Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I found only one game of yours that ended in the past week, and it ended in checkmate. Were the other games private? Or did they end over a week ago?

It is strange. I was looking for some recent games I was playing and that are not shown anymore in the table of my going games. It appears that they have been finished by time limit. One that I won.

Hmm, strange, in all games I played we always had few days of remaining time. Something has happened I think.

My regrets for my opponent (Richard Milner), this was not intentional.

The log:

timurthelenk-cvgameroom-2024-40-404

Could you add the missing bnespearman to alfaeriePNG?

OK, done.

Could you add the missing bnespearman to alfaeriePNG?

So, I'm thinking that having varying alpha values is available only in true color images, and that provides a reason for keeping these as true color images.

I am not really into these graphics formats, but I can imagine that the palette for historic reasons contains only up to 256 24-bit colors (i.e. RGB without alpha). I guess that with an alpha channel the number of different RGBA combinations in a typical image becomes so large that 256 would almost never be enough, so that no one bothered to define a standard for palette with alpha channel.

I think the trick to making them appear smooth is having edge pixels with varying alpha values. The images I produced had fully opaque edge pixels. As a test, I made a palette version of bknight.png in Ultimate Paint. When I loaded the palette version, the edge pixels no longer had varying alpha values. As a second test, I saved a 24 bit true color version, and it also had lost the varying alpha values on edge pixels. Finally, I saved a 32 bit true color version, and when I reloaded it, it retained the varying alpha values. I also tried the latest version of Paint.net. When I selected the option to save it with an 8-bit depth, it offered the option to set the Transparency threshold, and it said "Pixels with an alpha value lower than the threshold will be fully transparent." So, I'm thinking that having varying alpha values is available only in true color images, and that provides a reason for keeping these as true color images.

I have rendered all images in the alferieSVG directory now as 50x50 PNG using fen2.php?s=50&p=..., in the directory /graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG50. They look like this

(The shell script I used for this is /graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG50/x, and then y to give them the desired filename.)

Since Game Courier is able to copy an SVG to a GD image that will be saved as a PNG, I should be able to modify showpiece.php for conversion from SVG to PNG.

Since I already have a PHP function called imagecreatefromimagick2, the conversion from SVG to PNG was easily handled. However, the results I'm getting do not appear as smooth as the results Greg got.

Here are some examples of what I am getting:

And here are the same pieces as Greg has already converted them:

I have been altering imagecreatefromimagick2 to try to get better results, but so far nothing has worked.

Almost all PNG images are 48x48, though. Only a few that I recently made (mostly compounds done by fen2.php) are 50x50. I produced many of the SVG from which these are derived, but I think Greg had a script that he used to 'bulk convert' the SVG to PNG. He must have used 48x48 in this script. Why he picked that size is unclear to me, as amongst the GIF images it is virtually non-existent.

Maybe he was considering that Game Courier highlights spaces with image borders and wanted to leave some space for the border. However, the borders used are larger than one pixel in width, and the Square Table method will now keep borders from growing too large by reducing the dimensions of the image, whereas the CSS method puts borders around an empty space of a fixed size. So, even if making the images smaller than 50x50 once had some utility, it no longer does.

Should I try to re-render all the alfaeriePNG at 50x50? I suppose I could make my own script for that, at least for everything that we have as SVG, and not compound or post-edited (to apply crosses and such).

Since Game Courier is able to copy an SVG to a GD image that will be saved as a PNG, I should be able to modify showpiece.php for conversion from SVG to PNG. Then I could make sure that the PNG is also a palette image with green for the transparent color.

It appears almost all alfaerie GIF images are 50x50. Some (including the orthodox pieces) are 49x49. Elephants and their derivatives are even 53x50. I recall that I had once seen a 48x48 GIF too, but forgot which that was.

Almost all PNG images are 48x48, though. Only a few that I recently made (mostly compounds done by fen2.php) are 50x50. I produced many of the SVG from which these are derived, but I think Greg had a script that he used to 'bulk convert' the SVG to PNG. He must have used 48x48 in this script. Why he picked that size is unclear to me, as amongst the GIF images it is virtually non-existent.

I think it is undesirable that GIF and PNG images have different sizes. It should be our long-term goal to upgrade all images to the (anti-aliased) PNG, and having different sizes would obstruct that.

So what to do? Should I try to re-render all the alfaeriePNG at 50x50? I suppose I could make my own script for that, at least for everything that we have as SVG, and not compound or post-edited (to apply crosses and such)..

I have no idea how some (mainly of the orthodox pieces) came to be 48x48 or 49x49.

The original Alfaerie pieces were 49x49, because David Howe originally made them for Zillions-of-Games, whose boards were using 49x49 squares. While I made pieces whose dimensions matched the dimensions of the visible image, he made pieces of uniform dimensions that perfectly fit the spaces they were intended for.

Make the images 50x50 instead of 48x48. This will stop the need to pad these images when the squares are 50x50.

I think this would be the proper solution. Most Alfaerie images are 50x50; I have no idea how some (mainly of the orthodox pieces) came to be 48x48 or 49x49. I wouldn't know how to make a palette PNG image; I usually geenrate the AlfaeriePNG images with fen2.php from SVG images, and fen2.php is based on C code I took from XBoard, which uses a function to safe a bitmap as PNG file, described as a 'toy interface' that offers little or no control of the image properties. (But it works.)

