ml-research/liground

A free, open-source and modern Chess Variant Analysis GUI for the 21st century

LiGround

A free, open-source and modern Chess Variant Analysis GUI for the 21st century

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Binaries

We provide binary releases for the following plattforms:

Operating System	Version
Linux	liground-0.4.0-linux.AppImage
Windows	liground-0.4.0-win.exe
Mac	liground-0.4.0-mac.dmg
Mac	liground-0.4.0-mac.zip

The current LiGround release and all its previous versions can also be found at releases.

Supported Games

Regional and Historical Games

• Chess
• Janggi
• Makruk
• Shogi
• Xiangqi

Chess Variants

• Antichess
• Atomic
• Chess960
• Crazyhouse
• Horde
• King of the Hill
• Racing Kings
• Three-check

Build Instructions

Build Setup

# install dependencies
npm install

# run dev server with hot reload at localhost:9080
npm run dev

# build electron application for production
npm run build

# lint all JS/Vue component files
npm run lint

Post-Installation Actions

LiGround ships with preincluded engine binaries. By default all engines are downloaded automatically into the ./engines/ folder as postinstall action. However, if no prebuilt binaries are available for you system or something goes wrong, please go ahead and build/download them manually:

• Download Stockfish 2020-06-13 and rename it to stockfish
• Download Multi-Variant-Stockfish 10 and rename it to multi-variant-stockfish
• Download Fairy-Stockfish 13 Largeboard and rename it to fairy-stockfish

Libraries

The following libraries or assets are used in LiGround:

Library	Description	Usage
ffish.js	A high performance WebAssembly chess variant library based on Fairy-Stockfish.	Used in the GUI for legal move generation, FEN parsing & validation, pocket pieces, etc.
ChessgroundX	A free/libre open source chess UI developed for lichess.org and pychess.org.	Used as the main UI board element.
ornicar/lila	The forever free, adless and open source chess server	Many high quality assets from lichess.org (e.g. piece styles, board styles, chess fonts, ...) are used within this GUI.
Vue.js	The Progressive JavaScript Framework	Used as the main JavaScript Framework.
Electron	Build cross-platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS	Used for exporting the GUI to the desktop.
electron-vue	An Electron & Vue.js quick start boilerplate	Used for the boilerplate code.

Related

Projects that influenced the creation of LiGround:

Project	Description
tinyChessServer	An xboard server for playing bughouse games via websockets
lichess.org/analysis	The forever free, adless and open source chess server
vue-chessboard	Chessboard vue component to load positions, create positions and see threats
cutechess	A graphical user interface, command-line interface and a library for playing chess.
XBoard / WinBoard	A graphical user interface for chess in all its major forms.
Nibbler	Leela Chess Zero (Lc0) interface.
chess.js	A Javascript chess library for chess move generation/validation, piece placement/movement, and check/checkmate/draw detection

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This project was generated with electron-vue@45a3e22 using vue-cli. Documentation about the original structure can be found here.

liground's Issues

Keep going!

Putting down an issue to just tell you guys to keep at it. The chess community is in sore need of a modern GUI, not one that has not been refactored since the 90s. Do you guys mind if I post this repo around, or is that against the rules of the project? I saw the link you guys put in the lichess discord so I know this is a school thing.

Moving with active engine

Currently when performing a move and the engine is running the engine breaks.

loading variants

When loading a pgn with a different variant the GUI dropdown list is not updated.
And when loading a pgn of a not supported variant maybe we should alert the user and not load the file.

Reset Function

A Button(or something else) should be implemented for resetting the board/history etc. while not changing the variant.

Engine Settings - US_5

Description:
As a user I want to be able to change the engine settings to be able to use it to its fullest extend.

Acceptance Criteria:
The engine settings can be adjusted in a separate window. The changed settings will be submitted to the engine.

Loading PGN with different Variant

As mentioned in #76, loading a PGN with a different variant than the currently selected one doesn't update the board & move history.
To reproduce change the variant to anything else and load a Standard chess PGN. The board will stay at the starting FEN and the move history will remain empty.

