LiGround (GUI)

[Guenther]

https://github.com/ml-research/liground

A free, open-source and modern Chess Variant Analysis GUI for the 21st century

Just found this when doing research for other things.
I haven't tested it nor compiled/downloaded and I don't even know if it 'just' for variants.

Yet I thought this might be interesting at least for some.

Code: Select all

Projects that influenced the creation of LiGround:
Project 		Description

tinyChessServer 	An xboard server for playing bughouse games via websockets
lichess.org/analysis 	The forever free, adless and open source chess server
vue-chessboard 		Chessboard vue component to load positions, create positions and see threats
cutechess 		A graphical user interface, command-line interface and a library for playing chess.
XBoard / WinBoard 	A graphical user interface for chess in all its major forms.
Nibbler 		Leela Chess Zero (Lc0) interface.
chess.js 		A Javascript chess library for chess move generation/validation, piece placement/movement, and check/checkmate/draw detection

[Carlos777]

Nice tool for analysis. I already tested it with crazyhouse variant and looks great. Only detail is that has problems reading WB's pgn format, only reads some moves, meanwhile it has no problems with cutechess' pgn format.

Winboard:

[Event "Computer Chess Game"]
[Site "DESKTOP"]
[Date "2021.02.22"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Tscp crazyhouse 1.1"]
[Black "Pulsar 2009-9b"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "600+2"]
[Variant "crazyhouse"]
[Annotator "1. +0.22 1... -0.38"]

1. e4 {+0.22/8} Nc6 {-0.38/7 25} 2. Nf3 {+0.33/7 21} d5 {-0.17/7 31} 3.
exd5 {+0.47/7 20} Qxd5 {-0.12/7 27} 4. Nc3 {+0.48/6 20} Qe6+ {+0.04/6 28}
5. Be2 {+0.60/6 19} Qg4 {-0.53/6 27} 6. P@d5 {+0.72/6 18} Nb4 {-0.19/6 19}
7. a3 {+0.84/6 18} P@d4 {-1.29/6 24} 8. axb4 {+1.04/7 17} dxc3 {-2.06/6 23}
9. dxc3 {+1.04/6 17} Qxg2 {-2.05/5 17} 10. Rg1 {+1.29/5 16} Qh3
{-3.45/5 20} 11. P@e6 {+1.93/5 16} N@g2+ {-2.21/5 15} 12. Rxg2 {+3.14/7 15}
Qxg2 {-3.38/6 15} 13. exf7+ {+3.14/5 15} Kd8 {-4.25/6 19} 14. fxg8=Q
{+3.84/5 15} Rxg8 {-4.87/5 19} 15. P@e6 {+10.35/5 14} P@e4 {-4.09/5 16} 16.
N@c6+ {+6.88/5 14} bxc6 {-2.23/5 12} 17. dxc6+ {+99.87/5 8} P@d2+
{-4.53/5 15} 18. Qxd2+ {+99.89/5 2.0} N@d3+ {-19.32/5 13} 19. Qxd3+
{+99.91/5 0.4} R@d6 {-149.96/6 15} 20. N@f7+ {+99.93/4 0.2} Ke8
{-149.97/5 11} 21. P@d7+ {+99.95/3 0.1} Bxd7 {-149.98/5 13} 22. cxd7+
{+99.97/2 0.1} Rxd7 {-149.99/5 10} 23. Qxd7# {+99.99/1 0.1}
{Xboard adjudication: Checkmate} 1-0

Cutechess:

[Event "My Tournament"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2021.02.18"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Fairy Stockfish 10x10 11.2"]
[Black "TJchess 1.3"]
[Result "1-0"]
[GameDuration "00:01:21"]
[GameEndTime "2021-02-18T03:57:20.773 Hora est. Pacífico, Sudamérica"]
[GameStartTime "2021-02-18T03:55:59.704 Hora est. Pacífico, Sudamérica"]
[PlyCount "45"]
[TimeControl "60+0.5"]
[Variant "crazyhouse"]

1. e4 {+1.33/16 2.5s} Nc6 {-0.03/11 1.0s} 2. d4 {+2.23/13 0.42s}
d5 {+0.01/11 1.0s} 3. e5 {+0.83/15 1.9s} Bf5 {-0.08/10 0.80s}
4. Bb5 {+1.50/16 1.8s} a6 {-0.11/10 1.2s} 5. Bxc6+ {+2.73/16 0.66s}
bxc6 {-0.20/10 0.65s} 6. Nc3 {+3.20/15 1.4s} e6 {-0.22/9 1.1s}
7. Nf3 {+3.00/17 7.5s} B@h5 {-0.24/9 1.2s} 8. O-O {+2.20/16 3.2s}
Bxf3 {+0.13/10 1.3s} 9. Qxf3 {+5.92/14 0.81s} Bxc2 {+0.59/9 2.1s}
10. Bg5 {+9.18/16 3.2s} Qxg5 {+1.02/9 3.1s} 11. B@d7+ {+10.56/16 1.2s}
Ke7 {+0.56/9 2.3s} 12. Bxc6 {+20.95/14 0.90s} B@g4 {-0.13/8 3.7s}
13. P@d6+ {+21.88/17 5.2s} cxd6 {-1.06/9 3.6s} 14. exd6+ {+25.22/15 0.51s}
Kxd6 {-0.43/9 5.5s} 15. Qxf7 {+28.33/14 1.0s} Kxc6 {-1.12/8 1.4s}
16. P@b7 {+39.86/15 1.4s} N@f3+ {-3.35/8 3.0s} 17. Kh1 {+50.34/13 1.3s}
Rb8 {-10.25/8 4.3s} 18. P@c7 {+56.52/12 1.2s} P@e7 {-M10/7 2.1s}
19. cxb8=Q {+M9/23 0.76s} B@d6 {-M8/7 2.8s} 20. Qc8+ {+M7/25 0.78s}
Kb6 {-M6/6 0.037s} 21. b8=Q+ {+M5/42 0.82s} Bxb8 {-M4/5 0.18s}
22. R@b7+ {+M3/245 0.12s} Ka5 {-M2/4 0.002s}
23. b4# {+M1/245 0.063s, White mates} 1-0

Not sure why, they look the same to me.

