Inspiration
Blindfold chess is a form of chess play wherein the players do not see the positions of the pieces and do not touch them. This forces players to maintain a mental model of the positions of the pieces. It is liked and played by many people as it helps to improve visualization and calculation. There are no good online platforms to play it. So we decided to create one that is easy to use for all including visually impaired people.
What it does
Enables to play blindfold chess in real time with other people and/or friends online without the need for login and register. In a few clicks one can start playing the game. Players play by entering their moves in standard chess game notation. Players have the option to see all the moves made till now and board at any time during play if they forget how the position is at present. If a player is unfamiliar with writing move notation, they can chose to see all the possible moves (notation) in the given position and make a move accordingly.
How we built it
We used React JS for the hack. There is no backend server involved for establishing online play. Instead we used P2P connections using WebTorrent WebSocket Trackers as the signalling server to send and receive user interactions and handle game logic accordingly.
Challenges we ran into
- Getting the P2P connection to work
- Integrating Stockfish Chess Engine for play against computer
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
- Setting up P2P connection
What I learned
- React Hooks
What's next for Blindfold Chess
- Adding voice support
- Improving usability for visually impaired people
- More features like timer, download games in pgn format, etc.
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