PV Lines clickable in past move

PV lines remain clickable when inspecting a past move in the move history.
They should be hoverable, but not clickable.

numbers in black crazyhouse pocket

turn the number in the black crazyhouse pocket

line promotion and deletion

right clicking a move gives the option to promote/delete the line

Font of the move history

The font of the history should similiar to itself.

FEN Loading

It should be possible to load a certain position using an FEN which you can paste in the text box below the board.

Principal Variation Line Navigation - US_9

Description:
As a user I want to be able to select a PV-Line from the suggested lines of the running engine, to play that move on the board.

Acceptance Criteria:
When clicking on a PV-Line the first move of the line will be executed.
While hovering over a PV-Line will the first move of the line be visually marked on the board.

Scroll to move through the history

When hovering over the board, scrolling with the mouse should move back and forth in the move-history

FEN

Currently Shogi and 960 do not work due to the removal of ffish-es6.

Mirror with Racing Kings

Currently it is possible to mirror the board while playing Racing Kings.

PGN Browser - US_4

Description:
As a user i want to see all of the matches of a single PGN file, so that I can choose any one of them.

Acceptance Criteria:
All of the included matches of the PGN file are visible and clickable. The chosen match and the accompanying metadata will be displayed correctly. The PGN Browser marks the currently selected match and it is possible to switch between the matches.
It is possible to continue playing the chosen match.

Match History Navigation

When using the scroll wheel while the cursor is on top of the board should cycle through the match history.

alternative line notation

change the notation to match chess.com notation

Last Move Selected

When moving back through the move history either by using the arrows or by clicking on the move, the squares for the actual last move is still highlighted.

Missing # Symbol

When ending the game using an alternate method then check mate, the # symbol is missing from the match history.

Menu Bar - US_3

Description:
As a user i want to select the elements of the menu bar in order to use the provided functionalities.

Acceptance Criteria:
The menu bar consists of the following buttons Game, Engines, Settings and About. The About button links to https://github.com/ml-research/liground

960 Mode - US_19

Description: As user i want to be able to click a button to choose a 960 variant.
Acceptance criteria: When clicking the 960 button you get a text input which accepts numbers in [0,959] and returns the corresponding 960 starting position.

Engine and Variants

When changing the variant the program should automatically switch to the appropriate engine.

Evaluating PGN

It should be possible to load a PGN, then evaluate the board positions and display them in the EvalPlot with a seperate engine instance.

Save GUI information

After a restart of the program some/all of the previous selected options in the GUI should stay the same

Dark Mode

Dark Mode as an optional feature

Unsupported variants should not appear in the PGN browser

title

Delete Boards

When creating a new board the old one should be deleted, to avoid memory leaks.

Selected PGN

Changing the variant, resetting the board etc after a PGN is loaded will still show the PGN as selected.

Variant rules in menu bar

The menu bar should have an option to open a tab that explains the rules of the currently selected variant

Universal Chess Interface Command Line - US_10

Description:
As a 'Expert' user I want to be able to communicate directly with the engine using the terminal and the UCI.

Acceptance Criteria:
Using a terminal user will be able to send commands to the engine directly. Only UCI commands are supported. The reply of the engine will be displayed in the terminal.

Promoting pawns - US_20

Description: As user I want to be able to promote pawns according to chess rules.
Acceptance criteria: When promoting a pawn in international chess there is a visual option to choose any eligible piece and when selecting one of these the pawn is replaced by that piece.

Engine logos are not loaded

The engine logo next to the drop down is no longer displayed. Loading of the corresponding images is not working correctly due to a broken "hacky" dynamic require(...) in:

liground/src/renderer/components/AnalysisEvalRow.vue

Line 4 in 1a9701c

<div class="engine-banner" :style="{ backgroundImage: 'url(' + require('../assets/images/engines/'+engineBannerURL) + ')' }"></div>

Expert Mode

Optional expert mode with access to a console for direct engine communication via UCI

Board Design and Variants - US_6

Description:
As a user I want to be choose between more variants to analyse them.

