Chess Traveler

Library to:

• Travel via chess move tree - forward, back...
• Manage Move tree Variations - create, delete, promote.

IMPORTANT!

It's pre 1.0 version, breaking changes might happen, would try to make them sem-ver compatible.

Noteworthy features

One level deep Variation Tree

Each move might have variations, in other libs it is usually represented as multi-level recursion (main->variation1->variation2) which is problematic to represent in actual applications.

// chess-traveler move tree structure
[
  {
    raw: 'e4',
    variations: [
      [
        {raw: 'd4', variations: [], ...},
        {raw: 'c4', variations: [], ...},
      ]
    ],
    ...
  },
  ...
]

Example

Create instance

It provides immutable API, so can put it under state management e.g. Redux. Can pass CurrentMoveCoordinates as starting coordinates (uses INITIAL_COORDINATES by default).

const traveler: IChessTraveler = Traveler();
const traveler: IChessTraveler = Traveler(INITIAL_COORDINATES);
const traveler: IChessTraveler = Traveler({ current: [2], history: [[0], [1]] });

Making Moves (modify coordinates immutably)

First, need Move tree to operate on - constructed manually or using Move(raw, variations, comments) utility function.

const mainLine: ChessMove[] = [
  Move('d4', [
    [Move('e4'), Move('e5')],
    [Move('c4'), Move('e5')],
  ]),
  Move('d5'),
  Move('c4'),
  Move('e6'),
];

moveForward and moveBack - returns new instance of IChessTraveler with coordinates pointing to new move.

traveler = traveler.moveForward(mainLine, Move('d4'));
traveler = traveler.moveBack();

Manage Variations (modify variation tree immutably)

Add new Variation to move tree (must not exist already)

const result: AddVariationResult = Traveler(coords).addVariation(mainLine, 'Nf3');
result.modifiedMainLine; // new instance of ChessMove[] with variation added in
result.move;  // made move

Remove existing variation from move tree

const modifiedMainLine: ChessMove[] | null = Traveler().removeVariation(mainLine, Move('d4'));

Promote variation. Variations are ordered - "main line" contains variations which are second, third and so on... Pass Move to promote and returned tree will contain it as one level above it was before.

const modifiedMainLine: ChessMove[] | null = Traveler().promoteVariation(mainLine, Move('e4'));

** Get Move Info **

Get current move info

const currentMove: CurrentMove = traveler.getMove(mainLine);
currentMove;              // empty of move does not exist on main line
currentMove.move?;        // move instance, e.g. { raw: 'd4', variations: [], comments: [] }
currentMove.line?;        // line this move is on - could be main line (entire tree) or some specific variation
currentMove.indexOnLine?; // move order in line

Get previous move (from history)

const currentMove: CurrentMove = traveler.getPreviousMadeMove(mainLine);
currentMove;              // empty of move does not exist on main line
currentMove.move?;        // move instance, e.g. { raw: 'd4', variations: [], comments: [] }
currentMove.line?;        // line this move is on - could be main line (entire tree) or some specific variation
currentMove.indexOnLine?; // move order in line

Find next Move by raw string - next move in main line or any of variations.

const matching: MatchingMoveResult = traveler.getNextMove(mainLine, 'd4');
matching.matchingMove?;   // Move instance if exists
matching.isMain;          // is on main line?

Get previous move history, converted to actual Move instances

const moves: ChessMove[] = traveler.toMoveHistoryLine(mainLine);