When I have time I will re-render these pieces at the proper size.

In your example, the black outlines were also appearing around the pieces in the Captured Pieces section, and this uses the same code no matter what the rendering method for the board. So, it's not the CSS rendering method that's at fault. This black outline is happening because the CSS rendering method is displaying them with the showpiece.php script, and the pieces in question are not in the proper format to work with this script. The pieces in use here are from the alfaeriePNG directory. The reason they are being displayed with showpiece.php is because they are 48x48 instead of the expected 50x50. So that smaller images do not get disproportionately enlarged by a background-size of contain, it runs smaller images through showpiece.php to pad them. However, the image I tested turned out to be a truecolor image, and the transparent color used was black (#000000) instead of green (#00ff00). Because of this, it could not determine and keep track of the transparent color, and instead of coloring the padded border with the transparent color, it colored it an opaque black. To fix this, there are three changes you can make to these images.

1. Make the images 50x50 instead of 48x48. This will stop the need to pad these images when the squares are 50x50.
2. Make them palette images, not truecolor images. Even with the image I tested, it had only 141 colors, which is within the capacity of a palette image. So, there was no reason to make it truecolor.
3. Make the transparent color pure green. This is a convention adopted from Zillions-of-Games, which provides a means to detect the transparent color when other means are not working.

[UPDATE]I added some fallback methods for getting the transparent color, and now the pieces show up without the black border. However, there is an issue with the cross on the king. So, I still recommend modifying the pieces to work better with this script or to even not need it in this circumstance.[/UPDATE]

That should not be happening, and I have not seen it. Where are you seeing this behavior?

I tried this preset from the log page, clicked Menu, then Edit, changed the "Render as" to CSS code, and finally pressed Test. That gave me this:

Nowhere on my screen there is "Appearance controls". I see a box with "Render as".

I assumed you were playing the game against someone else, and I based my instructions on the form you get when it is your turn to move. If you don't see "Appearance Controls", but you do see "Render as:", then you can go directly to the latter. The "Preview" button is only for playing a game. If you're just viewing a game, you submit the form with the "View" button.

I can't see past moves without pressing "view", no interactive moves like for the other games.

To traverse through all the moves in a game with JavaScript, you first need to view the last move of the game in this manner. Also, if this is a game you were a player in, there is currently a bug that will stop you from changing the rendering method in View mode from the preference you have stored in the log. [BUG FIXED]

The one you need is labeled "Render as:", third from below on the left in the large greenish block. It doesn't seem to do anything, though.

It will not do anything right away, but it should change when you submit the form. The one exception to this is when you are viewing a game where you are a player, because your preferences in the log will override what you entered in the form. I should fix it so that preferences in the log are more easily overridden. [BUG FIXED]

CSS rendering looks pretty ugly, though: all occupied squares get (1px wide black) borders, the rest of the board not.

That should not be happening, and I have not seen it. Where are you seeing this behavior?

A pulldown is a display element you can click to make a short menu appear below it, from which you can then select an option.

The one you need is labeled "Render as:", third from below on the left in the large greenish block. It doesn't seem to do anything, though.

There also is one in in the Edit page you get at by pressing the 'Menu' button, and selecting 'Edit' there:

This one worked for me if I press "Test" at the top of the page to get back to the Menu page, and then press Play there.

CSS rendering looks pretty ugly, though: all occupied squares get (1px wide black) borders, the rest of the board not.

I'm probably stupid. Nowhere on my screen there is "Appearance controls". I see a box with "Render as". There I change PNG to CSS or Table. And then? I see nowhere "Preview". I see "View", "Print" and "Annotate". In any case, even with CSS or Table, when I scroll the table, the diagram remains the same, I can't see past moves without pressing "view", no interactive moves like for the other games. Maybe it's impossible.

Click on the Appearance controls, then go where it says "Render as:", change the rendering method to either Table or CSS, and then click Preview.

Under the Comments box on the game page you should see Appearance Controls. If you click that it will expand to show more options, including Render as: which you need to set to CSS or Table. After you change the settings, you have to use the Preview button that you use to enter moves to update the game display.

Thanks but I still don't understand. What is a dropdown? Why should I have to edit anything whereas it was working fine up to now?

There is a dropdown to select the rendering method on the page where you can edit the preset.

@Fergus: sorry to complain again, but, well, something seems to have change. When playing on Game Courrier I wanted to scroll some moves back and it doesn't work anymore.

I get this message:

"Since the png rendering method draws the entire diagram as a single image, you cannot view other positions without reloading the page. But if you change your rendering method to Table or CSS, you should be able to."

Why people skilled in IS always think that it is easy for anyone else? How may I change my rendering method? I don't even know what is it.

This is a pain.

At some point a while back there was a series of several finished games in a row on the link for 'Finished Games' that had a wrong result recorded (not just for some games of Pocket Shogi Copper, where we played) - Fergus fixed those glitches subsequently.

@kevin

Amendment: I just visited your game and it said "Black has won". I think maybe fergus fixed it, or the issue has been resolved. Is all working as it should?

