I fixed the preset. Now it will correctly give preference to a win by Bare King over Stalemate, and will correctly give the win to Player B in the position that Kevin had sugested below.

>>Kevin Pacey wrote on 2017-01-25 EST
>> My own suggestion would be that for the diagrammed example, for Modern Shatranj, let the stalemate=win rule
>> override the bare king consideration - the 'logic' being that the stalemated king will perish if the stalemated side
>> attempts to move, whereas the bare king has freedom still.
>> In any case, I don't know how Jose's rules enforcing preset for Modern Shatranj currently would handle the
>> diagrammed example, after the final move is made. [edit: the preset's rules say a lone bare king is an Automatic
>> Loss (if the other side's king isn't immediately bared), so I think I ought to take that at face value, even for the
>> example situation I gave.]

Forgive me for my late response... Better late than never! At least I'm still responding in the same year as the question! :-)

As currently programmed, for the given (unlikely) position, the result of my preset would be a win for the bare King.

I need to check the logic to account for this strange position.

I agree with Joe, it should be an automatic win for Player B, as Player A was bared prior to the stalemate, and the rules only allow for the disadvantaged bared King to play, if he would bare the other king in the next move. Nothing is provided for the case where the bare King could stalemate the opponent on his next move.

I guess this position must have had a lot to do with both stalemate and bare kings (by insuficient material) being draws in modern Chess, to avoid this dilema.

Fergus,

When I search all the Latrunculi XXI games played in Game Courier with this lynk:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/logs.php?game=Latrunculi+XXI&age=0&stat=any

it shows that for game: erik-cvgameroom-2017-340-466 that erik won, which is incorrect.

If you go to the game itself, it shows that Black (me!) won the game. (erik was playing white).

A difference between this game and many other Latrunculi XXI games is that this game was finished with the "won" command, instead of the "resign" command.

Maybe you need to tweak the "won" command so that it shows the correct winner in the Game Logs page.

Thanks Fergus.

Here is another one of my games that ended in checkmate, but the status of the game was never change to "finished":

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Fischer+Random+Chess&log=j_carrillo_vii-josesanfer-2004-151-422

Can you please change the status to a win for white? Thanks in advance.

Hi Fergus. My game below timed out, but it still shows as an active game.Can you please change the status of the game to completed? Thanks.

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Modern+Shatranj&log=j_carrillo_vii-louisxii-2017-127-802

Fergus,

I just issued two personal invitations to ramalan, and they went public.

It's still not working.

Fergus,

I'm trying to issue a personal invite in Game Courier for Makruk to ramalan, but it keeps being issued as a public invite.

There seems to be a bug with the invite routine.

Jose

Is anyone else having problems making moves in Game Courier?

I get a blank screen in both my iPhone and my laptop when I try to make a move in any of my games.

Thanks Fergus.

I never run into this problem before (with the $status) and a stalemate. (I guess none of my games ever ran into a stalemate before).

Is there something I need to do to the other presets I have programmed for this particular condition?

Or your fix will take care of it for the rules in the other presets?

Hi Fergus,

This Makruk game with Gary ended in a stalemate draw:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Makruk+%28Thai+chess%29&log=j_carrillo_vii-penswift-2016-335-570

However, even though the rules for the preset correctly identified the stalemate, and correctly called that this position is a draw; the game hasn't completely "finished" and the clocks are still running.

Can you please help me identified what is wrong?

OK, Thanks.

Having said that, not being able to do what I was trying to do for Makruk takes away the ability for players to develop automated presets for variants that may use these non-totally-alpha pieces. (P180, b180, etc.)

Right now the curent set of functions just do not easily support writing rules for presets that mix pieces that have non alpha chracters, with others that don't.

If I had a new variant that used regular pieces and a silver general (S! and s!), I would have the same problem, or be forced to use a diferent piece.

The four functions that I have been suggesting would make a vast amount of code already written totally reusable for a wide variety of applications.

OK, thanks for the clarification.

But I give up. I'm following your suggestions, but the results are still not as expected.

Let me know when you entertain to create new onlyupper, onlylower, isupper and islower functions that only consider the first character; and I will try to update the presets again.

