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- style12
-
- Style 12 is a type of machine parseable output that many of the FICS
- interfaces use. The output is documented here for those who wish to write new
- interfaces. Style 12 is also fully compatible with ICC (The Internet Chess
- Club).
-
- The data is all on one line (displayed here as two lines, so it will show on
- your screen). Here is an example: [Note: the beginning and ending quotation
- marks are *not* part of the data string; they are needed in this help file
- because some interfaces cannot display the string when in a text file.]
-
- "<12> rnbqkb-r pppppppp -----n-- -------- ----P--- -------- PPPPKPPP RNBQ-BNR
- B -1 0 0 1 1 0 7 Newton Einstein 1 2 12 39 39 119 122 2 K/e1-e2 (0:06) Ke2 0"
-
- This string always begins on a new line, and there are always exactly 31 non-
- empty fields separated by blanks. The fields are:
-
- * the string "<12>" to identify this line.
- * eight fields representing the board position. The first one is file 8,
- then file 7, etc, regardless of who's move it is.
- * color whose turn it is to move ("B" or "W")
- * -1 if the previous move was NOT a double pawn push, otherwise the chess
- board file (numbered 0--7 for a--h) in which the double push was made
- * can White still castle short? (0=no, 1=yes)
- * can White still castle long?
- * can Black still castle short?
- * can Black still castle long?
- * the number of moves made since the last irreversible move. (0 if last move
- was irreversible. If the value is >= 100, the game can be declared a draw
- due to the 50 move rule.)
- * The game number
- * White's name
- * Black's name
- * my relation to this game:
- -3 isolated position, such as for "ref 3" or the "sposition" command
- -2 I am observing game being examined
- 2 I am the examiner of this game
- -1 I am playing, it is my opponent's move
- 1 I am playing and it is my move
- 0 I am observing a game being played
- * initial time (in seconds) of the match
- * increment In seconds) of the match
- * White material strength
- * Black material strength
- * White's remaining time
- * Black's remaining time
- * the number of the move about to be made (standard chess numbering -- White's
- and Black's first moves are both 1, etc.)
- * verbose coordinate notation for the previous move ("none" if there were
- none) [note this used to be broken for examined games]
- * time taken to make previous move "(min:sec)".
- * pretty notation for the previous move ("none" if there is none)
- * flip field for board orientation: 1 = Black at bottom, 0 = White at bottom.
-
- In the future, new fields may be added to the end of the data string, so
- programs should parse from left to right.
- Special information for bughouse games
- --------------------------------------
-
- When showing positions from bughouse games, a second line showing piece
- holding is given, with "<b1>" at the beginning, for example:
-
- <b1> game 6 white [PNBBB] black [PNB]
-
- Also, when pieces are "passed" during bughouse, a short data string -- not the
- entire board position -- is sent. For example:
-
- <b1> game 52 white [NB] black [N] <- BN
-
- The final two letters indicate the piece that was passed; in the above
- example, a knight (N) was passed to Black.
-
- A prompt may preceed the <b1> header.
-
- Credits
- -------
-
- Style12 was designed by Daniel Sleator (sleator+@cs.cmu.edu) (Darooha@ICC)
-
- A big thanks to ICC for letting us use the specification document as the
- basis for this helpfile. There are only a couple of modifications to the
- document to use FICS terminology.
-
- This helpfile may be used by others as long as the credit to ICC above
- remains.
-
-