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WikiProject Chess

ChessBoard Election done. Votation was finished. ChessBoard number 8 (Polish Style) is the winner. Results at Section: Talk:WikiProject_Chess#Chessbase chessboard election

Read standard chess diagram on Commons.

The chess standardization and improvement wikiproject is an inter-wiki chess collaboration designed to standardize and improve the coverage of chess across all Wikipedia languages. The idea for the project came from discussion on the commons from users in several wikipedias languages participating in his (or her) particular language wikichess projects or related articles.

Now we are discussing two issues:

  1. A standard chessboard style and template
  2. The upload capability of mediawiki to PGN file formats.

Members

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Standard chess diagram - template and images

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Standard chess diagram has two parts:

  1. The template is in Commons:Template:Chess diagram.
  2. Images used by the template: Commons:Category:Standard chess tiles.

Detailed description can be found here: Commons:Standard chess diagram.

How to use the template

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You should copy the template to your wikimedia project (your local wikipedia, wikibooks, wikisources, etc). The images do not need to be copied because they are in Commons, they can be accessed from any wikimedia project. (Unfortunetely templates from Commons cannot be accessed from another wikimedia project, so they have to be copied to local projects).

Hints:

  • Change the template name to be understandable in your language.
  • Translate the description of the template and place it on the corresponding discussion page.
  • The template is to be a standard, so don't modify it. Leave your suggestions here instead.

Improvements

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Any modifications of the template or the images should be discussed on this page. In case we reach an agreement to change the images, the modifications will be applied automatically to every diagram that use the template.

Wikimedia Projects using our standard

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Template versions

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  • 0.90 (2005-08-05) beta
  • 1.01 (2005-08-10) inauguration
  • 1.02 (2005-08-24) "thumb" class removed
  • 1.03 (2005-09-24) square names in hover hints added

Chess aids

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FEN2Wikipedia converts FEN to the Wikipedia chess diagram format.

Good job!!! --GengisKanhg (my talk) 16:59, 1 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

PGN files

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PGN file format is a chess game stored system for computers. Most computer chess program can read this format. One task of this Meta-Wikiproject -in addition to the chessboard style- is to ask to the Metawiki foundation or any other person related about the capability to upload this kind of format in order to improve our chess articles.

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Free Chess software

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  • ChessDB A Database, continues with the SCID saga.
  • Crafty a strong source-available chess engine
  • GNU Chess, released under the GNU GPL
  • jose chess Database and viewer, include a pretty cool 3D board.
  • ProDeo a free, decommercialized version of the REBEL chess engine
  • SCID Database and PGN viewer

The name of the chess pieces across the world

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It is very interesting to know about the meaning of the chess pieces in different languages. This information is very good for cultural and historical purposes. About this, we have that the in the English language is a kind of priest, in Spanish it is called "alfil" which remains its original Arabic word that means "elephant". So, it is interesting to use this Multicultural MetaProyect to track this information. It will be interesting for all our "History of chess" or "chess pieces" articles.


Please add the information about your language.

