[Bob Kuczewski]

You Guys should go to Lichess.org https://lichess.org/.

Thanks Craig. I am sure they have much much better chess support than the U.S. Hawks!!   

I only added minimal support for people who are mostly interested in hang gliding, but would like to dabble with chess as a sideline activity. Anyone really serious about playing chess should use a site like Lichess as Craig has suggested.

On the other hand, anyone just looking for a little diversion here within the U.S. Hawks is welcome to play using the primitive tools available. The nice thing about doing it here is that it mixes in a little more history about our diverse U.S. Hawks members.  

[Chris McKeon]

Craig, I am Pretty sure that You and I have never met. But I feel as if You like I, have a Love of Free Flight. I mean I felt so free when I Flew My Predator. Words cannot express How strongly I feel when I Flew. I so want to feel a strong Feeling of Freedom again.

LOOKING FORWARD, and UPWARD.

Craig what do You think about the possibility of being able to short - Pack a Predator? I will be seeing John in a Week or Two. You can bet Your Bottom Dollar that When John is here I will be asking John about My being able to Short - Pack My Predator and Throw it on My Back.

[Chris McKeon]

It seems odd to Me. It is strange that I see Sim alterities Between Chess and Flying. When I Play Chess, I have My Pieces on the bord. I observe both My Pieces, and Who I happen to Play a game of chess with. I look at His, or Her Pieces. I Analize both of our Position's on the board. Well, I then decided where to move each Piece so as to accomplish My Game ending Move: Checkmate.

This type of thinking also applies to Flying. I mean when Flying our Hang Gliders, we must be aware of the "RULES" Our Flying up in the Air is governed by Physical realities. How we "FEEL" regarding our Flying has no effect on How well We fly. Bing a Good Pilot is a: "SKILL SET". No being a good Pilot is a Skill Set, not a Feeling.

But all the above while being correct. It does not make how Good I feel when I Fly Far, and I "STICK MY LANDING". I do "FEEL GOOD". Just as when I am able to say those Two Words to Who I have been Playing Chess with. I like saying: "CHECK MATE".

[Craig Muhonen]

You Guys should go to Lichess.org https://lichess.org/.

Thanks Craig. I am sure they have much much better chess support than the U.S. Hawks!!   

I only added minimal support for people who are mostly interested in hang gliding, but would like to dabble with chess as a sideline activity. Anyone really serious about playing chess should use a site like Lichess as Craig has suggested.

On the other hand, anyone just looking for a little diversion here within the U.S. Hawks is welcome to play using the primitive tools available. The nice thing about doing it here is that it mixes in a little more history about our diverse U.S. Hawks members.  

It might be fun to fabricate a US Hawks Chess Board with pieces that "cartoon" replicate Joe and Chriss, and you and all the others, and of course the Pauns are the most important, Ha.

[Craig Muhonen]

It seems odd to Me. It is strange that I see Sim alterities Between Chess and Flying. When I Play Chess, I have My Pieces on the bord. I observe both My Pieces, and Who I happen to Play a game of chess with. I look at His, or Her Pieces. I Analize both of our Position's on the board. Well, I then decided where to move each Piece so as to accomplish My Game ending Move: Checkmate.

This type of thinking also applies to Flying. I mean when Flying our Hang Gliders, we must be aware of the "RULES" Our Flying up in the Air is governed by Physical realities. How we "FEEL" regarding our Flying has no effect on How well We fly. Bing a Good Pilot is a: "SKILL SET". No being a good Pilot is a Skill Set, not a Feeling.

But all the above while being correct. It does not make how Good I feel when I Fly Far, and I "STICK MY LANDING". I do "FEEL GOOD". Just as when I am able to say those Two Words to Who I have been Playing Chess with. I like saying: "CHECK MATE".

And of course, there is only one thing that you have to learn to be a good pilot, and that is. "How not to throw up", or so my father once said to me when he showed me how to fly.

[Chris McKeon]

"SKILLSET REVISITED"

So, Craig, as We all know. Flying is a "Skill Set" that most of us want to improve from Flight to Flight. Here I am Fourteen Years, Eighteen Days from My last Flight. A Flight that concluded with My impacting the Ground harder than I had a rite to. and remain living. I currently truly look forward to the Day that I get to see John Heiney. John will be diving up here to Northern California in a Wek or two. Will I be able to Hold a Glider? Will I be able to do the Launch? I so look forward to the Day that I will have the opportunity to Walk, Jugg, Run a Glider into the Air. Each Day My Speech becomes clearer. Each Day, My Bodies Muscles function better. I am so eager to see f I can still Fly a Glider.

