Chess using a touch display

[peterhinch]

The difference between black and white squares is more evident when not mangled by my photography...

This demo lets you play chess on a display running the micropython-touch GUI. The display must be at least 320x240 pixels (although the code is readily scalable). The host needs a fair amount of RAM, but an RP2 V2 works fine with plenty of headroom. An original RP2 would probably work with frozen bytecode.

See guide.

[DavesCodeMusings]

Very cool. How do you move the pieces? Is it touch and drag?

[mattytrentini]

I was curious too, but it's described in the guide:

Gameplay is by touching the piece to be moved, followed by a touch of the destination square. Illegal moves are ignored. Castling is done by moving the King: the Rook will move automatically. Pawn promotion to Queen is automatic. en passant works as expected.

Very simple and neat!

[DavesCodeMusings]

I was curious too, but it's described in the guide:

Gameplay is by touching the piece to be moved, followed by a touch of the destination square. Illegal moves are ignored. Castling is done by moving the King: the Rook will move automatically. Pawn promotion to Queen is automatic. en passant works as expected.

Very simple and neat!

Ah yes, I see it now.

[peterhinch]

On the first touch the square lights up, and on the second the piece moves. When the engine makes a move the source and destination squares briefly light up - otherwise it was easy to fail to spot a machine move. There are also alternative color schemes modelled on those at chess.com and chess.org - or anything else you fancy!

[mattytrentini]

Looks fantastic @peterhinch! I was hoping someone would build something in MicroPython around Sunfish. 😄

[peterhinch]

It uses this micropython port of sunfish - I made no changes to the code other than contributing an API. There is also the Numwoks port which sounds as if it adds extra features. I'm very much open to trying another engine - it should be possible to bolt on my API to a different engine.

It would be good if its openings were less deterministic, and if its end games were a bit more, er, competent. But it challenges my rusty skills at the game!