Display Diagram-Pairs for Your Game Score
I've created a tool that will take the input game score in
portable game notation (PGNa form of Algebraic Notation
that omits the square where the chessman came from) and produce
diagram-pairs as suggested in my article How to Play through
a Game's Pawn Structures. It produces each diagram by deriving
the associated Forsyth-Edwards notation (FEN) and then feeding it
to Steve Eddins's Chess Imager.
To bring up the tool's input screen, which will be displayed in a
separate tab or window (depending on how your web browser is set up),
click here.
If you're on a dial-up internet connection, downloading the input
screen could take up to a minute.
This tool has limitations:
-
It was designed to trust the game score that was entered. If the
game score has an error, something weird is likely to happen,
such as a side's acquiring an additional pawn.
-
It was not designed to handle special symbols (such as braces
or brackets) or anything else not normally present in a game score,
such as event name, event date, or player names. If such is
encountered, the tool will display the remaining text without
any diagrams. The first non-white-space in the game score should
be the "1." that precedes White's first move.
-
It was not designed to handle a pawn promotion that gives that side
three of the given piece type. If such is encountered, the tool
will display the remaining text without any diagrams. For example,
if the game score began with 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 d4 4. e3 Bb4+
5. Bd2 dxe3 6. Bxb4 exf2+ 7. Ke2 fxg1=N+, this would give White
three knights on the board at the same time and the tool would
display no further diagram-pairs.
-
It expects castling to be represented by capital O's or zeroes,
separated by hyphens rather than dashes. If the tool appears to
stop displaying diagram-pairs when castling occurs, I suggest that
you replace the separator symbols in castling with manually typed
hyphens and try running the tool again.
If your game score contains no special symbols or other material
and has been verified using a chess database or chessplaying program,
yet the tool fails to display all applicable diagram-pairs (other
than due to the above-stated limitations), then please email me
the game score and I will see if my tool has a bug.
Have fun.