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What does it do?
Play chess with your friends! This Google Desktop gadget enables you to play this incredible game without leaving the sidebar (but of course, as always, you can drag the gadget out and enjoy the experience anywhere on your desktop). You can even save matches, so you won’t loose them if one of the players unexpectedly leaves.
File size: 101 KB
Features
· Multiplaying: You can invite your Google Talk friends to a game of chess - just click on his/her name in the gadget friends list. Once they receive an invitation, they can accept or refuse (they can also give an answer :). · Game saving: You can save games if you unexpectedly have to leave. When you have time again, you can load that game by selecting it from the saved games slot list. You can even play the game with another friend than the initial one. · Ultimate chess experience: The game engine is complete with castling and en-passant moves. Also, you will see that the gadget automatically detects all the possible moves for the selected piece, therefore making chess a lot easier to play and to learn.
Rules
“Overview Chess is played on a square board of eight rows (called ranks) and eight columns (called files) of squares[2]. The colors of the sixty-four squares alternate between light and dark, and are referred to as "light squares" and "dark squares". Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces which can move in defined directions, and in some instances, limited range, and can remove (capture) other pieces from the board: each player's pieces comprise eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. One player controls the white pieces and the other player controls the black pieces; the player that controls white is always the first player to move. The players alternate moving one piece at a time (with one important exception) to either an unoccupied square, or one occupied by an opponent's piece, capturing it; with one rare exception, all pieces capture opponent's pieces by moving to the square that the opponent's piece occupies. When a king is attacked by one or more of the opponent's pieces, the player is said to be in check. When in check, only moves that remove the king from attack are permitted. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and there are no moves that remove the king from attack. Normally a checkmate will require the cooperation of several pieces, but can also be achieved with one. A player who deems checkmate is inevitable may concede the game (resign) to the other player. A drawn result (a tie) is also possible. Chess has been described not only as a game but also as an art, a science, and a sport. It is sometimes seen as an abstract war game; as a "mental martial art", and teaching chess has been advocated as a way of enhancing mental prowess.
Rules Main article: Rules of chessWhen a game begins, one player controls the sixteen white pieces while the other uses the sixteen black pieces. The colors are chosen either by a friendly agreement, by a game of chance such as pick-a-hand, or by a tournament director. The first player, referred to as White, always moves first and therefore has a slight advantage over the second player, referred to as Black. The chessboard is placed so that each player has a white square in the near right hand corner, and the pieces are set out as shown in the diagram, with each queen on a square that matches its color. Each kind of chess piece moves a different way. · The rook moves any number of vacant spaces vertically or horizontally; · The bishop moves any number of vacant spaces in any direction diagonally; · The queen is a combination of the rook and bishop - it can move any number of spaces diagonally, horizontally, or vertically;
· The knight can jump over occupied squares and moves two spaces horizontally and one space vertically (or vice versa), making an L shape; a knight in the middle of the board has eight squares to which it can move. Note that every time a knight moves, it changes square color. · The king can move only one square horizontally, vertically, or diagonally except when a player castles. The player can not make any move that would place his king in check; · Pawns have the most difficult movement: · A pawn can move forward one square, but only if that square is unoccupied; moreover if it has not moved yet, a pawn can move two squares forward. A pawn cannot move backward. · When such an initial two square advance is made that puts that pawn horizontally adjacent to an opponent's pawn, the opponent's pawn can capture that pawn "en passant" as if it moved forward only one square rather than two, but only on the immediately subsequent move. · Pawns are the only pieces that capture differently than they move. They can capture an enemy piece on either of the two spaces adjacent to the space in front of them (i.e., the two squares diagonally in front of them), but cannot move to these spaces if they are vacant.
· If a pawn advances all the way to its eighth rank, it is then promoted (converted) to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. In practice, the pawn is almost always promoted to a queen. With the exception of the knight, pieces cannot jump over each other. One's own pieces ("friendly pieces") cannot be passed if they are in the line of movement, and a friendly piece can never replace another friendly piece. Enemy pieces cannot be passed, but they can be "captured". When a piece is captured (or taken), the attacking piece replaces the enemy piece on its square (en passant being the only exception). The king cannot be captured, only put in check. If a player is unable to get the king out of check, checkmate results, with the loss of the game. Chess games do not have to end in checkmate — either player may resign if the situation looks hopeless. Games also may end in a draw (tie). A draw can occur in several situations, including draw by agreement, draw by impossibility of checkmate (usually because of insufficient material to checkmate), stalemate, threefold repetition, or the fifty move rule. Chess games and positions are recorded using a chess notation, mostly the algebraic chess notation.“
"Chess." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 26 Nov 2006, 13:27 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 26 Nov 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chess&oldid=90214608>.
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Multiplayer Chess gadget for Google Desktop (by me and Avram Catalin) |
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Programmers’ words :)
“This gadget has turned out to be one of the most complex programs I’ve ever worked on. I never knew how many problems a pawn could create :)” Teodor Filimon 2006
“I should have printed out a list of all the variables I’ve used” Avram Catalin 2006
If you have a suggestion, a comment, or encounter a bug, please contact us. We’ll try to answer as soon as we can. We hope you enjoy our chess gadget!
Teo & Cata |
