A PGN interface that shows en passant?

[smrf]

As you might have seen in the picture, SMIRF is signaling available castling potentials by little black dots near involved pieces.

P.S.: this feature is very helpful especially when playing Random Chess variants, where King and Rooks will be placed at unusual places.

[Norm Pollock]

As you might have seen in the picture, SMIRF is signaling available castling potentials by little black dots near involved pieces.

P.S.: this feature is very helpful especially when playing Random Chess variants, where King and Rooks will be placed at unusual places.

Those little black dots are outside the playing board. Above (or below) the 2 Kings and 4 Rooks as long as castling rights exist. However they do not tell us if castling is an available choice for the next move. The user has to check out availability of castling. From a practical point of view, it is less obtrusive than a symbol in a vacant square.

So, bottom line, I'm OK with the "ep" and "castling" notations used by "SMIRF". It is a major improvement on what is currently available in popular Chess GUIs.

[hgm]

What I am curious about is whether there are any other people than you that would think this an improvement. Personally I would never want to use an interface that does this.

[Norm Pollock]

What I am curious about is whether there are any other people than you that would think this an improvement. Personally I would never want to use an interface that does this.

Any GUI implementation should have options to turn "ep" availability on/off, and to turn "castling" availability on/off. "off" could be the default.

I think once people become familiar with it, it will be desirable. But there is a learning curve, and it is change from the status quo.

[hgm]

Oh, sure, I would never do such a thing without the possibility to turn it off. But even the, it would be good to know if there is any demand for it.

[Mithu]

It does seem a novel feature. I am not sure if its productive or counter-productive and if it has any significant purpose for a typical chess player. HOWEVER it does seem worthwhile to have it as an option. Let the user/player decide, if it is not too very hard to implement in the Winboard GUI, that is.