Thanks Fergus.

How about samecase?

I was just updating my previous comment.

Thanks for your response and the new functions Fergus.

To keep things simple (I'm an old programmer, not too familiar with the lambda terminology), I just want four replacement functions (that I can use as black boxes) for the existing ones, so that I can do minimal changes to the presets.

Can I use this definition for the new functions I'm looking for?

def onlyupper2 filter lambda (regmatch "/[A-Z]/" #1) pieces
def onlylower2 filter lambda (regmatch "/[a-z]/" #1) pieces

def isupper2 regmatch "/[A-Z]/" #0
def islower2 regmatch "/[a-z]/" #0

Thanks for your help.

I will try to decipher your recomendation later.

Is there any chance that you can add 4 new functions (onlyupper2, onlylower2, isupper2 and islower2) that work identical to their current counterparts, but that only tests the 1st character?

This way the current code for any of the presets can be very easily updated to use new piece-sets, without any major modifications.

Thanks.

Still not working.

I'm going to use the following definition for new onlyupper and onlylower functions:

As reference, here are my pages on: Hiashatar and Hia Chess

Thanks Fergus.

The new 8x12 Plain Ashtapada board solved my 8x12 needs, but had an expected result on my 8x10 presets:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game%3DPetteia+XXI%26settings%3DSet7

Somehow I thought the 8x12 board would have been cut down to 8x10.

Can you please also upload the 8x10 board to the list of boards?

http://www.chessvariants.com/membergraphics/MSpetteia-latrunculi-xxi/Plain-Ashtapada-8x10.jpg

Thanks.

Jose

Hi Fergus,

I'm trying to get an unchequered board 8x10 and 8x12, but don't seem to find one.

I attempted to use the 8x8 plain ashtapada in the preset below, but that didn't work well:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game%3DSingle+Stone+Latrunculi+XXI%26settings%3DSet9

I made a new board copying and pasting the plain astapada board:

http://www.chessvariants.com/membergraphics/MSpetteia-latrunculi-xxi/Plain-Ashtapada-8x12.jpg

Can you please upload this board to the list of boards?

Thanks.

Jose

Fergus,

My opponent vik just resigned this game:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Fischer+Random+Chess&log=vik-cvgameroom-2016-241-067

But when I open the link to see the final position or his comments (which BTW were not included in the email advising me of his resignation), I get the following error:

Hang in there. I am working on improving GAME Code, and this may intermittently disrupt the execution of GAME Code until I get things working right.

I am updating this to salvage the positions from games whose positions were lost

This is not finished yet, but I may be taking a break

Syntax Error on line 69

The function n has not been defined.

Fergus,

In my Janggi with Darren game below:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Janggi&log=j_carrillo_vii-cvgameroom-2016-213-106

my next move R c3-d3 is checkmate, and the preset identifies the move as checkmate.

However, on my 15th move, my General faced my opponent's General face-to-face without any intervening pieces, therefore by the Janggi rules, the most that I should be able to get is a draw even if I checkmate my opponent.

Would you like to review and correct the logic of the preset to account for this very specific Janggi situation?

Otherwise, instead of playing R c3-d3 I'll just type "drawn" to end the game.

I just believe this is a very good opportunity to update this draw logic.

Great! Thanks for the quick solution Fergus.

Fergus,

In my Prime Ministers Chess game (9x8 board) against Vitya:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Prime+Ministers+Chess&log=makov333-cvgameroom-2016-241-725

when it's my turn to play, my Bishop is on the dark color squares. But after I've moved, my Bishop becomes a light squares Bishop.

While the coordinates for the board change from my perspective (before I move), to my opponent's perspective (after I move); the board itself doesn't rotate along with the coordinates.

Is there a way to rotate the board as well?

Thanks Fergus. All is back to normal.

Cheers.

Fergus,

I can't reach my Makruk page either:

Yes I have been editing, simplifying the instructions and updating the pages since you unhid them. But I haven't deleted anything. Pure rules maintenance.

