Dark Chess 960: online game

[Dave]

In order to practice AJAX, I've developed a web based online game that allows people to easily play Dark Chess 960 against each other.

To start a game, you just have to go to http://www.wesnoth.org/cgi-bin/dave/dark.pl and you'll be given two URL's -- one is for player 1, and the other for player 2.

Starting positions are randomized, but both players start with the same setup, so you know your opponent's initial position. The goal is to capture the opponent's king.

It works with Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, but not with IE (due to IE not supporting the canvas tag).

If anyone wants to have a game of it with me, PM me on IRC sometime.

David

[Wintermute]

Interesting! It also appears to work with opera, my browser of choice.

[Dave]

Interesting! It also appears to work with opera, my browser of choice.

Yeah it should work in any decent browser. Basically anything but IE.

[Vendanna]

Light!

Pawn -> Human Peasant
Knight -> Human Knight
Bishop -> Mage of Light
Rook -> ¿? (Big lawful creature? Like the Wose)
Queen -> Princess from HttT
King -> Delfador/Konrad

Dark!

Pawn -> Walking corpse
Knight -> Chocobone (unless there is a dark knight one)
Bishop -> Necromancer
Rook -> Revenant
Queen -> Asheviere (the Queen of HttT)
King -> Ancient Lich.

Just offering a "theme" for the chess. if possible to have it with wesnoth theme.

[ADmiral-N]

Does it handle stalemates? If it does, then there's an error somewhere, because my friend can't move but it's still not over

[Dave]

Does it handle stalemates? If it does, then there's an error somewhere, because my friend can't move but it's still not over

It actually just lets you know it's over by showing the entire board, though you can still move.

It's over when your king is killed.

Considering there is nothing stopping you from moving into check, I can't see how you could possibly get into a stalemate. Well, perhaps if you really contrived it very hard. Anyhow, no it doesn't handle stalemates or have any concept of a draw.

[Wintermute]

Does it handle en passant? Soliton and I played some games and wished for a replay feature, either in game or after the game. It would be interesting to see what your opponent was doing I think.

[Dave]

Does it handle en passant? Soliton and I played some games and wished for a replay feature, either in game or after the game. It would be interesting to see what your opponent was doing I think.

No, it doesn't allow en passant. I'm not really sure if en passant is a valuable thing to allow, though the "official" rules of Dark Chess (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_chess) apparently allow it. I'm also not sure what exact rules en passant would use. It might show the pawn that can be taken, even if you couldn't otherwise see it, for instance.

It does allow castling (click on your king and then on the rook you want to castle with). I'm considering adding a rule where you instantly lose, though, if you try and castle while in check or castle through check. (At the moment you can castle through check without a problem).

I would like to add a replay feature. That requires a little more complex AJAXing though.

Another idea is to make a combination of Dark Chess and Bug House Chess to allow 2v2 matches. (Basically you can give pieces you capture to your team mate, and they can parachute those pieces onto any visible position on the board).

David