Quickstart

Here we will demonstrate the steps for creating chess variants. Please refer to the specific engine API pages for more specific details.

In these steps, please refer to the specific tutorial pages for more details.

Step 1. Create the initial setup for a new chess variant.

1. Create a new board, or use an already implemented board.

2. Create new pieces, and moves, or use already implemented pieces.

4. Create new win conditions, or use already implemented win conditions.

5. Create new special rules (such as castling, or ), or use rules that have already been implemented.

Step 2: Add a new Game type

In GameTypes, add your new chess variant. This should take in a list of rules and a list of win conditions.

1. You variant can implement a more generic AbstractChess.

2. Or it can implement a more specific chess variant from StandardChess. You can use this if you are using a 2D board, has standard castling rules, en passant, has promotable pieces, and standard win conditions.

Implement the initGame() method.

The initGame method should initialise the board.

1. If your game implements StandardChess, you can use FEN notation to set up the game in the class declaration, like so:

class sampleChess() : StandardChess(FenUtility("rqkr/pppp/PPPP/RQKR w -", whiteStartingRow = 1, whitePromotionRow = 3, blackStartingRow = 2, blackPromotionRow = 0))

And the initGame() method should look like this:

override fun initGame() {
    val player1 = players[0]
    val player2 = players[1]
    fen.initBoardWithFEN(board, player1, player2)
}

2. If your game implements AbstractChess, you must manually add each piece to the board by it’s position, like so:

override fun initGame() {
    val player1 = players[0]
    val player2 = players[1]
    for (i in 0..9) {
        board.addPiece(Coordinate2D(i, 2), GrandWhitePawn(player1))
        board.addPiece(Coordinate2D(i, 7), GrandBlackPawn(player2))
    }
    board.addPiece(Coordinate2D(0, 0), Rook(player1))

    ...
  }

Step 3: Add the frontend

• Desktop: Integrate your own frontend or extend the existing front end to accomadate your new variant.

• Console: Eextend the console front end to play your variant in the console.