@Kevin Kevin for pocket Shogi Copper is the "White has won" a major issue? If yes, I might be able to adjust the code. When I wrote the code I think I may have reversed the shogi pieces. i.e. black is white, and white is black. I think I reversed the label names in the programming section, and I am guessing that is the issue for white has won. The combination of reverse pieces and the labels most likely is the cause for pocket shogi copper white has won.

Do you want me to try and fix it?

Yes OK, it's back to normal now. Thx

Try to refresh (f5 or ctrl+f5) to reload the new style

@Fergus: now in the table "Your Games on Game Courier", I just can't read my on-going games because they appear dark on a black square.

@Fergus: to complete my message, Paul sees "logging your move". And from my side, it is still to Paul to play.

This is why I suggest that you withdraw my last move of the log to have me playing the next move.

Thank you

@Fergus: it doesn't work. Paul said he has played again but I can't see that. For me the game is still in the same position, waiting for his move to come. Paul is even less confortable than me with the interface, I suspect he has not got what to do.

Would it possible that you kill the last move from me so the turn would me mine, not his, and maybe I'll be able to unblock this game?

Thanks a lot for your help.

@HG: it is really a mess to recover this!

Yes, I am very sorry about this. I do know this site should not be used as a alpha-test facility. But the include file did contain a bug that had to be fixed, and I was dealing with some apparently illogical and therefore unpredictable behavior of GAME code itself.

@Fergus: wouldn't it be better to include the application of the PHP intval operator in the implementation of piececount itself, so that it would return the expected 0 for pieces that are not on the board?

It might also be useful to apply intval to the operands of arithmetic operators such as +. (Or is that very detrimental, performance-wise?) I was really baffled by that 1 + undefined = 0.

OK, I do that. Let's see.

(Why his page has no Content and Activity remains a mystery for me)

Just tell Paul to go here:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Timurid&log=timurthelenk-numerist-2024-41-899&userid=numerist

@Fergus: alas Paul (a.k.a. Numerist) is not able to access this game again. He cannot see the link. When I send the link to him, he is getting a generic Game courrier page, not the right log. I asked him to go to his personal page from the top bar, then select Personal Information, then see Content and Activity, then Games Played on Chess Courier (when I do that myself, I see the log, but it is to Paul to play), but then, it is incredible he has NO Content and Activity section! So nowhere he could access to the games he had played in the past! He sent me a screen copy to show me.

So we are blocked. Can you remove one more move in order that it will be my turn to move at this game?

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Timurid&log=timurthelenk-numerist-2024-41-899

@HG: it is really a mess to recover this!

I fixed things up better. I had to delete some more lines from the log. The logs page is saying the game is drawn, but Paul should be able to move by clicking on the button for him to move after viewing the game.

Thank you Fergus. HG had said that he had already fixed his code. So, shall I conclude that it is hopeless? Frustrating to loose a game between France and Canada after more than 50 moves.

I removed the last two moves, and I deleted it from the FinishedGames table, but when I loaded it again, it again said you won and put a record in the FinishedGames table again. So I deleted it from there again. Leave it alone until HG tells you he has fixed his code.

@Fergus: can you, if it is possible, that you re-put this game 1 or 2 moves before it has been terminated by HG's error:

timurthelenk-numerist-2024-41-899

Thank you

Aargh. I understand. @Fergus, can you do something, like getting this game back 1 or 2 moves? Thanks

Sorry, this is my fault. I was debugging the GAME code include file, and to that end apparently put some code in there that was not so innocent as I thought. I already removed that code, (it was only there for a few seconds), but I don't know how to fix an erroneously declared game end.

Help!

While playing this log (at Timurid) with Paul, helenk-numerist-2024-41-899, I (white) captured his Bishop and I got this message:

// - check! -// - White lost by absence of royalty! -

Does anyone know why? I never got such a message at any game. Did I make something wrong when coding this GC?

Thanks

Ah yes, I apparently missed some of the print statements I put in for debugging when removing those, after the problem suddenly ceased to exist before I found out what it was. In short games like I tested on this is not noticeable.

I removed them now.

It looks like HG has included some debugging code that needs to be removed.

@HG: while playing some of my games, for example this log:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Bigorra&log=arx-cvgameroom-2023-268-980

At every click, to open the game, then when moving a piece, then when confirming the move, etc., the screen displays a page with a lot of lines as the ones I copy and paste here below.

That screen disapears quickly with apparently no consequence, so it is not a major problem, but it is disturbing. This phenomena has started 1 week ago or so. It happens also on other logs where I'm playing. It seems to be related to the locust-stuff.

I don't understand what has been changed.

