New Python chess module

[Will McGugan]

Hi folks,

I've written a Python chess module that does the following.

* Reads / Writes PGN files
* Write FEN files
* Validates moves
* Lists legal moves
* Detects check / mate / stalemate / 50 move rule / threefold repetition

Its still rough around the edges and not fully tested. I'll eventualy
release a more polished version and possibly put it on Sourceforge. In
the meantime I would be grateful for any feedback..

http://www.willmcgugan.com/chess.zip

I am aware of the chess module by Erik Max Francis. It may have been
more sensible to work on his version, but I did this mainly for the fun
of it. I wrote a chess game in C++ a while back
(http://www.chesscommander.com) and I thought it would be interesting to
re-implement the chess library part in Python.


Regards,

Will McGugan

 

[Pekka Karjalainen]

Its still rough around the edges and not fully tested. I'll eventualy

release a more polished version and possibly put it on Sourceforge. In
the meantime I would be grateful for any feedback..

Somebody ought to comment this in more detail...

I have one minor point. It looks like your test whether the location is on
the board is needlessly complex. Python understands multiple comparisons
like in mathematical notation, and not like in e.g. C language. This
snippet shows what I mean:

[x for x in range(10) if 2<x<7] # 2<x<7 means 2<x and x<7

[3, 4, 5, 6]

Read about it in the reference:
http://www.python.org/doc/2.4.2/ref/comparisons.html

 

[Will McGugan]

I have one minor point. It looks like your test whether the location is on
the board is needlessly complex. Python understands multiple comparisons
like in mathematical notation, and not like in e.g. C language. This
snippet shows what I mean:

[x for x in range(10) if 2<x<7] # 2<x<7 means 2<x and x<7

[3, 4, 5, 6]

Read about it in the reference:
http://www.python.org/doc/2.4.2/ref/comparisons.html

Thanks. I was aware of that, I've just never got in to the habbit of
using it..

Will McGugan

 

[Will McGugan]

There is a new version if anyone is interested...

http://www.willmcgugan.com/chess.py

It contains optimizations and bugfixes.

Can anyone suggest a name for this module? pyChess is already taken...


Will McGugan

 

[Tim Churches]

There is a new version if anyone is interested...

http://www.willmcgugan.com/chess.py

It contains optimizations and bugfixes.

Can anyone suggest a name for this module? pyChess is already taken...

Pyawn???

Tim C

 

[Dave Hansen]

Pyawn???

As a play on "pawn?" that wasn't the way I first took it (ho-hum...)

How about pyTurk, after the first chess automaton? It seems to be
available.

Regards,

-=Dave