[Bob Kuczewski]

I've installed my own little "Chess Helper" here:

       https://ushawks.org/chess/

As it's name implies, it's only a helper. It has no intelligence at all. It doesn't even know the rules of the game. But it does know how to rotate the board and work with some simple formats for input and output.

For example, if you click on a piece, it will highlight it in pink. If you click on another square, it will move the first piece to the new square. It will then print out a descriptive move like:

      W: K2 to K4

There's a button to "Get Text From Board". That will give you text like this:

rnbqkbnr
pppppppp
--------
--------
----P---
--------
PPPP-PPP
RNBQKBNR

You can copy and paste that text from the program into a post on the US Hawks. It can also go the other way. So you can copy the board text from a US Hawks post and paste it into the program. Then click the "Update Board From Text" button, and that text will update the Board.

You can also get Unicode from the Board which will look like real chess pieces when you paste it like this:

♜♞♝♛♚♝♞♜
♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟
--------
--------
----♙---
--------
♙♙♙♙-♙♙♙
♖♘♗♕♔♗♘♖

You can also get BBCode by clicking the "Get BBCode From Board" button. When pasted into US Hawks, it looks like this:

♜	♞	♝	♛	♚	♝	♞	♜
♟	♟	♟	♟	♟	♟	♟	♟
				♙
♙	♙	♙	♙		♙	♙	♙
♖	♘	♗	♕	♔	♗	♘	♖

You can also get a BBCode version with Algebraic notation with the "Get Algebraic BBCode From Board" button. Here's what that looks like:

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8	♜	♞	♝	♛	♚	♝	♞	♜	8
7	♟	♟	♟	♟	♟	♟	♟	♟	7
6									6
5									5
4					♙				4
3									3
2	♙	♙	♙	♙		♙	♙	♙	2
1	♖	♘	♗	♕	♔	♗	♘	♖	1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

You can also use it to play against yourself pretty easily. Just refresh the page, and make a move as the white player. Click the "Rotate Board" button, and then make a move as the black player. Keep switching back and forth and you can play a full game. It records each move in the little history box, so you can copy and save it for future reference.

It's not rocket science, but it can be especially helpful for posting to the forum. Have fun!

[Bob Kuczewski]

I have updated the program at https://ushawks.org/chess/ and it now shows both the last move and the history of all moves. If you refresh (reload) your browser, it will start a new game.

That program makes it pretty easy to play a game against yourself:

1. Refresh the browser to start a new game
2. Click on the white piece to move and then click on its destination (it will move there)
3. Click the "Rotate Board" button to switch to playing black
4. Click on the black piece to move and then click on its destination (it will move there)
5. Click the "Rotate Board" button to switch to playing white
6. Go to step 2

When you're done, the complete history of your game will be in the far right box on the line where you rotate the board. You can copy that history to paste it into an editor to save it or paste it into a U.S. Hawks post.

At any time, you can use the buttons "Get Text From Board" or "Get Unicode From Board" or "Get BBCode From Board" or "Get Algebraic BBCode From Board" to transcribe the current board position into the large text box where you can then copy and paste it into an editor or a post on the U.S. Hawks.

As an example, this is a series of moves from the "150 chess short games" at Lichess:

W: K2 to K4
B: Q2 to Q3
W: KB1 to QB4
B: QN1 to Q2
W: KN1 to KB3
B: KN2 to KN3
W: KB3 to KN5
B: KN1 to KB3
W: QB4 to KB7    Checkmate!

You can play each of those moves by making each move, rotating the board, and making the next move. That particular sequence leads to this final board position with the black king in checkmate (it's a very short game):

♜		♝	♛	♚	♝		♜
♟	♟	♟	♞	♟	♗		♟
			♟		♞	♟
						♘
				♙
♙	♙	♙	♙		♙	♙	♙
♖	♘	♗	♕	♔			♖

Here's what it looks like on the U.S. Hawks Chess Helper:

Chess_Helper_Short_Game.png (114.68 KiB) Viewed 979 times

[Chris McKeon]

I am not sure which upcoming Weekend that I will be coming down to the Bay Area. My Nece has a Frien named Eric that has a Woodworking Shop. will be taking care of completing a couple of Projects. I want to make a stand so that I can set up My Chess Board. So, stand By More hopefully after I complete My stand, Stand By.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Hi Chris,

You don't need a chess board. Just try playing yourself a few games here:

      https://ushawks.org/chess/

It's as easy as pie! Here's an example:

• Refresh your browser to start a new game.

