notation

NAME

notation - transform chess notation

SYNOPSYS

notation [input file] [-o output file] [-options...]

DESCRIPTION

This program reads chess games, either full algebraic or shortened (ie Nf1-g3 or Ng3) and is able to ouptut the board after any move, in either ascii , postscript, nroff, latex, xboard or gnuan save format. This program is also multi-lingual: it handles english, french, spanish, german, italian, dutch, romanian etc... symbols. So nearly all europeans languages are understood (except greek and russian, but I can't handle greek or cyrillic on ascii computers, eh).

OPTIONS

-a              

algebraic move notation output

-s              

shortened move notation output

-f <language>   

specifies the chess symbol input language. The language can be any of
french, english, italian, spanish, german, dutch, czech, hungarian, polish, romanian, FIDE.

-t <language>   

specifies the chess symbol output language. Same options as input language.

<inputfile>

specifies the input file. If none, keyboard is assumed.

-o <outputfile>

specifies the output file. If none, screen is assumed.

-c <number>[,<number]   

specifies the number of the moves at which to display the board. If
none, board is displayed at end of file. Several numbers may be specified, as a comma-separated list.

-e <number>

display the board at the move number and then stops

-b              

display only the board, not the moves

-d <drivername> 

specifies the output driver. It can be any of the following:
ascii, postscript, tex, roff, xchess (xchess or xboard save format), gnu (gnuan input format).

-i              

suppress headers/footers printing. This is useful with tex or ps
drivers, if you want to include the output in a larger file.

-v              

displays version number and exits

-h              

displays help screen

INPUT LANGUAGE

move format:

 The moves are accepted in algebraic or shortened algebraic notation. That means that the following are equivalent and accepted Nf1-g3 N-f1xg3, Nxg3, Ng3, Nfg3. The ugly english notation P-K4 is not understood, neither by the program nor me. The program allows and parse variations.

Nota: provided you remove the three first line, xchess save format is accepted.

 Also you can have move comments. So Kg4!!, Ra5++ are correct, as Kg4 !!, Ra5 ++. Castling is recognized with the following 0-0 O-O o-o 0-0-0 O-O-O o-o-o. "En passant" and promotion are now correctly handled. For "en passant", you just indicate them move and it is correctly parsed ex: "d5-d7 e5xd6". Promotion is indicated with the "=" sign followed by the new piece name. So you just write "a7-a8=Q" or "d8=K".

For example, see the files algebraic.txt, shortened.txt and boudy.txt

move numbers:

 move numbers are in the form 23. or 36. The full point is optional. Move numbers are checked against internal move counter.

comments:

  chess codified comments can be put in the input.  There are two ways or doing so. The first one is to use the usual chess notation !?, !, ,+, ++, #, ep, etc ... However, international magazine use other no-ascii symbols : triangles, squares, infinity and so on. You can have these symbols on LaTeX output. This is the second way. I defined three letters abbreviations for such symbols (look at the file chesssymb.txt for an extensive description). These abbreviations are following a $ sign. For instance $wsb means "white slightly better". This is, IMHO, a very interesting feature of the program.

text:

 plain text, such as explanations etc... must be enclosed in brackets or parenthesis [Here Karpov made a very bright move ...] (this is also a comment). Comments are not parsed, but directly inserted in the output, for the ascii ,nroff and latex drivers. The closing characters (ie "]" or ")" depending of the opening characters may be placed in the text, provided it is escaped by a "\" ( so you input "\]" or "\)" ).

variations:

 You can have variations in the source. Variation are in enclosing  { } . You can have up to three level of variation. It would be enough for human players. A variation always follows the move. Here is an exemple of variation : 25. Rb2 { Ce4 de4 26 Fc3 Fa3! 27. Ff6 Tb3 } Fa3!

keywords:

 You can insert keywords in the input text to precisely define what you want: displaying the board, configuring it... Keywords are detailled in the next section.

KEYWORDS

@startplay

 begins the play. Obligatory after a @configxxx keyword.

@clearboard

clears the board. Used prior to any @configxxx.

@showboard

displays the board. Can be used anywhere

@whitesmove

tells the program that is the white's turn of play. Useful after a @configxxx and @startplay

@blacksmove

tells the program that it is black's turn

@configwhite

initializes configuration of white side. Pieces are then expected, in form of (optional for Pawn) name, the position. Example @configwhite Ke3 Rg8 e4.

@configblack

initializes configuration of black side. Pieces are then expected, in form of (optional for Pawn) name, the position. Example: @configblack Ka8 Nf6 e6.

Note that black pieces are given in uppercase!

@default

resets the board to the default start configuration.

@title{ <title>}

this keyword accept one argument enclosed in {}. Example: @title{Karpov-Kasporov}. Note that you can put } in the text itself, if it is escaped (\}).

@subtitle{ <subtitle>}

prints a subtitle

@score{ <text> }

prints the score.

@language{french|english|...|FIDE}

this keyword specifies in which language the pieces names are expressed. This option overides command-line option.

@special all following text up to the next cariage return is not processed, but instead directly print. This allows to insert comments in ascii files, or tex commands when tex output is selected.

