ChesSecretary is a fully featured chess companion program for your Commodore 64 computer and the GEOS operating system from Berkeley Softworks. ChesSecretary can function as a computer scoresheet binder for all your chess games as well as create photoscraps of board diagrams and textscraps in algebraic notation of game records. It's uses range from aiding analysis by storing variations to desktop publishing for newsletters. In fact the latter use was the motivation for the creation of ChesSecretary. Creating diagrams and game records can be a very tedious and time consuming task, but ChesSecretary makes them almost effortless with it's graphic chess board interface.
Probably the simplest manner of explaining all of ChesSecretary's functions is a guided tour of a typical usage session. A working knowledge of GEOS will be assumed for terms such as ICONS, MOUSE POINTER, CLICKING, etc.
After double-clicking on ChesSecretary from the deskTop you will see the ALBUM dialog box, which is used to create or select chess albums to store your games. The first option, CREATE, is used to create a new chess album on the disk ChesSecretary was loaded from. OPEN, the second option, will display a list of the first 15 chess albums on the current disk. If the CANCEL option is selected from this display then no album is selected. The third option from the ALBUM dialog box is QUIT, which exits back to the deskTop.
After CREATING a new chess album or OPENing an existing one the primary display for ChesSecretary is drawn. From left to right, top to bottom, you will see the standard box-like quit icon, chessboard display, a column of piece icons, and a column of option icons. The large blank area on the right side of the screen is used to display the algebraic game record. Let's begin with explanations of each of the option icons.
@COLOR
: This icon toggles the color of the piece icons between white and black. The piece icons are used to setup positions on the game board.
@CLEAR
: Use this icon to completely clear the game board to a blank board. Once cleared if this icon is clicked again then the board will be setup for a new game.
@RECORD
: This icon is used to turn record mode on (in which case this icon will be displayed in reverse video) and off (normal video, as it appears at first). Record mode should always be turned off when setting up a position with the piece icons. When on each move made on the game board will be displayed in the right screen margin in
algebraic notation, up to 256 full moves (at which time record mode turns off). When record mode
algebraic notation, up to 256 full moves (at which time record mode turns off). When record mode is on redimentary move validation is performed to prevent simple movement errors: Bishops are checked for diagonal moves, rooks for ranks or files, etc.
@BACK
: When record mode is on, this icon can be used to takeback previous moves on the game board.
@REPLAY
: When record mode is on and immediately following any number of clicks on the BACK icon, this icon will replay moves that were taken back.
@PHOTO
: Use this icon to make a GEOS photoscrap of the game board.
@TEXT
: This icon makes a GEOS textscrap of the entire game record up to the current position. The scrap is in algebraic notation complete with move numbers. Each move is separated by a TAB character with every set of three full moves ending in a RETURN. At the beginning of the scrap is an escape string for 10-point DURANT2 font, provided on the program disk.
@LOAD
: This icon accesses the select game dialog box if a chess album is currently open. If one is not open (and so there is no album name displayed on the top line of the screen) then the ChessPubTemp file is used to load a game. See the SAVE option discussed next for further explanation on this file. This capability allows you to transfer games among albums.
The select game dialog box will display the names of all games in the current chess album. Use the up and down arrow icons to scroll the 8-name window up and down through this list. Click on a name to select it and it will then switch to reverse video to mark your selection. To change your mind just click on a different name or CANCEL to abort the select game dialog box. Click on FIND to enter a search string (not case sensitive) to quickly locate a game name. If the first game found is not the one desired then click on FIND again to continue the search. Once the desired game is selected click on OPEN to load the game. You will then be asked if you wish to run the game to completion: Click on YES to automatically replay all moves in the game, or NO if you want to replay the moves manually with the REPLAY icon.
@SAVE
: With record mode on, this feature will save the recorded moves of the game. First a scrap file named ChessPubTemp is created (similar to a photo or text scrap) and the game moves are saved in this file. Next if a chess album is open you will be shown the select game dialog box. If this is a new game to save in the album then select any of the EMPTY game names and then click on OPEN. If you wish to replace an existing game then just select that game name and click on OPEN. You will then be prompted to enter
the game name up to 39 characters of text.
@ALBUM
: This icon displays the album dialog box that was shown when ChesSecretary was first loaded. See the previous section for a complete description.
@DESKACC
: This icon will display a list of all desk accessories on the current disk. Select
one and click OPEN to run the desk accessory, or click CANCEL to abort.
@ANALYSIS
: When RECORD mode is on you can use this option to enter analysis mode. Analysis mode is used to enter variations into the game record that were not actually played. Subvariations are not supported directly so only one line of analysis can be entered at a time. When you are finished entering the analysis moves clicking on this icon again will redisplay the position prior to the analysis variation. Note that the move record displayed on the right side of the screen is also reset but the analysis variation is retained nonetheless inside ChesSecretary. When a textscrap is created each analysis variation will be contained in parenthesis ready for any annotations via geoWrite. Also note that takeBACK and REPLAY are fully functional within analysis mode with full recognition by ChesSecretary (by toggling the ANALYSIS icon) of when the line of play being taken back or replayed is actual play or an analysis variation.
The 6 chesspiece icons are used to setup positions on the game board. First make sure record mode is off (it's icon in normal video). Use COLOR to choose either the white or black pieces. To place a piece on the game board click on the desired piece icon and it will go to reverse video. Next click on any square of the game board and the selected piece will be placed there. You may click on as many squares as you like to place multiple pieces of the currently selected type. To change pieces click on the selected piece icon first to turn it off then click on the desired piece icon. Moving pieces on the board is as easy as clicking on the piece to move on the game board and then the desired new square. As long as record mode is off no movement validation is done so pieces may be moved at will. If you decide not to move a piece after selecting it just click on it's square again to deselect. To remove a piece from the board after selecting it just click anywhere in the left margin. Note that when a game board piece is selected you may only move the mouse pointer within the game board or to the left margin.
@NOTE
that setup games may not be saved to an album! ChesSecretary will allow you to do so but unpredictable results will occur if the game is attempted to be loaded.
Playing a game on the game board is similar except that only legal moves are allowed. Be sure to turn record mode on to record the algebraic game record. To promote a pawn after advancing the pawn to the promotion square you then be required to click on the piece icon you wish to promote to. No other options are available at this point and the current color of the piece icons is not important.
I sincerely hope you find ChesSecretary as useful as I have. If you have any comments, suggestions, or problems just write or call me:
Kent Smotherman / 13912 Meadow Ridge Rd / Omaha NE
I sincerely hope you find ChesSecretary as useful as I have. If you have any comments, suggestions, or problems just write or call me:
Kent Smotherman / 13912 Meadow Ridge Rd / Omaha NE 68138 / (402) 399-3890.
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