Please report any bugs or errors to H.G. Muller k5k7#locustqsr00 i12i10#locustqsr00 l5l7#locustqsr00 i13i11#locustqsr00 k4k6#locustqsr00 j12j10#locustqsr00 j5j7#locustqsr00 h12h10#locustqsr00 i5i7#locustqsr00 i10i8#locustqsr00 m5m7#locustqsr00 k12k10#locustqsr00 m4m6#locustqsr00 g12g10#locustqsr00 h10h8#locustqsr00 h5h7#locustqsr00 f12f10#locustqsr00 f13f11#locustqsr00 l12l10#locustqsr00 i9i7#locustqsr00 g10g8#locustqsr00 h13h11#locustqsr00 d5d7#locustqsr00 d12d10#locustqsr00 d4d6#locustqsr00 e12e10#locustqsr00 e5e7#locustqsr00 e10e8#locustqsr00 m12m10#locustqsr00 n5n7#locustqsr00 n12n10#locustqsr00 f5f7#locustqsr00 c12c10#locustqsr00 g5g7#locustqsr00 g6g8#locustqsr00 l10l8#locustqsr00 c5c7#locustqsr00 b12b10#locustqsr00 b10b8#locustqsr00 n10n8#locustqsr00 p5p7#locustqsr00 f6f8#locustqsr00 o5o7#locustqsr00 m7m9#locustqsr00 a12a10#locustqsr00 h7h9#locustqsr00 h11h9#locustqsr00 m13m11#locustqsr00 c10c8#locustqsr00 a10a8#locustqsr00 o6o8#locustqsr00 p12p10#locustqsr00 j14j12#locustqsr00 k7k9#locustqsr00 k13k11#locustqsr00 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h6h8#locustqsr00 k6k7#locustqsr00 k6j6#locustqsr00 m6p9#locustqsr00 m6p3#locustqsr00 m6j3#locustqsr00 m6j9#locustqsr00 m6m9#locustqsr00 m6m3#locustqsr00 m6j6#locustqsr00 m6m7#locustqsr00 p6p7#locustqsr00 p6p8#locustqsr00 a5a6#locustqsr00 a5a7#locustqsr00 c5a3#locustqsr00 c5a7#locustqsr00 d5f4#locustqsr00 j5j6#locustqsr00 j5k5#locustqsr00 j5k4#locustqsr00 j5j4#locustqsr00 j5i5#locustqsr00 j5i6#locustqsr00 m5o6#locustqsr00 m5o4#locustqsr00 m5n3#locustqsr00 m5l3#locustqsr00 m5k4#locustqsr00 n5o8#locustqsr00 n5o2#locustqsr00 n5k4#locustqsr00 o5o6#locustqsr00 o5p5#locustqsr00 b4b5#locustqsr00 b4a4#locustqsr00 c4f1#locustqsr00 c4f4#locustqsr00 c4c1#locustqsr00 d4f5#locustqsr00 d4c2#locustqsr00 d4b5#locustqsr00 d4c6#locustqsr00 d4g5#locustqsr00 d4c1#locustqsr00 d4a3#locustqsr00 d4g6#locustqsr00 d4f1#locustqsr00 d4a6#locustqsr00 d4b7#locustqsr00 i4i5#locustqsr00 i4j4#locustqsr00 i4h4#locustqsr00 i4i6#locustqsr00 m4n3#locustqsr00 m4l3#locustqsr00 m4l5#locustqsr00 m4n2#locustqsr00 m4l2#locustqsr00 n4k7#locustqsr00 n4k4#locustqsr00 p4m1#locustqsr00 p4m7#locustqsr00 p4p7#locustqsr00 p4p1#locustqsr00 p4p5#locustqsr00 b3b2#locustqsr00 b3a3#locustqsr00 c3d2#locustqsr00 c3b2#locustqsr00 c3a1#locustqsr00 d3e4#locustqsr00 d3f5#locustqsr00 d3g6#locustqsr00 d3h7#locustqsr00 d3c2#locustqsr00 e3f5#locustqsr00 e3g4#locustqsr00 e3f1#locustqsr00 e3d1#locustqsr00 e3c2#locustqsr00 e3g5#locustqsr00 e3c1#locustqsr00 e3e5#locustqsr00 f3f4#locustqsr00 f3g5#locustqsr00 f3e5#locustqsr00 g3g4#locustqsr00 g3h4#locustqsr00 g3f4#locustqsr00 g3g5#locustqsr00 h3h4#locustqsr00 h3h5#locustqsr00 h3j3#locustqsr00 i3k4#locustqsr00 i3g4#locustqsr00 i3h5#locustqsr00 i3k5#locustqsr00 i3g5#locustqsr00 i3i5#locustqsr00 i3k3#locustqsr00 i3i1#locustqsr00 i3i6#locustqsr00 i3l3#locustqsr00 i3j6#locustqsr00 i3l4#locustqsr00 i3l2#locustqsr00 i3f4#locustqsr00 i3l5#locustqsr00 i3f1#locustqsr00 i3f5#locustqsr00 i3g6#locustqsr00 o3o4#locustqsr00 o3p3#locustqsr00 o3o2#locustqsr00 o3n3#locustqsr00 o3m3#locustqsr00 o3l3#locustqsr00 o3k3#locustqsr00 o3j3#locustqsr00 a2a3#locustqsr00 a2a4#locustqsr00 a2b2#locustqsr00 a2c2#locustqsr00 a2d2#locustqsr00 a2a1#locustqsr00 a2a8#locustqsr00 e2d2#locustqsr00 e2c2#locustqsr00 e2b2#locustqsr00 e2f1#locustqsr00 e2d1#locustqsr00 f2g4#locustqsr00 f2d1#locustqsr00 f2e4#locustqsr00 g2f1#locustqsr00 g2h4#locustqsr00 g2i1#locustqsr00 g2f4#locustqsr00 g2e4#locustqsr00 g2g4#locustqsr00 h2i1#locustqsr00 h2j4#locustqsr00 h2f4#locustqsr00 h2h4#locustqsr00 h2j3#locustqsr00 h2f1#locustqsr00 h2g4#locustqsr00 i2j3#locustqsr00 i2k4#locustqsr00 i2l5#locustqsr00 i2i1#locustqsr00 j2k3#locustqsr00 j2i1#locustqsr00 j2l3#locustqsr00 j2m3#locustqsr00 j2n3#locustqsr00 j2k4#locustqsr00 j2k5#locustqsr00 k2k3#locustqsr00 k2k4#locustqsr00 k2k5#locustqsr00 k2l2#locustqsr00 k2l4#locustqsr00 k2m3#locustqsr00 k2m1#locustqsr00 k2i1#locustqsr00 k2j4#locustqsr00 m2n3#locustqsr00 m2o4#locustqsr00 m2p5#locustqsr00 m2l3#locustqsr00 m2k4#locustqsr00 p2p3#locustqsr00 p2p1#locustqsr00 p2o2#locustqsr00 p2n2#locustqsr00 b1b2#locustqsr00 b1c2#locustqsr00 b1c1#locustqsr00 b1a1#locustqsr00 b1d1#locustqsr00 e1f1#locustqsr00 e1d1#locustqsr00 e1d2#locustqsr00 e1c2#locustqsr00 g1f1#locustqsr00 h1i1#locustqsr00 j1i1#locustqsr00 j1l3#locustqsr00 j1j3#locustqsr00 j1g4#locustqsr00