This page desciptions are:

Latrunculi XXI

Petteia XXI

Editors,

Is there a problem with the site? I can't reach some of my games rule pages:

http://www.chessvariants.com/invention/latrunculi-petteia-xxi
The IndexEntry for MSlatrunculi-petteia-xxi could not be found.

http://www.chessvariants.com/invention/petteia-latrunculi-xxi
The IndexEntry for MSpetteia-latrunculi-xxi could not be found.

http://www.chessvariants.com/invention/prime-ministers-chess
The IndexEntry for MSprime-ministers-chess could not be found.

Thanks Fergus.

Question, would this improvement that you made apply to all the presets that use the "chess" include file?

Hi Fergus.

There is a bug in the logic in the Chess preset as it regards to stalemate draws.

In my game below with Carlos:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Chess&log=sissa-cvgameroom-2016-224-612

the preset correctly identified that the game is a stalemate and a draw (it shows the correct message).

However it failed to end the game formally in a draw.

Right now the preset is expecting Carlos to play, and his only play would be to type the command "drawn".

But shouldn't the preset automatically just end the game, since it does recognize that the position is a stalemate?

Thanks Fergus.

That sounds like a rather complicated way of counting for captured pieces, but if it works, c'est la vie! ;-)

Out of curiosity, something more simple like just counting how many pieces were there in the original setup, and then substracting those still on the board, couldn't this have done the trick?

Kevin,

What you were seeing was the log for the invitation. I deleted it.

Cheers

Jose

Fergus,

Another captured pieces counting bug. In the game below, brown has two promoted kings, and the count between the captured pieces for brown and his pieces on the board add up to 18, which is two more pieces than when the game started. 

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Gothic+Checkers&log=j_carrillo_vii-cvgameroom-2016-213-548

Thanks Fergus.

= = =

Another question... What triggers a preset to display the legal moves when one clicks on a piece?

I created two presets enforcing the rules of the game, and based on the Shatranj include file.

However onedisplays legal moves, and the other doesn't.

The Makruk one below, shows the legal moves:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game%3DMakruk+%28Thai+chess%29%26settings%3DAlfaerie2r

The Chaturanga - Davidson Variation doesn't display the legal moves (even though it's enforcing them right):

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game%3DChaturanga+-+Davidson+Variation%26settings%3DAlfaerie

What is the trigger to display the legal moves?

Thanks.

Hi Fergus,

In reviewing your solution for the Bare King rule problem, I see a variable called "status" which I can't find where in the Shatranj code is previous set. Is this a global variable? How does it work?

Thanks.

= = =

set checks sub checks #k;
if sub checkmated #k #checks and var checks:
  say Checkmate! White has won!;
  won;
elseif var checks:
  say Check!;
elseif sub stalemated #k:
  say Stalemate! White has won!;
  won;
endif;
if == 1 count onlylower and == status Ongoing:
  set mypieces onlyupper;
  switch count #mypieces:
    case 1:
      say Both Kings Bared! Game Drawn!;
      drawn;
      break;
    case 2:
      foreach (from piece) #mypieces:
        if == #piece K:
          continue;
        elseif not fn k #k #from or fn K #K #from:
          say Bare King!! White Wins!!;
          won;
          break;
        else:
          say Both Kings Bared on Next Move! Game Drawn!;
          drawn;
          break;
        endif;
      next;
      break;     
    default:
      say Bare King! White Wins!;
      won;
      break;
  endswitch;
endif;

Thanks Fergus for updating the code, and for the hint on passing positions to existing presets.

You can delete the preset I created for Shatranj during this excersize.

Cheers!

I see now how is it working.

If after the check: 1.Kf3 Rxf4+

white takes the checking piece: 2.Kxf4 the game is automatically a draw. (this makes sense)

But if white didn't take, say he played 2.Ke2 then Black wins after his next move 2... Kd4 0-1 (Bare King Rule)

The question now is, whether the game should have been an automatic draw right from the begining, after 1... Rxf4+, without white having to play (like it is the case now, when a player bares the other but without check).

Fergus, here is the link:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game%3DShatranj%26settings%3DAlfaerie-CSS-test

I just tested it again, and it worked for when White bared Black without giving check: 1.Rxe4 draw.