@null

null keyword. Does nothing. Used for convenience in programming.

See the file keywords.txt for an example of keywords use.

NATIONAL LANGUAGES

Here are the symbols used in the differents languages. () mean optional in the input.

english-name    King    Queen   Rook    Bishop  Knight  Pawn
english         K       Q       R       B       N       (P)
french          R       D       T       F       C       (P)
italian         R       D       T       A       C       (P)
spanish         R       D       T       A       C       (P)
german          K       D       T       L       S       (B)
dutch           K       D       T       L       P       (O)
czech           K       D       V       S       J       (P)
hungarian       K       V       B       F       H       (G)
polish          K       H       W       G       S       (P)
romanian        R       D       T       N       C       (P)
FIDE            K       D       T       S       N       (P)

DRIVERS

ascii

 this is the default driver, it outputs move and boards.

postscript

  It generates a file using the font file Cheq licensed for free by Adobe. It is only able to display one board per run. Move are not displayed. You need the font "Cheq", freely distributed by Adobe. Send a mail to "ps-file-server@adobe.com" with the body "send Programs chessfont.ps".

tex

  This is a latex driver. It uses the TeX/LaTeX chess macros designed by Piet Tutalaers "rcpt@urc.tue.nl". The complete distribution is available on sol.cs.ruu.nl (131.211.80.5) with path TEX/chess.tar.Z. Refer to your local latex guru to install it.

roff

  This is a driver for nroff output. It is crude, but it works. Moves and boards are displayed.

xchess

  This driver generates compatible xchess/xboard save files, thus allowing you to replay a game with xchess.

gnu

  This driver generates "bare" output, with only the algebraic move. It is suitable for any low-level analyser, such as gnuan.

EXAMPLES

notation algebraic.txt

this will read the Karpov-Kasparov game 13 (Lyon 1990) in algebraic form, display move in shortened algebraic and display board at end of game.

notation algebraic.txt -s

this will do the same thing, as -a stands for algebraic output.

notation algebraic.txt -a

the game will now be output in full-length algebraic

notation shortened.txt

there is no problem to read shortened algebraic.

notation shortened -s -o result

the moves and board will be directed to file result

notation shortened.txt -s -t french

output will use french notation

notation a_dutch_file -f dutch -t spanish

game will be translated form dutch to spanish

notation shortened -c 2

board after move 2 will be displayed, along with moves and end-of-game board

notation shortened.txt -e 2

board after move 2 will be displayed, along with moves. The program will then stops

notation shortened.txt -c 2,5,20

board after moves 2, 5 and 20 will be displayed, along with moves and end-of-game board

notation shortened.txt -c 2,5,20 -b

board after moves 2, 5 and 20 will be displayed, with end-of-game board, but no moves.

notation shortened.txt -c 2,5,20 -d tex -o out.tex

the output will be formatted to use with latex. You can directly latex the output file.

notation shortened.txt -c 2,5,20 -d gnu -o out.gnu

you can now replay the game by using xchess -r out.gnu.

notation shortened.txt -e 5 -d postscript -o out.ps

Now issue cat lib/Cheq out.ps | lpr to display on a Laser Printer the board at move 5. You can also issue sh print-ps out-ps. The postcript driver does not support the -c option.

notation boudy.txt -d tex -o boudy.tex

This is the all-star, all-singing demonstration of the notation program. Runs latex on boudy.tex and print result.

FILES

algebraic.txt shortened.txt keywords.txt boudy.txt

these are examples of input files

chesssymb.tex

 this is the LaTeX file containing the definitions of the codified comment. You can include it in your own LaTeX files: you will be able to use the chess comments. The file is stand-alone. To iclude comment in LaTeX, just type \COM<three letter name>. For instance \COMwsb inserts the symbol for "whites stands lightly better".

chesssymb.txt

explanation of codified comments

convsymb.txt

used to prduce chesssymb.txt

($LIBDIR/)HELPFILE

this is the on-line helpfile

($LIBDIR/) Cheq Header.ps Footer.ps

these files are needed by the postscript driver

($LIBDIR/)Header.tex

these file is needed by the (la)tex driver

SEE ALSO

DIAGNOSTICS

COMMENTS

BUGS

The postscript driver *might* fail if you try to display the board two times. Anyway, it is not designed to do this. Use -e option to specify the move at which you want to display board.

Do not enter two levels of variation without any move between them. It will cause the crash of the program. For instance, { { is wrong, but { Qd1 { is correct.

AUTHOR

THANKS

Thanks to Jacques Schuurman for the piece names in Dutch, Philippe Louarn for explaining me some TeX tricks, Lael for czech, hungarian, polish, romanian and FIDE piece names, to Steven Young. Most of all, thank to Jean-Luc Scharbarg for introducing me to chess.

Index

NAME

SYNOPSYS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

INPUT LANGUAGE

KEYWORDS

NATIONAL LANGUAGES

DRIVERS

EXAMPLES

FILES

SEE ALSO

DIAGNOSTICS

COMMENTS

BUGS

AUTHOR

THANKS