Gettingstarted

Getting Started

Setting up Permissions

To administrate ChessCraft (create/delete boards, change configuration...), you'll need to have the chesscraft.admin privilege. Ensure you have that before continuing.

See Permissions for full details on the permission nodes that ChessCraft knows.

Creating a Board

To play chess, you need a board and a chess set. So the first thing we'll do is create a board to play on:

/chess create board board1

But before you do that, read the following:

• The board you create will be using the default style, which is called Standard. If you look in your Bukkit plugins folder plugins/ChessCraft/board_styles, you'll see a file called Standard.yml. Feel free to inspect it, but I'd advise against modifying it. Changing board styles is documented in Styles.
• The board will be 8 blocks high, and 46x46 blocks wide. It will overwrite terrain, but if you have WorldEdit installed, the terrain will be restored if & when the board is deleted. I would suggest creating new boards away from any developed area! Pick some unvisited wilderness, or maybe build the board over open water, or high in the sky.

After typing the command above, you'll be prompted to left-click a block. That block will become the centre block of the board's A1 square, and you'll find yourself standing on an empty chessboard which is encased in glass. You'll also see a control panel on the left-hand side of the board (as you face from the row 1 towards row 8) - this panel includes a chess clock for each player, a to-play indicator, a halfmove clock, and a ply counter. It also includes several "buttons" (signs with text on them) which can be used in place of various /chess commands.

You'll notice that none of the board's blocks can be destroyed, and no block placement is possible. On top of that, explosions won't break anything, and no blocks will burn.

So how do you get out? /chess tp will teleport you to just outside the board if/when you want to leave, or left-click the Teleport Out button.

Other useful commands to try:

• /chess list board will show all of the boards on the server
• /chess list board board1 will show detailed info for the board board1 (You can also click the Board Info button on the control panel)
• /chess delete board board1 will delete board1, but don't do that just yet

Creating a Game

Now that you have a board, you probably want to play a game on it:

/chess create game

...or left-click the Create Game button on the control panel.

This will create a game named after you, on the first free board it can find (if you use the button, it will create a game on that button's board). You'll get a message confirming the game has been created, and assuming you're still on or near the board, you'll see a chess set appear! (If you're not on the board anymore, you can get back to your game by typing /chess tp <game-name>, where game-name is the name of the game you just created).

There are game management commands similar to the board commands above:

• /chess list game will show all of the games on the server
• /chess list game desht-1 will show detailed info for the game desht-1 (or you can click the Game Info button on the board's control panel)
• /chess delete game desht-1 will delete desht-1, but don't do that just yet

/chess list game will show that you are playing White and there is currently no Black player. So let's invite someone!

Playing Against a Human

/chess invite <player-name>

(There is a Invite Player button but it just prints a reminder of the command to use)

If you don't have anyone handy to test with, you can always invite yourself (playing both sides is fully supported by the plugin, though perhaps only useful for testing...)

The player you invite will get a message, and be asked to type /chess join to join the game. By default, your game is invite-only, and no one can join unless you send an invitation. If you invite someone else after inviting the first player, the first player's invitation will be withdrawn.

Once the second player joins, the game can be started. Either player can type:

/chess start

or left-click the Start Game button.

Playing Against the Computer

As of v0.3, ChessCraft has a built-in AI, with multiple difficulty levels. See AI for more information.

If you start a game without inviting a human opponent, a random AI will be chosen to play against you. This could be really weak, or quite challenging (for an average player) !

Let battle commence!

Playing a Game

At the start of the game, it is of course White's move. There are two ways to move:

• Type /chess move <from> <to> where from and to are squares in standard algebraic notation, e.g. /chess move e2 e4 (/chess move e2e4 with no space is also accepted).

or

• With nothing in your hand, wave (left-click) at the piece you want to move (you'll get a feedback message), and then wave at the square you want to move to or the piece you want to capture. You don't need to be right beside the piece or square.

Assuming the move is legal, it will be carried out, and it's now Black's turn.

Repeat until there's a victor! Other useful commands during play:

• /chess offer draw offers a draw to the other player. They will be messaged, and can type either /chess yes or /chess no to accept or decline.
• /chess resign causes you to resign, ending the game.
• /chess offer swap offers to swap sides with the other player. They will be messaged, and can type either /chess yes or /chess no to accept or decline.

There are buttons on the control panel for these commands too.

After the Game

Once the game ends, a message is broadcast to the entire server announcing the game result (if you don't want broadcasts, you can disable it in the config - see ConfigFile). The game will be automatically deleted 30 seconds (also configurable) after it finishes to free up the board for the next game.

If you want to write an archive of the game, type:

/chess archive

This will export a record of the game in PGN format under your Bukkit plugins/ChessCraft/pgn folder. You'll be told the name of the PGN file when it's created. PGN files can be read by a wide variety of Chess software.

It is possible to run /chess archive at any point during the game - the game doesn't have to be finished.

Next Steps

• Read the CommandReference to see what all commands do
• Experiment with creating new board and chess set styles - see Styles. If you create a really nice set, share it!
• Learn how to customise the available AI settings: AI