=[name]: set name of white player
• --player-black=[name]: set name of black player
• --no-beep: do not play beep sound
• --online: serve a online game
• --online --host=[host]: set host of online game
• --online --port=[port]: set port of online game
• --online --guest-color=[color]: color of guest player (black or white)
• --connect [host]:[port]: connect to a online game
• --connect --name=[name]: set your name white joining to a game

Game flow

when you run the game, you will see something like this:

       1      2      3      4      5      6      7      8
   |------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
 1 | w-r  | w-n  | w-b  | w-k  | w-q  | w-b  | w-n  | w-r  |
   |------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
 2 | w-p  | w-p  | w-p  | w-p  | w-p  | w-p  | w-p  | w-p  |
   |------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
 3 | 3-1  | 3-2  | 3-3  | 3-4  | 3-5  | 3-6  | 3-7  | 3-8  |
   |------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
 4 | 4-1  | 4-2  | 4-3  | 4-4  | 4-5  | 4-6  | 4-7  | 4-8  |
   |------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
 5 | 5-1  | 5-2  | 5-3  | 5-4  | 5-5  | 5-6  | 5-7  | 5-8  |
   |------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
 6 | 6-1  | 6-2  | 6-3  | 6-4  | 6-5  | 6-6  | 6-7  | 6-8  |
   |------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
 7 | b-p  | b-p  | b-p  | b-p  | b-p  | b-p  | b-p  | b-p  |
   |------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
 8 | b-r  | b-n  | b-b  | b-k  | b-q  | b-b  | b-n  | b-r  |
   |------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|

white Turn >>>

The above content will be showed in the terminal. and there is a command input in the bottom. You should pass commands to that for running the game.

Also there is white Turn. this means its turn of white team. if you do something, this will be changed to black Turn.

Also name of Pieces is <team>-<type>. for example b-q (black queen) and w-k (white king).

The location of cells is accessible with this pattern: <row>-<column> or <row>.<column>. For example 1-1 or 6.4.

exit

command exit, exits the program:

>>> exit

Moving the pieces

For moving pieces, you should enter this command:

>>> move <src> to <dst>

for example:

>>> move 2.1 to 4.1

Also you can use mv keyword instead of move:

>>> mv a to b

Also you can don't use to keyword. for example:

>>> mv 2.1 3.1

Also you can see which pieces in the board are allowed to go to the which cells:

>>> s 2.2

The above command s <cell-address>, will show you the piece in the entered address can go to which cells (The allowed cells will be highlighted with *).

Back

You can revert your moves and back to the previous status.

>>> back

This is useful if you insert a wrong command or move wrong.

(This command will be disabled for guest in online mode)

Replaying a saved game

If you played a game and it is saved, you can play that!

You should use option --replay:

$ tchess --replay my-saved-game.file

Then you can see your game is Replaying!

Also you can set frame speed of Replaying using --replay-speed option:

$ tchess --replay my-saved-game.file --replay-speed=3 # means 3 seound
$ tchess --replay my-saved-game.file --replay-speed=0.5

(sort of options is not important).

Online multiplayer

By default, Tchess runs a offline game for you that you should play on one terminal. Means both of players should use one computer alongside together.

But you can play with your friend with two computers (on local network).

Means one player will be Server and other player will be guest.

Game will be handled by Server computer. and guest will be connected to server and play.

To serve a game, run this command:

$ tchess --online
# OR
$ tchess --online --port=<port> --host=<host>
# Example
$ tchess --online --port=5000 --host=0.0.0.0

then, the guest player can join the game by running this command:

$ tchess --connect <host>:<port>
# Example
$ tchess --connect 192.168.1.2:5000

Also guest can determine the name:

$ tchess --connect 192.168.1.2:5000 --name="guest name"

Also server player can use more options:

# set color of guest player (default is black)
$ tchess --online --guest-color=white

Manpage

If you want to see the tchess manpage, run this command after installation via pip:

$ man tchess

or if you want to see manpage from source code, run:

$ cd /path/to/tchess
$ man -l man/tchess.1

Contributing

If you want to contribute to this project, read this guide.