But it didn't work when I tried a "check" scenario (which happened to be the one I first tried last time): 1.Kf3 Rxf4+ and the game continues.

Now I believe the issue is more related to the "check" than the Bare code.

No Fergus, I tried it, and didn't work.

I just setup a random position where one King would bare the other, and the other lone King could bare the first on his next move. Based on a quick view of your new code in Shatranj, I expected it to end the game saying that: "Both Kings Bared on Next Move! Game Drawn!", but this didn't happen. The game carried on.

I used a different approach in my Chaturanga Davidson's Variation: (Below is the code for Post-Game 1, for white)

if == 1 count onlylower:
  set enemies onlyupper;
  if > count #enemies 2:
    say Bare King! White Wins!;
    won;
  elseif == count #enemies 1:
    say Both Kings Bared! Game Drawn!;
    drawn;
  endif;
endif;
if == 1 count onlyupper:
  set enemies onlylower;
  if >= count #enemies 2:
    say Bare King! Black Wins!;
    lost;
  endif;
endif;

I'm actually allowing the Lone King to play one more move. If he can bare the opponent's King, the game is a draw. If the lone King cannot bare the opponent on the next move, then he automatically losses the game.

Fergus,

On a secondary note, the Bare King code logic for two Bare Kings being a draw, doesn't seem to be working.

I tested it in your Shatranj preset and when the first king was bared, it gave the win to one side, and still allowed me to play and bare the other king, giving a win to the 2nd side.

Thanks Fergus.

= = =

On a different note, I'm trying to borrow the Bare King code from your Shatranj preset for my Chaturanga - Davidson Variation preset, and I think I found a copy and paste problem on the Shatranj preset.

In the very first first section of the Post-Game 2 (for the Black player), it says "Bare King! White Wins!"

if == 1 count onlyupper:
  set enemies onlylower;
  if > count #enemies 2:
    say Bare King! White Wins!;
    won;
  else:

It should say Black wins not white.

I just benefited from what I believe is a bug in the implementation of the Game Courier preset for Janggi, as Game Courier gave me a win in a position which I believe is not checkmate.

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Janggi&log=vik-cvgameroom-2016-211-785

Thanks Fergus,

Yes, the original error seems to be gone.

But now when I try the move, the board background changes from the original (astapada-marble2.jpg), and the astapada-marble2.jpg is not among the available options on the move Preview screen.

If I move, by default the board will change to: chess-greenbeige.png

No Fergus.

It didn't make a difference.

I got three emails for acepted invitations for the 3 games below, and for all of them had no body in the email, just an attachment called ATT001.

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Chaturanga+-+Davidson+Variation&log=j_carrillo_vii-makov333-2016-206-997

= = =

on a 2nd note... I got again the error below for the last of the three games above (the one against makov).

lastmovenum = 0; movenum =

WARNING: As a safety precaution, you cannot move and take back a move at the same time.

If you mean to take back a move, do that before you move. This will let you see the board accurately when you do move.

If you did not mean to take back a move, set the drop-down box with the history of your moves to the last move made.

=

This is a new preset I created for Chaturanga - Davidson Variation, which enforces the rules.

Have I done something wrong in the preset instructions to cause this error?

I tested the preset extensively (PLAY mode), and I never got this error.

I checked the last time I got this error (on July 21st, Carlos Cetina had reported it too), and that time the values of the variables was different:

lastmovenum = ; movenum = 0

Fergus, the other emails for regular moves (after the game has already started) look fine.

Right now the issue is only with the first email to confirm that the challenge has been acepted and that the game has started.

Fergus,

Update. I forwarded you the mail I received, and copied my gmail account.

I was able to open the attachment in the forwarded message (but not the original). Below are the contents of the attached text file:

I don't understand why am I getting the text as an attachement intead of just plain text.

= = =

Fergus,

I use yahoo mail.

I can see that there is a text attachment to the emailcalled: TEXT.txt, but I can't open it or download it.

Cheers,

Jose

Fergus

My opponent just accepted a personal invitation to play the game below,

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Chaturanga+-+Davidson+Variation&log=j_carrillo_vii-ramalam-2016-206-499

and this is the email I received from Game Courier.