This was my fault. It was calling a function that didn't exist for your choice of rendering method without first checking whether it existed. I have now put in the check.

@Fergus and/or @HG:

In the following log I cannot move since the page does not load correctly.

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Cetran+Chess+3&log=sissa-cvgameroom-2024-39-687&userid=sissa

The preset was edited through the Play-test applet. Could you please take a look at it. Thanks!

How come a problem like this can cure itself is a real mystery for me.

To me as well; it should not be possible. Unless there was some hardware error, where a faulty memory bit was causing the program not to behave as it should, and that after some time it ended up in another area of the memory. The problem should not have existed in the first place; if the last-moved Pawn would disappear after every piece move it should have been discovered much earlier.

OK thank you Fergus. With a small kind explanation the things are much better perceived.

I interpret your answer to me as a disaprobation of using HG's PTA to make a GC preset.

You are misinterpreting what I said. I was not expressing feelings about it. I was simply pointing you to the person who could actually help you, because I do not understand the code generated by the PTA, and I am not qualified to help anyone with it.

But, you alone cannot code GC presets for every CV that is published here. So, it is also very nice what HG has made with this PTA because otherwise people like me would never been able to code new games for GC.

That's why PTA-generated code is his area of expertise and not mine.

@HG yes, now it works. How come a problem like this can cure itself is a real mystery for me.

@Fergus: I interpret your answer to me as a disaprobation of using HG's PTA to make a GC preset. This would be difficult to understand from my perspective. Your GC app is fantastic and really appreciated by all people on this site, as far as I know. Really nice as it allow us to play an incredible variety of games. But, you alone cannot code GC presets for every CV that is published here. So, it is also very nice what HG has made with this PTA because otherwise people like me would never been able to code new games for GC. Big thanks to you and HG.

Something very fishy is going on. I discovered that what GAME code prints is hidden in the header of the preset page, so I could see it by looking at the Page Source. (A bit inconvenient, as it is buried in an insane number of empty <P> tags, but I managed.)

You can set the system variable showoutput to true to see the output. Also, you can find it in the source code in a PRE tag with the id of errors.

Something very fishy is going on. I discovered that what GAME code prints is hidden in the header of the preset page, so I could see it by looking at the Page Source. (A bit inconvenient, as it is buried in an insane number of empty <P> tags, but I managed.)

I experimented a bit in Play mode, and the fastest way to reproduce the disappearence was 1. j3-j5 i10-i8 2. j5-j6 i18-i7 3. Nk2-j4 and i7 would disappear. In particular, the problem occurred when a Pawn was moved a single step to attack another Pawn; that Pawn would then disappear.

So I put statements in the GAME code to see what move was offered to GC for playing. This was simply "N k2-j4", no instructions to remove anything else. So I printed the board just before that move would be executed. The Pawn was already gone. So I tried printing the board earlier in the process of verifying the legality of the move, to see at which point the Pawn would disappear. But after that the Pawn on i7 did not disappear anymore!

That was weird. Printing something should not alter what the code does to the board. I commented out that extra printr statement, and later removed it alltogether, to go back to the situation where I last saw the problem, only printing the board just before the move was made. The Pawn did not disappear anymore. So I removed all print statements I had added for debugging: the Pawn stays. I played to the game position: also there no Pawns disappear.

So it seems the problem has cured itself, without making any changes to the preset. Please try again to make a move in the game, to see if you have the same experience.

I think the dotted circle is a new feature of CG, for highlighting locust captures. The question is why there was a locust capture.