[Nordlandia]

Many thanks for thread.

[supersharp77]

https://github.com/ml-research/liground

A free, open-source and modern Chess Variant Analysis GUI for the 21st century

Just found this when doing research for other things.
I haven't tested it nor compiled/downloaded and I don't even know if it 'just' for variants.

Yet I thought this might be interesting at least for some.

Code: Select all

Projects that influenced the creation of LiGround:
Project 		Description

tinyChessServer 	An xboard server for playing bughouse games via websockets
lichess.org/analysis 	The forever free, adless and open source chess server
vue-chessboard 		Chessboard vue component to load positions, create positions and see threats
cutechess 		A graphical user interface, command-line interface and a library for playing chess.
XBoard / WinBoard 	A graphical user interface for chess in all its major forms.
Nibbler 		Leela Chess Zero (Lc0) interface.
chess.js 		A Javascript chess library for chess move generation/validation, piece placement/movement, and check/checkmate/draw detection

Looks interesting....wonder does it play standard chess? Downloaded....

[supersharp77]

When I open a pgn file the GUI only loads part of the moves (around 15-18 or so ) You can't use your own engine only Fairy Stockfish 10 and Crazy w engine (crazyhouse?) Nice chess pieces and some board variety...file seems to be a portable version...(no additional files or folders created) here is the weirdest thing....looked at the task mgr and it said program was using around 469 MB (around 1/2 Gig) and that was before I started the SF analysis engine!...No hash adjustments can be made it seems...It is interesting though..lots of analysis arrows pointing this way or that way....if only the bugs can be ironed out...

[IQ_QI]

Hello,
great to see that you already found LiGround.
I am happy to announce that release LiGround 0.2.0 is now available:

• https://github.com/ml-research/liground ... /tag/0.2.0

Changelog

• New UCI engines can be imported.

• UCI options can be edited and are saved.

• The GUI state including chosen variant, board style, and main settings are recovered by restart.

• A dark theme has been added, accompanied by a major CSS overhaul.

• Move and capture sounds have been added.

• Alternative move lines can be created, removed or promoted to mainline.

• You can now generate a game evaluation graph for a given search depth using the current active engine.

• An interactive command-line has been added where you can issue custom commands and see the direct output of the loaded engine.

• The Atomic variant is now available.

Multi-Variant and Fairy Stockfish are available as default engines.
However, you can also add GPU based engines such as Lc0 for chess or CrazyAra 0.8.0 for crazyhouse, as long as they use the UCI protocol.
Some functionality such as MultiPV is still missing in CrazyAra 0.8.0. This and some other features will be added in the upcoming release.

LiGround is an electron Web-GUI (AGPL-3.0 License) which makes use of ffish.js (https://www.npmjs.com/package/ffish) as its main back-end library. The name "LiGround" originates from its other main components which are Lichess assets as well as ChessgroundX. I implemented the initial prototype of LiGround 0.0.1 and supervised a group of five B.Sc. students (Zerthox, BododB, ptrmdr, bingobongomann, MartinRuz) who have been working on it over the course of the last semester.

If you are interested in trying the GUI out, you can provide feedback for future development in our user study:

• https://forms.gle/zxDK2fSyt2W6MtkX7

The user study will be available until 28th of March (Sunday).

If you are motivated to improve or extend LiGround, feel free to submit a PR.
Some functionality that is still missing, is exporting PGN files, displaying board coordinates or a mode where the user can play against the engine.

• https://github.com/ml-research/liground ... is%3Aissue

We hope that you enjoy using LiGround!

[Krzysztof Grzelak]

I sincerely apologize that I ask. I understand that only you can carry out game analysis and nothing else. You cannot play games between chess engines.

[IQ_QI]

Hello Krzysztof Grzelak, yes you are correct. Running engine tournaments is not available yet in LiGround.
The main motivation for creating LiGround was first to offer an analysis GUI for different chess variants, including all variants on Lichess as well as Shogi, Xiangqi, Janggi and Makruk.
There already exist some excellent tournament manager like CuteChess (https://github.com/cutechess/cutechess) which support chess variants.

[Krzysztof Grzelak]

Hello Krzysztof Grzelak, yes you are correct. Running engine tournaments is not available yet in LiGround.
The main motivation for creating LiGround was first to offer an analysis GUI for different chess variants, including all variants on Lichess as well as Shogi, Xiangqi, Janggi and Makruk.
There already exist some excellent tournament manager like CuteChess (https://github.com/cutechess/cutechess) which support chess variants.

Great pity, because the applications is very nice.

[Steppenwolf]

Hallo Johannes,

Thanks for your nice application!!!
I See there is an enormous potential in it, despite the fact that it is platform independent.
As an macOS user there is no such an intuitive Chess GUI which took such an rapid development as LiGround.
If you can add some more advanced features that would be great:

-possibility to run simultanously two or more engines at the same time to compare their output
-engine tournaments
-database options like in Chessbase or Hiarcs Chess Explorer or ChessX
-possibilty to open opening tress (chessbase format)
-possibility to open database (chessbase format)

Thanks in advance and please keep going on with your nice GUI! -:)

Sven