Chess Openings (ECO) - VB6

I'm a big fan of correspondence chess, and like to stay "on book" in my openings. After trying various shareware and torrent-ware programs, I finally gave up and decided to write my own utility with the primary focus being ease of use.

No installation is required; simply unzip to any folder and run the exe. (If you decide to use this utility, you'll want to make a shortcut.) Everything that would normally require references or components is instead handled in native VB6 classes. Specifically, my XP Library (older version linked in signature) plus a StatusBar class to handle the progress bar.

With this utility you can walk through all openings in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (ECO) with a clean, simple GUI.

All the rules of chess are enforced, and you can play an actual game to completion. Checkmate, stalemate, threefold repetition and the fifty-move rule are all supported. There is no computer AI at all, and this program probably isn't written efficiently enough to be a good candidate for one. Though anyone is welcome to try.

Chess Openings.zip is the distributable application, which is 100% freeware. Source.zip contains the complete source code.

Forgot to mention that I play correspondence chess at the free site http://www.redhotpawn.com/ under the name Ellis Dee. Anyone is welcome to challenge me to a game, though fair warning that I'm usually booked up at the max 6 games at a time. (You have to pay a membership fee to play more than 6 games at once.)

If you go there, you'll notice that the New Dimension Raised piece set and Sandstorm board are both taken directly from there, as is the GUI style in general.

I tried to do this a while ago but gave up because I didn't know what I was doing.

Ellis Dee,

Great job, I am also working on a chess program (as you responded to my thread earlier, thanks!). But sorry that I can not upload it here. I haven't taken the copyright yet, once I do I will share it with you. Apparently we have a lot to share!

By the way, have you tried chess base? it's a chess software (the PGN reader you can download for free). Give it a try it got some nice functions.

It's too good to be called a mere utility! Rep+ from me.

Nice job. I used to play a lot of chess but I'm way out of practice and too over the hill to get back anywhere near where I was but anyhow would it be possible to add a feature where we could choose the opening and the defense and step through the "book" move by move? Also what exactly do the numbers to the right of the potential moves represent?

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Originally Posted by MartinLiss

would it be possible to add a feature where we could choose the opening and the defense and step through the "book" move by move?

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I was just thinking of that exact feature yesterday afternoon. The logic is easy, since I can just take the opening, recreate the PGN text for it (already written) and pretend the user chose to Import PGN. (Also already written.)

I'd like to just throw it in there, but first I'll need to think of a good way to integrate it into the user interface.

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Also what exactly do the numbers to the right of the potential moves represent?

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The number of branches beneath that move. There are a total of 2013 openings in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. 1155 start with e4, then of those 1155 openings, 689 respond with e5, etc...

Just because a move only has 1 branch doesn't mean there is only one move left. There won't be any choices left, but there could still be a bunch of moves.

Perhaps it should be mentioned that the source is in VB6. I had to download it to find out! BB

I mentioned it in passing in the OP, but yeah, point taken. I've edited the thread title.

Hi Ellis, happy New Year. I should have read the OP more carefully, and I now wish I hadn't said anything because it's a pity to change the title. As a "utility" it could be interesting to anyone, and the source is really an extra. Maybe the last sentence of #1 would be better place to mention VB6 for lazy readers like me, if you felt like editing again. BB

@ Ellis Dee,

I have been in contact with a guy whom found your ECO and asked me if I could convert it to Delphi for him. Although, he thought I was the author of the code I don't know how he managed to get your name which is in all the source code mixed up with my email address. Never-the-less I will see if I can get in contact with him and point him in the right direction. You might be able to help him?

Sure. I don't know Delphi, but I can help with explaining the VB6 code and what it does.

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Originally Posted by Ellis Dee

Sure. I don't know Delphi, but I can help with explaining the VB6 code and what it does.

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Yeah, I don't know why he wants the code converted to Delphi anyway but he didn't response when asked.