Do you have a link to the preset? Never mind, I figured out how to use the log id.

@Fergus: Is there a way to see the result of print and printr statements in the GAME code when the move gets accepted? I only get to see those automatically when it executes die, which I can often trigger myself by playing an illegal move. But in this case I really want to know what happens on a specific move, and without any output from the prgarm debugging is hard.

Thank you Fergus. I thought that the apparition of a dotted circle instead of piece could not be in relation of the use of HG's PTA.

@HG: could you please have a look?

I can't see what is the problem. Is that with my coding of the GC?

Since you used H. G. Muller's PTA to make this preset, you will have to ask him.

@Fergus: In this log

timurthelenk-fhou-2024-41-899

If I play (with Blacks) any move with a non-pawn piece, for ex; sh d11-e8, the white pawn in f6 disapears, replaced by a dotted circle (?) and it results that white King is in check which should not happen.

I can't see what is the problem. Is that with my coding of the GC?

Thanks

There are a couple of other way(s) to go about it, too, that I forgot to mention. Once, an opponent's last comment in a game vs. me was that I was too strong for him, so henceforth I have not accepted any of his open invites (though he could pick up any of mine later if he wished).

On another occasion an opponent just wrote that he needed a break from our matches, before resigning a game - again I have not accepted any of his open invites, though he may choose to accept one or more of mine later.

Yet another way that might be effective is to end a game by commenting something like 'let's not play again until [e.g. March, of 2024] at least, I need a break from our matches'.

If all else fails, you might issue only (or some) Personal Invitations, at least for a while. Some can be played privately, I understand, if you don't wish to give any hint of an impression that you might be avoiding certain player(s).

I will finish the game I have with him and then I will keep silent, no open invitation anymore.

When you make an invitation, you can enter a message for anyone thinking of accepting. So you could use this to say that you would like to play against someone you're not already playing this same game with or whatever stipulation you want to provide.

Thanks Kevin. There is no quarrel in my case. I'm glad to play with Richard, actually I have my best stats with him. But he took the last 5 or 6 open invitations I have made in a row, so it is a bit frustrating, I say to myself, let's open a new one to play someone else, and immediatly, it's him again.

I will finish the game I have with him and then I will keep silent, no open invitation anymore.

I once commented to Greg and he agreed that maybe a filtering-out option on open invitations could be a good idea - at the time there was one player who would take back moves if he blundered, such as in games of mine with him. CVP staff seldom seem to get involved in any of the few GC quarrels we have.

There are two other choices: if a person you don't wish to play lives in another time zone far away, and you know that, you could issue an open invitation(s) when you think that person may be asleep.

Alternatively, if the person you don't wish to play accepts an open invitation, you could just delete that game log, and repeat the process as often as needed. He may complain though, but you could argue your case at that point, too - perhaps by email with CVP staff, if you wish to keep things low-key.

@Fergus: is it possible to make an open invitation, open to everyone but 1 person?

I'm almost joking but on the other hand, launching an open invitation is identical to play always with our friend Richard which is always the most rapid to accept. It is virtually impossible to play agains someone else by open invitation.

@Richard: you are playing more than 1/2 of the total list of logs here, so please let the others play a little bit. Thanks.

Some diagrams for certain Game logs of mine, even long after I made a move, are showing funny patterns, like circular lines on the board's squares - for example:

That's now corrected. I had forgotten to correct how the upsidedown position for square table boards checks whether anything is different from the previous position. It now checks the $prevpos variable instead of $posdata[$movenum - 1]["space"]. By checking the wrong variable, it calculated that everything was different and highlighted every space.

Also for me

@ Fergus:

Some diagrams for certain Game logs of mine, even long after I made a move, are showing funny patterns, like circular lines on the board's squares - for example:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Wide+SOHO+Chess&log=panther-cvgameroom-2023-350-831

Ok, I viewed those logs in question, and, from my perspective at least, they now show correct result on the Finished Games Page that's linked to from the What's New Page.

If you view these logs, they should self-correct.

Thanks Fergus, although it appears some other entries near the top of the Finished games page (games I didn't play in myself, I think) have wrong results, still.

In one new line, I had tested for empty($log) when $log wasn't a global variable. So I changed it to empty($GLOBALS["log"]), and that fixed both of the games you mentioned.

@ Fergus

For some reason the Finished Game Courier logs page is showing wrong results of late today. For example, a game of Pocket Shogi Copper I won vs. wdtr2 in 2023 is showing up as 'Juan Juan has won' in the result shown for it, in the Finished Games page linked from the What's New page(!):

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Pocket+Shogi+Copper&log=panther-cvgameroom-2023-279-196

Also from 2023, a game of Pocket Copper Shogi I won vs. Richard Milner is showing up as 'White has won'(!), which is better, at least:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Pocket+Shogi+Copper&log=panther-cvgameroom-2023-253-172

When I try to open it for accepting (or not), I get this error message: Your userid is timurthelenk. This log is private. It may be viewed only by the players. If you are one of the players, please sign in first. You may use the menu for this.

I fixed that problem, but when I clicked on the link, it automatically accepted the invitation for me without giving me the option.