The name of chess pieces and its meaning across languages
Chess piece
Language Name & Meaning
en King - The ruler of a Kingdom Queen - The wife of the King Rook Knight - A warrior who fights while mounted on a horse. Bishop - A high-ranking priest. Pawn
af Koning=King Dame=Lady Toring=Tower Ruiter=Horseman Loper=Runner/Messenger Pion=Pawn.
ar ملك or شاه=King or Shah وزير or فرزان=Minister رخ or قلعة=Rukh or Castle حصان=Horse فيل=Elephant بيدق or جندي=Soldier
cs Král - The ruler of a Kindom Dáma - Lady Věž - Tower Jezdec - Horseman. Střelec - Archer, shooter. Pěšec - Footman
da Konge=King Dronning=Queen Tårn=Tower Springer or hest="Jumper" or horse Løber="Runner"/Messenger Bonde=Farmer/Peasant.
de König=King Dame=Lady Turm=Tower Springer=Jumper Läufer=Runner/Messenger Bauer=Farmer/Peasant
es Rey. =en Reina or Dama. First: =en. Second: "lady" Torre. Tower. Caballo. Horse Alfil. No Spanish meaning, only used for chess Peón. A man of very low range in the work, usually for make hard physical work
fr Roi=King Dame Tour Cavalier Fou=Madman, court jester (Middle Ages) Pion
he מלך= King מלכה=Queen צריח=Tower/Turret פרש=Cavalier/Horseman רץ=Runner/Messenger פיאון or חייל=Peasant or Soldier
it Re - King Regina - Queen Torre - Tower Cavallo - Horse Alfiere - Flagman Pedone - Footman
jp . . . . . .
lt Karalius - King Valdovė - Queen Bokštas - Tower Žirgas - Horse Rikis - Warrior Pėstininkas - Footman
nl Koning=King; Also used: Edelman Koningin=Queen; Also used: Dame Toren=Tower Paard=Horse Loper=Runner Pion=Pawn
no Konge=King Dronning=Queen; Also used: Dame (lady) Tårn=Tower Springer=Leaper Løper=Runner Bonde=Farmer/Peasant
pl Król=King Królowa=Queen; also used: Hetman-a military commander in 15th-18th cent. in Poland and Lithuania Wieża=Tower Skoczek=Jumper; also used Koń=Horse Goniec=Runner/Messenger; less used: Laufer which is German and means the same Pionek=Pawn
pt Rei=King Usually Rainha=Queen, but also used Dama=Lady Torre=Tower Cavalo=Horse Bispo=Bishop Peão=The same as spanish meaning
ro Rege=King Regină=Queen; Also used: Damă (Lady) Turn=Tower; Also used: Tură Cal=Horse Nebun=Madman Pion
ru Король - King Ферзь - Vizier Ладья - Rook Конь - Steed Слон - Elephant Пешка - Foot soldier
sv Konung - King Drottning - Queen Torn - Tower Häst - Horse Löpare - Runner Bonde - Farmer/Peasant
tr Şah - The ruler of a Kingdom Vezir - Vizier Kale - Castle At - Horse Fil - Elephant. Piyon=Pawn
fi Kuningas=King Kuningatar=Queen Torni=Tower Ratsu=Knight Lähetti=Messenger Sotilas=Soldier.
zh 王=King 后=Queen 車=chariot 馬=horse(what else?) 象=elephant(what else?) 兵=Soldier

Announcing Template

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For new users from any wikipedia to be know about this Meta Project lets improve a template to be put in correspond places at wikis. Template: {{WikiProject Chess Announce}}

Meta-Wiki (General) discussion about chess articles are given at [1], for example: about chess board style, notations and PGN files. (The original of this template is at [2]).

Proposals of places to be putten in each Wikipedia:

  1. In the Wiki Chess Proyects Page (if exists).
  2. In the Chess category page.
  3. In the Main Chess article.

Discussion

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Chess diagrams - standardization

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I think we should answer one more question. We should recommend one style of chess diagram for all purposes (surely all the diagrams in english wiki are of one size of square, 30). Thus I prepared a new template (named Chess diagram) with changed parameters. Instead of choice the size of square, the template has two additional parameters: the first defines a text which appears beneath the chessboard and the second sets alignment (to left or right side of page). I set the square size to 28x28 to fit the whole diagram in the layout of articles.

I apply the new template to en:King's Gambit. Let's wait for opinions from english contributors.

