Instructions

Thanks for checking this out.

Move syntax

The game is played by entering the move coordinates in the form "e2e4" - no dashes, just the coordinates of the start and end of the move. The first and third characters must be a letter from a to h, and the second and forth must be digits from 1 to 8.

Pawn promotion

The one exception to this format is for promoting a pawn. When moving a pawn onto the final row, substitute the last character with a letter symbolizing the piece to be promoted to. For instance, rather than c7c8, enter c7cQ. If the pawn is capturing another piece as it is promoted, it might look like c7bQ or c7dN. You can promote to a Queen (Q) or a Knight (N). Rooks and Bishops are also possible, but there is no point unless a Queen would create stalemate.

Castling

To castle, just enter the move the King needs to make, and the Rook will be moved automatically. Eg. e1g1 or e8c8.

Playing by E-mail

To play by e-mail, just enter one or two e-mail addresses and an e-mail will be sent indicating the latest move, the current position, the move history. You can also enter a comment to be sent if you wish. At the top of the e-mail message there will be a link back to the page that will allow you to make the next move. The entire game history is stored in the URL, so you can bookmark the game and revisit it any time.

Because you will receive an e-mail for each move, it may be a good idea to add filter to your e-mail client to automatically move messages with [EMC] in the subject line to their own folder.

Playing a local game with a friend

This page can also be used to play a game of chess locally. No need to bring a board if you have access to the web! Play with a friend anywhere. Just don't enter any e-mail addresses, and you can just play through a game on a single computer.

Features

EMC presently checks for and forces pieces to move only as they should be able to, eg. knights in an L shape, bishops diagonally, pawns only as they should etc. It only lets you move pieces for the side whose turn it is.

EMC also detects and facilitates en passant captures, castling and pawn promotion. It prevents castling if the king or rook have moved, or if there are still pieces between them.

What's missing

EMC presently does not prevent castling out of, through, or into check, nor does it prevent the player from moving into check or leaving their king in check. Fortunately, if an illegal move has been made inadvertently, it is relatively easy to go back at present by e-mailing the other player and telling them to make a different move. For this reason the last two e-mail updates should be kept so that it is easy to revisit the former position, otherwise the game will have to be stepped back by removing the last 4 characters from the movelist as it is encoded in the page URL.

It does not detect checkmate or stalemate. It will keep playing even when one or both kings have been captured.

Also, I hope the pieces will be replaced with graphics. in the near future, perhaps courtesy of Peter from stingertoons.com.

Privacy policy

No personal data is collected by the site. The e-mail addresses entered are used only for the purpose of sending the move to both players and are not recorded in any way other than in the page URL that is available only to the persons involved in the game. Moves and positions and comments are not recorded either.

The only information I have access to is how many hits this page experiences.