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 or xchess save format. This program is also multi-lingual: it handles english, french, spanish, german, italian and dutch symbols.

OPTIONS

algebraic move notation output

shortened move notation output

-f <language>   

specifies the chess symbol input language. The language can be any of
french, english, italian, spanish, german, dutch.

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

<inputfile>

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

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

display only the board, not the moves

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).

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. The ugly english notation P-K4 is not understood, neither by the program nor me.

Nota: provided you remove the three first line, xchess save format is accepted. Also you can have trailing comments to move, provided there is no blanks. So Kg4!!, Ra5++ are correct, but not Kg4 !!, Ra5 ++ because of the separating blank. A future version might handle these move comments, as well as + ++, mate, white resigns etc... 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 and shortened.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:

anything else, except keywords, must be enclosed in brackets or parenthesis [Here Karpov made a very bright move ...] (this is also a comment). Comments are skipped out. A future version might incorporte them in the output.

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.

@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)

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". For use with "notation", rename the file "Cheq".

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 chesscls, provided in the library. 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 completely "bare" file, 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 algebraic and display board at end of game.

notation algebraic.txt -a

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

notation algebraic.txt -s

the game will now be output in shortened 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 -e 2

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

notation shortened -c 2,5,20

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

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

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

notation shortened -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.

FILES

algebraic.txt shortened.txt keywords.txt

these are examples of input files

./lib/HELPFILE

this is the on-line helpfile

./lib/(Cheq Header.ps Footer.ps)

these files are needed by the postscript driver

./lib/Header.tex

these file is needed by the (la)tex driver

./lib/chesscls.mf

this file is used the generate the tex font

SEE ALSO

DIAGNOSTICS

COMMENTS

BUGS

The postscript driver *might* fais 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.

AUTHOR

THANKS

Thanks to Jacques Schuurman for the piece description in Dutch, Dr. Z. Rubinstein, University of Haifa for the Metafont files, Philippe Louarn for implementing these macros and explaining me how to use them, Adobe Systems for the font Cheq, and Jean-Luc Scharbarg for introducing me in the world of chess.

Index

NAME

SYNOPSYS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

INPUT LANGUAGE

KEYWORDS

NATIONAL LANGUAGES

DRIVERS

EXAMPLES

FILES

SEE ALSO

DIAGNOSTICS

COMMENTS

BUGS

AUTHOR

THANKS