The main question is: should the diagrams be placed in a thumb-like gray frame with obligatory description beneath the board? --Klin 08:11, 5 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I think your template is according to the chessboard we selected for the Universal Wiki project. For your question I think we can use null parameter in no text case.--GengisKanhg (my talk) 23:51, 5 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I think a new template is very usefull. In all cases I added chess diagramms I always used thumb-like gray frame with a description. I think we need also another template for chess problems, which have an additional caption above the diagramm, see example in w:Retrograde analysis. Andreas Kaufmann 06:09, 7 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Wouldn't it be better to align left caption text in a new chess diagramm template? This is how captions for image thumbnail are aligned, see e.g. w:Dark Chess. Andreas Kaufmann 19:03, 7 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Finally I prepared three new templates, see description en:Template_talk:Chess_diagram. I had to resolve the problem with scaling. When you use bigger or smaller fonts in IExplorer white interlines apeared in the old diagrams. In fact it is IE bug I think, but it had to be corrected in some way. New templates behave much better, check it yourself :)
I think the caption above the diagram (header) looks really bad when left aligned and it seems quite natural that the header and the footer are centered. Of course, I can change this, but personally I prefer centered both captions. --Klin 22:13, 7 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I followed Andreas suggestion, moved the header outside the frame and set alignment of the footer to the left. Now it looks like a standard thumb frame. Well, probably it's time to start using it? :) --Klin 12:55, 8 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, a new template is great! For beginning, I replaced a diagramm in w:Chess to use your new template. Hopefully more people will notice and start using the template. Andreas Kaufmann 21:28, 8 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It looks great! Nice work everybody! — Bcat (talk | email) 00:30, 9 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe I'm missing something here. The "new template" looks absolutely horrid on my screen (viewing with Netscape 7.1 or IE 6.0). There's a gap between each rank, and the 1-8 and a-h labels don't line up with the ranks and files. The "old" Chess position template looks much better. I understand and appreciate the idea of a standard cross-wiki position template, but this one isn't working, and the old one does work. en:User:Bjimba
ADDITION: I've done some further research on this. I looked at the description of the new template in Commmons, and there it looked great. What could be the difference? Well, it turns out that the difference is that I wasn't logged in on Commons, so I got the default skin. I was logged in on en:Wikipedia -- and any skin other than default Monobook breaks the Chess_diagram template (well, I didn't try them all, but many of the skins DO break it.) -- en:User:Bjimba 167.211.190.2 17:55, 22 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
The bug is a result of the use of "thumb" class in the template. Unfortunately classes are not compatible between skins (they should be!). The "thumb" class in default skin is very convenient. It's a pity I have to resign with it. I can fix the bug off-hand but it may cause some minor side effects. Give me a day or two, I am going to consult programmers. -- Klin | talk 20:28, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
I had to remove "thumb" class in the template to provide proper view of the diagrams in the skins other than default. I added padding and clear:right declarations to save compatibility with the previous version. -- Klin | talk 19:58, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
Excellent work, Klin. I've tested with almost all skins on en:Wikipedia and the template looks great. Bjimba 14:23, 25 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, Bjimba. Also for a signal of the problem. -- Klin | talk 18:05, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Template discussion

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Additional parameters for future use

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In order to use the new template, (in my Spanish wikipedia case), I might change all the template invocation, in Spanish wikipedia they are less than 25. But I preferer to propose, -before change it- to discuss the template in order to avoid hard work changing and changing the template.

I propose discuss the parameters to be include or include additional parameters to be used in the future. Now we can release a template version with aditional parameters capability but without using them. I mean, in current invocations use NULL as this parameters captions. In this way we can improved the template with more options without changing each one of the template invocations. --GengisKanhg (my talk) 18:57, 9 August 2005 (UTC) The questions are:[reply]

1) Do you agree with the proposal? 2) How many "future use" parameters do we put in the template?

Once we apply the standard template to many articles it will be easy to use a bot to change automatically all the calls to it. Particularly adding a new empty parameter is a trivial task for a bot. Present situation is a special case because the order of parameters have changed and in many cases the calls to the old template are additionally formatted. Thus using a bot now is somewhat risky (but possible; maybe it's a good idea to ask a sysop on en:wiki familiar with bots).
Of course you can add one or more additional parameters now (additional '|' lines between the footer and '}}' will be ignored). If you decide to do this on es:wiki remember only to be consistent and use the same number of parameters in all the calls. --Klin 08:28, 10 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I don`t know about wiki-bots, but I trust you about them. I wish every template copied from our project template, not to be modify, just to be copied. Modifications, -at least in spanish wikipedia- will be propuse and discuss at the Meta Project (Our Project). Then, I am going to change the spanish template to the Meta Project current one. Then, if additional parameter will be needed, we'll able to aply the same bot to the same template. Thanks.--GengisKanhg (my talk) 00:25, 11 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Alt text

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Would it be possible to add alt text to the squares so that if you hover over e4 it says e4? that would be nice. I'd do it if I had any idea how this template works. BrokenSegue 22:06, 23 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Good idea. I've added hover texts in the templates in commons and english and polish wikipedias. Please copy the new version to your projects from commons. -- Klin | talk 18:01, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Size

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The old template at wikipedia allowed the user to specify a size for the board. Could that be added in a way where no input would still work (ie. still have backwards compatibility)? It was called en:Template:Chess position. When I am converting from the old to the new template I find that the new one is often smaller than the old and that might annoy some people. BrokenSegue 02:12, 25 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Tiles discussion

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Proposal 1

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Proposal: Allow the White pieces to be uppercase, e.g., "QL" and "qd". "ql" and "qd" are hard to distinguish visually, and notations like FEN use uppercase for white, lowercase for black already. I understand that because Windows' filesystems are screwed up you don't want just case to distinguish pieces, and that's fine. But by LETTING people use UPPER/lower case, I think it'd be easier to read the results.