• You will start out playing white.
• Click on the white king's pawn (K2). The square turns pink.
• Click two spaces ahead (K4). The pawn moves there. (W: K2 to K4)

• Click "Rotate Board". You're now playing black.
• Click on the queen's pawn (Q2). The square turns pink.
• Click one space ahead (Q3). The pawn moves there. (B: Q2 to Q3)

• Click "Rotate Board". You're now playing white.
• Click on the king's bishop (KB1). The square turns pink.
• Click three spaces away diagonally (QB4). The bishop moves there. (W: KB1 to QB4)

• Click "Rotate Board". You're now playing black.
• Click on the queen's knight (QN1). The square turns pink.
• Click on Q2. The knight moves there. (B: QN1 to Q2)

• Click "Rotate Board". You're now playing white.
• Click on the kings's knight (KN1). The square turns pink.
• Click on KB3. The knight moves there. (W: KN1 to KB3)

• Click "Rotate Board". You're now playing black.
• Click on the pawn at KN2. The square turns pink.
• Click one square ahead on KN3. The pawn moves there. (B: KN2 to KN3)

• Click "Rotate Board". You're now playing white.
• Click on the knight at KB3. The square turns pink.
• Click on KN5. The knight moves there. (W: KB3 to KN5)

• Click "Rotate Board". You're now playing black.
• Click on the knight at KN1. The square turns pink.
• Click KB3. The knight moves there. (B: KN1 to KB3)

• Click "Rotate Board". You're now playing white.
• Click on the bishop at QB4. The square turns pink.
• Click on KB7. The bishop moves there and takes the pawn. (W: QB4 to KB7)

• Checkmate!!

When you're done, you can right click on the box with the moves in it, and choose "Select All". Then right click in the box again and choose "Copy". That will copy all of the move history onto the clipboard. Then paste that into your post using right click and "Paste". It should look something like this:

W: K2 to K4
B: Q2 to Q3
W: KB1 to QB4
B: QN1 to Q2
W: KN1 to KB3
B: KN2 to KN3
W: KB3 to KN5
B: KN1 to KB3
W: QB4 to KB7

You have just shared your entire game with the U.S. Hawks. You can also click on the button that says "Get BBCode From Board". That will fill the lower window with a bunch of text that looks like this:

[chessboard][chessrow][chw]♜[/chw][chb] [/chb][chw]♝[/chw][chb]♛[/chb][chw]♚[/chw][chb]♝[/chb][chw] [/chw][chb]♜[/chb][/chessrow][chessrow][chb]♟[/chb][chw]♟[/chw][chb]♟[/chb][chw]♞[/chw][chb]♟[/chb][chw]♗[/chw][chb] [/chb][chw]♟[/chw][/chessrow][chessrow][chw] [/chw][chb] [/chb][chw] [/chw][chb]♟[/chb][chw] [/chw][chb]♞[/chb][chw]♟[/chw][chb] [/chb][/chessrow][chessrow][chb] [/chb][chw] [/chw][chb] [/chb][chw] [/chw][chb] [/chb][chw] [/chw][chb]♘[/chb][chw] [/chw][/chessrow][chessrow][chw] [/chw][chb] [/chb][chw] [/chw][chb] [/chb][chw]♙[/chw][chb] [/chb][chw] [/chw][chb] [/chb][/chessrow][chessrow][chb] [/chb][chw] [/chw][chb] [/chb][chw] [/chw][chb] [/chb][chw] [/chw][chb] [/chb][chw] [/chw][/chessrow][chessrow][chw]♙[/chw][chb]♙[/chb][chw]♙[/chw][chb]♙[/chb][chw] [/chw][chb]♙[/chb][chw]♙[/chw][chb]♙[/chb][/chessrow][chessrow][chb]♖[/chb][chw]♘[/chw][chb]♗[/chb][chw]♕[/chw][chb]♔[/chb][chw] [/chw][chb] [/chb][chw]♖[/chw][/chessrow][/chessboard]

Select and copy all of that stuff (right click, "Select All", right click, "Copy") and paste it into a post (right click, "Paste"). When you submit your post, it will end up looking like this:

♜		♝	♛	♚	♝		♜
♟	♟	♟	♞	♟	♗		♟
			♟		♞	♟
						♘
				♙
♙	♙	♙	♙		♙	♙	♙
♖	♘	♗	♕	♔			♖

That was the final position at the time of the checkmate. Here's an animated GIF of those steps (wait for the "New Game" when it starts again):

Game.gif (922.33 KiB) Viewed 776 times

That animation takes about 2 seconds per frame. There are three frames per move (1: rotate board, 2: select piece to move, 3: move piece to the new position). So the whole game will take about 1 minute to watch. The first frame will start with "New Game", and the last frame will end with "Checkmate". It keeps playing again and again, so if you miss the start, just wait for it to start again. Note that the notation for each move is shown in the middle box below the board. That's helpful for posting your moves.

Please call me if you need any help.        Enjoy!!