--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Chessboard component v1.0 for Delphi 2, Delphi 3 and Borland C++ Builder ! version 1.11 - July 25th 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Description: The Chessboard component provides a customizable 2D Chessboard that can keep track of a game and verify the legality of moves. It allows the programmer to trap the following events: LegalMove, Illegal Move, Capture, En Passant, Castling, Promotion, Check, Mate, Stale Mate and Only Two Kings Left. The colors, size, Pieces and Squares can be customized. The component can be resized at runtime. The Chessboard component comes with three files: Chess.cpp (source file), Chess.h (header file) and Chess.txt (current file). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Installation of the component: Start Delphi2, Delphi3 or Borland C++ Builder. Select "Component", "Install" ,"Add" and "Browse" and then browse to the file CHESS.PAS. The component will appear on a new tab called Chess. Note: Borland C++ Builder users can also choose for CHESS.CPP --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Product History: version 1.11 - July 25th 1997 * Small bug in PAS file did not allow compiling of the component. version 1.1 - July 23th 1997 * Fixed bug: Pieces were not displayed properly when being dragged if the Chessboard were not the child of the form * Fixed bug: The letters A-H were not displayed in the right position if WhiteOnTop were TRUE * Removed property Align because it was put there without the intention. * Added property Enabled, which allows to lock the Chessboard * Added member function DrawChessPiece which allows displaying of a chess piece outside of the component. * Datatype Square is now being used consequently version 1.0 - June 20th 1997 * Added PAS file for Delphi2 and Delphi3 version 1.0 - June 11th 1997 * initial version (C++ Builder only) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Property Descriptions: bool BoardLines Boardlines: Boolean Determines whether lines will be drawn around the board and between the squares TBitmap BorderBitmap BorderBitmap: TBitmap If assigned a value, this bitmap will be used to draw the border around the board. BorderColor will then be ignored. TColor BorderColor BorderColor: TColor Sets the color of the border. Will be visible only if no value has been assigned to BorderBitmap. CastleSet CastlingAllowed CastlingAllowed: CastleSet This set stores whether castling is still allowed for each king in each direction. Example: CastleSet<>BlackQueenSide will disable long castling for Black. TFont CoordFont CoordFont: TFont Sets the font eventually used to display the coordinates around the board. int CurrentMove (read-only) CurrentMove: Integer Stores the current move of the game in the list. CurrentMove cannot be modified directly. Use: GotoMove (int move, bool WhiteMoves); to change its value. TBitmap CustomPieceSet CustomPieceSet: TBitmap If assigned a legal value (that is a bitmap with a Width of 1.5 times its Height) this bitmap will be used as the new piece set instead of the default The bitmap should consist of 6 x 4 smaller square bitmaps of equal size. The order of the pieces should be: pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen and king. The first row represents the white pieces, the third row represents the black pieces. The second and fourth row should be monochrome and will be used to determine the mask of the white and black pieces respectively. The pieces will not be shown in the place where the mask bitmap contains a non-zero value. This allows transparent drawing of the pieces on the board. CoordSet DisplayCoords DisplayCoords: CoordSet Determines whether coordinates are being displayed around the screen. Examples: DisplayCoords<>East will make disappear coordinates at the right of the board. Square EnPassant EnPassant: Square if EnPassant doesn't equal None, it contains the square on which an EnPassant capture can take place. If white moves for instance E2-E4, EnPassant will be set to the value E3 (on which the pawn can be taken). Legal values are: A3-H3, A6-H6 TPen LineStyle LineStyle: TPen Contains the linestyle eventually used to display lines between the squares and around the board. String Position Position: String The contents of the board are stored in this string which is always 64 characters long. The board is stored from square A8 through H8 to H1. Each character represents a piece on the board. The characters P, N, B, R, Q, K represent the pawn knight, bishop, rook, queen and king respectively. White pieces are uppercased, black pieces lowercased. Empty squares are represented by spaces. To quickly initialize a standard setup, fill the string with 'init'. bool Resizable Resizable: Boolean Determines whether the