Could we add case insensitivity (not for color distiniction, but just for convenience) by adding redirects on image pages? Otherwise we would have to save each picture in 4 places (eg. QL, Ql, qL, ql). BrokenSegue 19:57, 3 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately images can't be redirected. I've done a test commons:image:chess_Rl44.png and it doesn't work. Maybe there are some nuances but I don't know how to manage with it.
It's also impossible to upload two files e.g. "Chess_Qll44.png" and "Chess_qll44.png". They both will be saved on server as "Chess_qll44.png". -- Klin | talk 12:07, 4 September 2005 (UTC)
Actually, that's not true. Image:Chess Qll44.png and Image:Chess qll44.png are different. Only the first letter of image names is case insensitive. Dbenbenn 22:29, 12 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
So our only option is a feature request for redirects? BrokenSegue 19:56, 4 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I think so. Providing the redirects work we'll can use one-letter names of pieces. -- Klin | talk 09:48, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
I don't think Capital letters should be used to indicate White pieces. It is not flexible, you wouldn't be able to add fairy pieces in the future. I would propose to start using Capital letters as other pieces. -212.71.37.92 10:13, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal 2

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Proposal: Add tiles for arrows and lines so you can show strategy, direction, etc.

This has been done, and examples on how to use them can be found either by viewing template w:Chess diagram or the documentation file at w:Chess diagram/doc. The arrows have been coded by 2-letter code for direction for all 8 directions (ul - up, left; ua - up; ur- up, right; la - left; ra - right; dl - down, left; da - down; dr - down, right); plus up/down (ud) and left/right (lr) Paul Robinson (Rfc1394) (talk) 20:57, 23 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal 3

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Add tiles for draughts.

You can use xo and oo for draughts. -212.71.37.100 10:07, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal 4

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Now here is an important proposal, according to this page, the symbols GMESH are represented as inverted QRBNP, whatever they mean. I think that hll, hld, hdl, hdd should be changed from inverted knights to inverted pawns. And the rest of the pictures should be added. I would've made them and added them if it wasn't for the change of the h symbol. I would also use f for inverted kings. What do you think? In there aren't any answers within the week, I will consider this a yes and start working on them. -Sibahi 21:00, 3 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Done .. The only problem remains is that the tiles hdd, hdl, hld, and hll must be changed to sdd, sdl, sld, and sll respectively, in all the Wikipedia projects. I am going to change it in the English Wikipedia. -Sibahi 09:41, 18 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Having said that, the letter for the upside-down queen should be G for Grasshopper, not D. So, also the tiles ddd, ddl, dld, and dll must be changed to gdd, gdl, gld, and gll respectively, in all the Wikipedia projects. -Sibahi 09:59, 18 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Special chess diagrams

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Lets discuss and agree with an alternative to special chess diagrams that now are not standarized.

General discussion

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Do we make an image based in our standar and put it the additional requirements in pixel-wise way in some image editor? Or some one have an idea to improve the current template to support things like the requirements?

Please read commons:standard chess diagram - supplement. --Klin 23:41, 17 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]


Lets think deep about these results [3].--GengisKanhg (my talk) 23:04, 18 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds like limitations in iexplorer (the most common browser) make this solution unsuable. BrokenSegue 17:50, 21 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Gif image format is free (as in fredom) now, we can use this format for masks to the template until vil-gates supports png format in his toys. --GengisKanhg (my talk) 14:15, 23 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Requests for special chess diagrams

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I have some special tools to generate images compatible with standard chess diagram template. If you need a picture of special diagram leave your request below. Check commons:standard chess diagram - supplement for newly added images. --Klin 07:08, 18 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]


Chess diagrams to be standarized are:

1. Castle diagrams (See at [4]).

2. Algebraic notation of all the squares image (See the previous reference)

3. Discriptive notation

4. I am using the images for my own small chess program. I now want to show the move of a figure slowly from one position to the other. Request would be to have additionally all figures without the l/d background (but transparency) to let them move from one position to the other. Thanks.

5. For some people it would be fine to print a chessboard with and without letters and numbers in black and white, to make their own board. Additionally a set of black and white pieces is needed. I'll try this in the next days, but never did something like this on a website. So maybe someone reading this can mail me, if s/he knows how to create this and has the time. There was a set on the FIDE site. But the last changes made it disappear. /* Requests for special chess diagrams */ --Jupp-Pitter

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