Acceptance Criteria:
Shogi, Xiangqi, Janggi, and Makruk are supported. These variants will be correctly displayed in the drop down menu and enable the user to switch between all available variants. If needed the chess board, engine and design will be adjusted to the chosen variant.

Game Navigation using buttons - US_7

Description:
As a user i want to use the arrow buttons to move a turn ahead/back or to jump to the start or end of the match.

Acceptance Criteria:
At every point in time I am able to use the following:
To jump at the beginning of the selected variant. If the position is the starting position then the button is greyed out and not selectable.
To jump at the end of the path history. If the position is the end position then the button is greyed out and not selectable.
To jump a turn back. If it is not possible to jump a turn back then the button is greyed out and not selectable.
To jump a turn ahead. If it is not possible to jump a turn back then the button is greyed out and not selectable.

Reset button in menu bar

We should move the reset button from its current position to the menubar

Interactive Evaluation Graph - US_11

Description:
As a user I want to be able to watch a graph displaying the match rating over time. So that i am able to see the match defining moves.

Acceptance Criteria:
The graph displays the point history of the current match supplied by the engine. When clicking on a point on the graph the position for this point will be loaded onto the board. The graph is zoomable.

Bundle ffish in production

The ffish.wasm file is currently not bundled correctly by webpack.
During development this can be fixed by moving the file into the root project folder.
But in production the issue will result in ffish not being included in the build.

Pasting a new FEN

When pasting a new FEN in the right variant one should be able to start playing from the pasted FEN and otherwise get an error that either the FEN is invalid or the Variant is wrong

faulty eval plot when loading PGN

after loading a PGN and moving back in the history, the moves are named wrong and no eval is loaded

korean chess??

Can I play fairy stockfish korean chess?

allow scrolling only over the actual board

title

Can't build on Mac OS - Catalina

I'm getting the following error on Mac OS while building the app:

Error: Exit code: 2. Command failed: /usr/bin/perl /private/var/folders/99/yq4kk62j6ks2pmqh366mgyfj57twk_/T/t-XDp1ou/1-dmgProperties.pl
Can't locate Mac/Memory.pm in @INC (you may need to install the Mac::Memory module) (@INC contains: /Library/Perl/5.18/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/5.18 /Network/Library/Perl/5.18/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Network/Library/Perl/5.18 /Library/Perl/Updates/5.18.4 /System/Library/Perl/5.18/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/5.18 /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.18/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.18 .) at /private/var/folders/99/yq4kk62j6ks2pmqh366mgyfj57twk_/T/t-XDp1ou/1-dmgProperties.pl line 4.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /private/var/folders/99/yq4kk62j6ks2pmqh366mgyfj57twk_/T/t-XDp1ou/1-dmgProperties.pl line 4.

Any thoughts on how to fix this?

Arrows get erased by engine

When the engine draws arrows for its suggested moves, all arrows drawn by the user are removed.

Duplicate piece styles

Changing piece style currently injects new CSS without removing the previously used style. This leads to unnecessary pollution of the document head and duplicate styles.

Example screenshot with "alpha" & "california" loaded multiple times after switching back & forth between them:

Alternate Paths - US_8

Description:
As a user I want to be able to create alternate paths to view and analyse them.

Acceptance Criteria:
There is a button to set the program to the 'Analysis Mode' in which alternative moves in the past are possible.
Alternative variants will be written in a new row, the previous variant will be continued in a new row after the current one. Alternative paths are color coded. Alternative paths that are not selected will only display their first move, further moves on that path will be shortened to '[...]'.

Sounds

Simple sounds should be played after moving a piece and a different sound for eliminating a piece

Stockfish download as postinstall action

We could use npm's postinstall script option (see npm scripts documentation) to automatically download a Stockfish binary after npm install is run.

Engine control - US_18

Description: As "expert"-user I want an easy and flexible engine interface.
Acceptance criteria: name, author, options of the engine are loaded when starting Liground. When clicking the button "start engine" all the necessary data to calculate a move is sent to the engine. The returned lines are correctly displayed in the interface.When a move is played on the board, the engine receives the move and now starts calculating a move for the other side. Should the engine crash, the user receives the error report and has the option to restart the engine.