ChessBoard can be resized. If TRUE, when the user moves the cursor over the right-down corner, the shape of the cursor will change and allow the ChessBoard to be resized. The resizing does not yet happen flicker-free. int ResizeMinSize ResizeMinSize: Integer The minimum allowed size of the ChessBoard (it's Width and Height) while it is in the resizing state. int ResizeMaxSize ResizeMaxSize: Integer The maximum allowed size of the ChessBoard (it's Width and Height) while it is in the resizing state. int SizeOfBorder SizeOfBorder: Integer Determines the width of the border around the board. Changing its value may change the size of the chessboard as well. (Width and Height) int SizeOfSquare SizeOfSquare: Integer Determines the squaresize. Changing its value may change the size of the chessboard as well. (Width and Height) TColor SquareColorDark SquareColorDark: TColor The color of the dark squares. Will be visible only if no value has been assigned to SquareDark. TColor SquareColorLight SquareColorLight: TColor The color of the light squares. Will be visible only if no value has been assigned to SquareLight. TBitmap SquareDark SquareDark: TBitmap If assigned a value, this bitmap will be used to draw the border around the board to display the dark squares. SquareColorDark will then be ignored. TBitmap SquareLight SquareLight: TBitmap If assigned a value, this bitmap will be used to display the light squares. SquareColorLight will then be ignored. StandardSet StandardSize StandardSize: StandardSet Sets the size of the standard pieceset. The standard pieceset will only be used if no value has been assigned to CustomPieceSet. Legal values are: size32, size40, size64 and size80 bool WhiteOnTop WhiteOnTop: Boolean Controls whether the white pieces are being displayed on top of the board. Use: WhiteOnTop=!WhiteOnTop to flip the board. bool WhiteToMove WhiteToMove: Boolean Readonly. Sets the turn to white if TRUE and to black if FALSE; --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Methods of the Public Interface: -Pieces can contain the following (char) values: p,b,n,r,q or k for a black pawn, knight bishop, rook queen or king P,B,N,R,Q or K for a white pawn, knight bishop, rook queen or king bool __fastcall BlackInCheckAfter(Square oldSq, Square newSq) function BlackInCheckAfter(oldsq, newsq: Square): Boolean returns TRUE if black is in check after the indicated move bool __fastcall ClearSquare(int sqn) function ClearSquare(sq: Square): Boolean will empty the square with number sqn static int inline __fastcall ColorOfPiece (char piece) function ColorOfPiece (piece: Char): Integer returns BLACK (0) or WHITE (1) if piece is a legal piece otherwise NOPIECE (-1) static int inline __fastcall ColorOfSquare (Square sqno) function ColorOfSquare (sq: Square): Integer returns BLACK or WHITE according to the color of square sqno. void __fastcall DrawChessPiece(TCanvas *canvas, int x, int y,char piece) procedure DrawChessPiece (canvas: TCanvas; x,y: Integer; piece: Char) Draws the Chess piece, indicated by 'piece' on the given canvas, at the given offset (x,y). This method uses some kind of MaskBlt, and draws only in the place where the mask has its bits set so drawing on a patterned surface is possible. MoveInfo& __fastcall GetMove (int moveno, bool WhiteMoves) function GetMove (moveno: Integer; whiteMoves: Boolean): MoveInfo Returns a MoveInfo structure filled with the information about the indicated move. Returns a structure with all zero values and an initial position in the case the move could not be found in the movelist. TStringList* __fastcall GetMoveList (void) function GetMoveList: TStringList Returns a TStringList with all the moves of the current game. bool __fastcall GotoMove (int moveno, bool WhiteMoves) function GotoMove (moveno: Integer; whiteMoves:Boolean): Boolean Jump to the indicated move in the game and set the position accordingly. Returns FALSE if the move cannot be found in the movelist. bool __fastcall LegalMoveAvailable (void) function LegalMoveAvailable: Boolean; Returns TRUE if a move can be made from the current position. static Square inline __fastcall MouseToSquare (int x, int y) function MouseToSquare (x, y: Integer): Square; converts coordinates to a square value. For instance CoordsToSquare (1,4) will return A4. bool __fastcall Move (Square oldSq, Square newSq) function Move (oldsq, newsq: Square): Boolean will make a move and return TRUE if the move is legal. The move will be both displayed on the board and registered in memory. For castling: pass the move of the king. Example: Move (E2,E4) bool __fastcall MoveBackward (void) function MoveBackward: Boolean Moves backward in the list of played moves and sets the position accordingly. Returns FALSE if there's no move available. void __fastcall MoveForward (void) function MoveForward: Boolean Moves forward in the list of played moves and sets the position accordingly. Returns FALSE if there's no move available. void __fastcall NewGame(void) procedure NewGame Resets the position to the initial state. bool __fastcall SetUpPosition (MoveInfo &pos, int moveno, bool whitemoves) function SetUpPosition (pos: MoveInfo; moveno: Integer; whiteMoves:Boolean): Boolean Sets up the ChessBoard according to a given position. The first move in the game will be moveno. void __fastcall UpdateChessBoard (String oldpos) procedure UpdateChessBoard (char *oldpos); Ensures all pieces are displayed on the right position. Can be used if you change property Position manually. bool __fastcall WhiteInCheckAfter(Square oldsq, Square newsq) function WhiteInCheckAfter(oldsq, newsq: Square):Boolean returns TRUE if white is in check after the indicated move Square __fastcall WindowToSquare (int x, int y) function WindowToSquare (x, y: Integer): Square returns the square at the position of (x,y). x and y must be relative to the current window. static int inline __fastcall XPos (int sqno) function XPos (sq: Square): Integer returns the x-Coordinate (as an integer number in the range 1-8) of the square. static int inline __fastcall YPos (int sqno) function YPos (sq: Square): Integer returns the x-Coordinate (as an integer number in the range 1-8) of the square. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Event Handlers: The following event handlers can be used. virtual void __fastcall Capture (System::TObject *Sender, int oldSq, int newSq, char CapturedPiece) procedure Capture (Sender: TObject;oldSq,newSq: Square;CapturedPiece:Char) virtual void __fastcall Castle (System::TObject *Sender, Square oldSq, Square newSq) procedure Castle (Sender: TObject;oldSq,newSq: Square) virtual void __fastcall Check (System::TObject *Sender, Square oldSq, Square newSq) procedure Check (Sender: TObject; oldSq, newSq: Square) virtual void __fastcall Click(void) procedure Click; override virtual void __fastcall DragCanceled(void) procedure DragCanceled; override; virtual void __fastcall DragDrop(System::TObject *Source,int X, int Y) procedure DragDrop(Source: TObject;X,Y: Integer);override virtual void __fastcall DragOver(System::TObject* Source, int X, int Y, TDragState State, bool &Accept ) procedure DragOver(Source: TObject;X,Y: Integer; State: TDragState;var Accept: Boolean );override virtual void __fastcall EndDrag(bool drop) procedure EndDrag(drop:Boolean) virtual void __fastcall IllegalMove (System::TObject *Sender, Square sq) procedure IllegalMove (Sender:TObject; sq: Square) virtual void __fastcall LegalMove (System::TObject *Sender, Square oldSq, Square newSq) procedure LegalMove (Sender:TObject;oldSq,newSq: Square) virtual void __fastcall Mate (System::TObject *Sender, Square oldSq, Square newSq) procedure Mate (Sender:TObject; oldSq,newSq: Square) virtual void __fastcall MouseDown(TMouseButton Button, Classes::TShiftState Shift, int X, int Y) procedure MouseDown(Button:TMouseButton; Shift:TShiftState;X,Y: Integer); override virtual void __fastcall MouseMove(Classes::TShiftState Shift, int X, int Y) procedure MouseMove(Shift:TShiftState; X,Y: Integer); override virtual void __fastcall MouseUp(TMouseButton Button, Classes::TShiftState Shift, int X, int Y) procedure MouseUp(Button: TMouseButton; Shift: TShiftState; X,Y: Integer);override virtual void __fastcall OnlyTwoKingsLeft (System::TObject *Sender) procedure OnlyTwoKingsLeft (Sender:TObject) virtual void __fastcall Paint(void) procedure Paint; override virtual void __fastcall Promotion (System::TObject *Sender, Square oldSq, Square newSq, char &NewPiece) procedure Promotion (Sender: TObject;oldSq,newSq: Square; var NewPiece: Char) Note: you can choose your piece by assigning a new value to NewPiece. virtual void __fastcall StaleMate (System::TObject *Sender, Square oldSq, Square newSq) procedure StaleMate (Sender: TObject; oldSq,newSq: Square) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright, Liability and Author: The Chessboard component may be freely used and distributed by anyone. The author does not accept liability for the software in any way. Note that the standard pieceset that's being used comes straight out of Fritz4 for I thought I would never be able to design such clear and charming pieces. So take care not to break any laws with copyrighted material. If you would like to receive some Chess pieces from some other popular Chess programs, just drop me a line, which you can do as well if you have any bug reports, comments, suggestions, or wanted features: Daniel Terhell Amsterdam Tel: +31 20 4866128 kr8m8pr8@compuserve.com http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kr8m8pr8 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------