@Fergus:

Paul Rapoport (Numerist) has launched an invitation to play Pemba:

numerist-cvgameroom-2024-8-677

When I try to open it for accepting (or not), I get this error message: Your userid is timurthelenk. This log is private. It may be viewed only by the players. If you are one of the players, please sign in first. You may use the menu for this.

In my experience, this has only happened to me in the past with Paul's invitations. As far as I know, he never got an invitation accepted and he finished by cancel them. Sad. But maybe, there is something wrong that he or we have not understood. If his invitation is open to anybody, how come I am refused to open it?

Could you please have a look to this particular log. Maybe you will see what is not done properly or if there is a bug.

Many thanks

Thank you for this explanation. I didn't know it was incremented that way. Thanks

What you're calling a reference number is just the date and time in the format date("Y-z-B"). They are the same, because the invitations were issued close enough together in time. So, it's no surprise that in each case, the same person issued the two invitations with the same date and time.

@Fergus: thank you, it looks much better.

Oh, it is not a major issue but if that interests you, I see a remaining anomaly: there are 2 couples of games which have the same reference number although being related to different games.

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Festival+Chess&log=sesquipedalian-cvgameroom-2023-131-051

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Skica&log=sesquipedalian-cvgameroom-2023-131-051

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Metamachy&log=timurthelenk-cvgameroom-2022-73-858

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Maasai+Chess&log=timurthelenk-cvgameroom-2022-73-858

As far as I'm concerned, I don't ask for a correction. I just show this in case it indicates something important for the website.

Thanks again

One is to clean the database.

I cleaned the FinishedGames and GameLogs tables, and I dropped the OngoingGames table.

The other is to figure out what caused this and stop it.

I identified code where the plus sign got added back in and added a line calling urldecode on $game. So, when you click on a log for a game with a plus sign in it, the game's name should now show up without any plus signs. This has the unfortunate side effect that games cannot have plus signs in their names. Fortunately, it doesn't affect many games, because there are few games of that sort.

Comment #31244 indicates that I created FinishedGames in April, 2015, and Comment #34645 indicates that I created GameLogs in July, 2017. No comments prior to today mention OngoingGames.

It appears that OngoingGames is not being used anymore. I used grep to search for .php files with OngoingGames in them, and none turned up. Searches of OngoingGames for Log names matching %2016% through %2023% turned up nothing. So, I probably stopped using it in 2015, the same year I took over running the site. Around that time, I modified the Logs page to use the Database instead of reading every log in the file system, because reading all the logs was using too many resources. It seems that at that time I discontinued OngoingGames in favor of GameLogs, which contained a record of every log in a single table that could be searched with an SQL query from this page.

This is a huge problem that is even affecting my own games from 2004. Database searches indicate that it affects FinishedGames and GameLogs, but it doesn't affect GameSettings or OngoingGames. Since it didn't affect OngoingGames, it flew under the radar for people who didn't look back at past games. The solution has two parts. One is to clean the database. I will probably have to use a script, since a mass delete might get some rows that shouldn't be deleted. The other is to figure out what caused this and stop it. In urlencoded URLs, the + sign is sometimes used to represent the space. So, it looks like it has been saving urlencoded game names into the database. Since I know which tables in the database have been affected, I know to look at the scripts that write to those tables and to compare them to those that write to the unaffected tables.

@Fergus:

I don't understand your answer. You ask URLs. Those below are not enough? Or I don't understand what you don't understand. It seems that there is a problem with the way the recorded games are labelled.

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Camel%2BDecimal%2BChess&log=timurthelenk-numerist-2023-327-894

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Camel+Decimal+Chess&log=timurthelenk-numerist-2023-327-894

I re-post the list below, they have all the same problem.

timurthelenk-numerist-2023-327-894

playtester-cvgameroom-2023-303-807

timurthelenk-cvgameroom-2023-259-648

makov333-cvgameroom-2022-244-501

cssdixieland-timurthelenk-2022-235-134

panther-cvgameroom-2021-304-254

catugo-cvgameroom-2021-289-757

The duplication seems to come because of the game title which is given as "A B" and "A+B": ex: Chinese Chess and Chinese+Chess.

Finally I also see this mistake where a same number is attached to 2 different games: timurthelenk-cvgameroom-2022-73-858 is once attached to Metamachy and once to Maasai Chess.

Please provide full URLs to the duplicated logs and their duplicates and others you find problematic.

Thx for answer)

Temporary bug while updating some code. Technically, the pieces had a height and width of zero, but this should be fixed now.

{BUG} Hey why I move in first game I should move in and in other my games all pieces are trasparent???

Dear Fergus. There are several bugs in this page:

It is rather simple. All games dated with 2022 or 2021 or even 2020 have not been played in these last days of 2023. I am quite sure of that. Here the bug seems just they have been moved in time. Strange.

There are also games which are duplicated. Like:

timurthelenk-numerist-2023-327-894

playtester-cvgameroom-2023-303-807

timurthelenk-cvgameroom-2023-259-648

makov333-cvgameroom-2022-244-501

cssdixieland-timurthelenk-2022-235-134

panther-cvgameroom-2021-304-254

catugo-cvgameroom-2021-289-757

The duplication seems to come because of the game title which is given as "A B" and "A+B": ex: Chinese Chess and Chinese+Chess.