No mention as to who is playing white or black, and no link to the game. Just an email with a subject line.

I found out when I searched the my games: the link to the game and that he chose to be white.

I don't know whether he received an email with instructions stating that it was his turn.

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: sundowner62
To: j_carrillo_vii
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2016 7:35 PM
Subject: darren paull accepts your invitation to play Chaturanga - Davidson Variation

Thanks Fergus.

Yes, I was able to play my first move. Thanks.

How about the email that we receive when a challenge is accepted? Can it include the link to the game?

Hi Fergus.

I just started this game with Carlos Cetina:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Modern+Capablanca+Random+Chess&log=j_carrillo_vii-cvgameroom-2016-201-107

He chose to be black, but on the email that I received there was no text or a link to the game to indicate that he had chosen black and that it was my turn to play.

I went to my CV games and found the link to the game there, showing that it was my turn.

When I tried to play my first move: P e2-e4 I got the error below:

lastmovenum = ; movenum = 0

WARNING: As a safety precaution, you cannot move and take back a move at the same time.

If you mean to take back a move, do that before you move. This will let you see the board accurately when you do move.

If you did not mean to take back a move, set the drop-down box with the history of your moves to the last move made.

Can you please check the code, it appears to have a couple of bugs?

Thanks.

Jose

Fergus, another opportunity for improvement.

When one of my opponents accepts an open invitation and chooses to be black, the I receive an email only with a subject but without any text or link to the game.

The subject alone doesn't even tell me that I'm white or that is my turn to play.

To play my first move, I have to go to my games to then find the game in question.

I forwarded you a sample email.

Thanks Fergus for fixing the captured pieces logic.

Hi Fergus,

In my Petteia XXI game with erik below, there has been two captures (one for each side):

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Petteia+XXI&log=j_carrillo_vii-erik-2016-178-557

However in the Game Couries box of Captured Pieces it is only showing one piece captured.

Can you please review the logic for captured pieces? Thanks.

Fergus,

Below is a sample email from Game Courier when a player resigns.

One cannot tell who resigned (difficult to tell, when one is playing many games of the same type), see the comments of one's opponent when he/she resigned, nor there is a link to the game just finished so that one can review it.

Is this an oversight?

Thanks.

= = =

From: "play@chessvariants.com" <play@chessvariants.com>
To: xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2016 8:30 AM
Subject: Turkish Checkers: 22... resign

OK. Thanks Fergus for confirming that Darren ran out of time, and that's why the game ended.

In this case then, shouldn't I receive an email saying that my opponent has run out of time?

Thanks.

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Makruk+%28Thai+chess%29&log=j_carrillo_vii-cvgameroom-2016-109-074

Fergus,

There is something wrong with the clock on this game. It's not over yet, but because the clock has a negative number for the time left, Game Courier is thinking it's over.

Fergus,

Another one. I accepted Carlos Cetina's invitation to the Fischer Random
Chess game below, and as soon as the random position was set, I lost the
game, without even playing my first move.

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?game=Fischer+Random+Chess&log=sissa-cvgameroom-2016-89-680

Just as an additional piece of information Fergus...

This problem happened to me when I sent my opponent directly the invitation
(versus a public invitation for anyone to accept).

I don't know if this has anything to do with the bug.

I don't have that box checked.

I'm starting from scratch from the chess preset:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?submit=Edit

I'm trying to edit the settings for a game in Game Courier.

I can no longer see all the pieces available in an entire piece set within
the Game Courier edit screen.

How can I see the pieces available (and their mnemonics) now? 

Where do I have to go to see all the pieces available in the Alfaerie set?

Hello fellow Chess Variants lovers!

I'm interested in playing a few games, after a few years absence from
online play.

I submitted a few open public Game Courier invitations, but have not
received any email from the CV Gameroom mailing list about my games, or
about any other of the games currently waiting for opponents.

When I check the CV Gameroom mailing list yahoo site (below), it appears
that the last message was in 2015.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cvgameroom/info

Is the CV Gameroom mailing list working?