Finally I also see this mistake where a same number is attached to 2 different games: timurthelenk-cvgameroom-2022-73-858 is once attached to Metamachy and once to Maasai Chess.

Fergus:

Please take a look at this link. 

All problematic logs are distinguished by having the + sign inserted in the game name, for example, Kamikaze+Mortal+Shogi instead of the correct Kamikaze Mortal Shogi. 

When trying to view those games or print the list of plays, the software warns that the logfile is missing, or something is misspelled.

Apart from what the records say, I wouldn’t know which games you have or haven’t played. I see no such problem with my account, and no one else has reported this. So, if you want me to look into this, I will need exact details.

@Fergus

I report another bug: in the table of the GC games I'm supposed to have played: https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/logs.php?userid=timurthelenk&age=0&sort=age&stat=actfin

There are many that I have not played, at least not these recent dates (for example, I don't remember having played at Mosaic Chess), many games which are duplicated, etc.

So, the table is wrong. Maybe I'm not the only one. This may affect other statistic pages that are computed on this site.

The first one is now corrected. The second should be

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Zwangkrieg&log=sesquipedalian-cvgameroom-2023-342-707

There are still a couple of logs that are experiencing this bug:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Pocket%2BShogi%2BCopper&log=bahram-cvgameroom-2023-350-341

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Dai+Seireigi&log=sesquipedalian-cvgameroom-2023-342-707

Fergus, this is impossible. Who deleted them?

It turns out no one deleted them. The problem was that they were written to the wrong directory. The $gameid variable had been set to an empty value in the header, as I was now using $gameid in the header to help find pages for playing games, and I was getting the value from the database. But Game Courier already used this variable without getting it from the database. After changing the header to not set $gameid if it's already set, I located the logs and moved them to the correct directories.

The problem happens not only with Open Invitations but also with Personal Invitations, such as those recently launched by Tim O'Lena:

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/bear_chess/tim_olena-playtester-2023-343-632.php is missing, or something is misspelled

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/bear_chess/tim_olena-alienum-2023-343-635.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/mccooeys_hexagonal_chess/tim_olena-bosa60-2023-343-637.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/mccooeys_hexagonal_chess/tim_olena-sissa-2023-343-641.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

With so many cases, it is evident that there is some bug in the Game Courier software. And it is probably related to the fact that since several days ago the logs of finished games have been duplicated, and when trying to review or print them, the software warns of the same type of error: "the logfile is missing, or something is misspelled". See, for example, this: https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Pocket%2BMutation%2BChess&log=olbog-gwduke-2006-234-653

Fergus, this is impossible. Who deleted them? They are too many and all consecutive for the last 7 days. Moreover 3 were created by me, I don't understand how I would do something different than usual. Something has been done.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/conquer_ii/degenschess66-cvgameroom-2023-342-344.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/pattern_chess/degenschess66-cvgameroom-2023-342-576.php is missing, or something is misspell

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/dai_seireigi/sesquipedalian-cvgameroom-2023-342-707.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/zwangkrieg/sesquipedalian-cvgameroom-2023-342-707.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/mccooeys_hexagonal_chess/tim_olena-cvgameroom-2023-342-959.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/sac_chess/tim_olena-cvgameroom-2023-342-960.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/bear_chess/tim_olena-cvgameroom-2023-343-627.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/camel_decimal_chess/timurthelenk-nanil618-2023-346-522.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/fantastic_xiii/timurthelenk-cvgameroom-2023-346-524.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/maasai_chess/timurthelenk-cvgameroom-2023-346-525.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/modern_makruk/makov333-cvgameroom-2023-346-569.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/dai_seireigi/bahram-cvgameroom-2023-347-388.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/devingt_chess/nanil618-cvgameroom-2023-347-676.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/chess/cspk-thoner-2023-347-774.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/different_pawns_random_chess/makov333-cvgameroom-2023-347-993.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/cool_camels_vs_fabulous_fides/makov333-cvgameroom-2023-347-027.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Anyone else can say if he/she sees the same thing than me?

None of those logs exist, and there are no backups for them. They were probably deleted.

I raise again this issue. The games under invitation cannot be played. The error message is the following (example):

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/camel_decimal_chess/timurthelenk-nanil618-2023-346-522.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/modern_makruk/makov333-cvgameroom-2023-346-569.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

Error: The logfile at ../pbmlogs/chess/cspk-thoner-2023-347-774.php is missing, or something is misspelled.

My correspondant has the same issue, so I'm not the only one.

Please help!

@Fergus: it seems that there is a bug. It is impossible to access to any game with an open invitation. By clicking on the game, one gets an error message. Could please you have a look and fix it? Thx

Is it only visible by opponent at this moment?

Things are not as simple as they used to be. The Logs page used to go through all the actual logs in the file system, but that was a huge drain on resources. So I rewrote it to use the database. When the log was deleted, it was also deleted from the database, and I have no backup for that. Since it's not in the database, it's not on the Logs page. But you can go directly to your game, and once you move, it should probably create a new database entry for it.

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Devingt+Chess&log=nanil618-timurthelenk-2023-314-626

Is it only visible by opponent at this moment?