Apps
Knights

Board

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19
Score 81%
Description:

Knights is a simple chess board for KDE 4. It is a rewrite of the KDE3 Knights.

Its home page with regular updates is at http://noughmad.com/knights.

You can play againts computer engines that support the XBoard protocol (like GnuChess), against anouther player at the same computer, or on the Free Internet Chess Server. It has automatic rule checking and some nice animations.

For compiling, you need KDE as well as libkdegames headers, which are usually found in libkdegames-dev or libkdegames-devel packages.

Packages can be downloaded form build.opensuse.com, however try to use your distribution's version when possible. In any case, please report any problems, bugs, and wishes to bugs.kde.org (product knights).

The source archive includes a README.themes file with info for creating and sharing new themes for Knights. They can be uploaded to kde-look.org, and downloaded directly from Knights.

Due to a recent break of compatibility in KDEGames, versions from 2.5 onward require KDE 4.9 or newer. User of older KDE version should use the 2.4 branch.
Last changelog:

8 years ago

Version 2.5.0: Port to new KDEGames library, compatible with KDE 4.9

Version 2.4.2: A handful of usability fixes

Version 2.4.1 introduces support for the UCI protocol, setting the difficulty level of chess engines, game history display, and loading and saving PGN files.

Version 2.4.0 brings voice support, possibility of external control by dbus, and a couple of bug fixes.

Version 2.3.2 is a bugfix release with several fixes, mostly by Dave Kaye. It fixes drag-coused freezes, dropping pieces outside of the board, and a theme appearing twice in the selection dialog.

Version 2.3.1 fixed exactly one bug; the peace captured by en-passant is now properly removed.

The changelog since the last stable release (2.2.0) includes:

- Watching two engines play
- Improved time control support for chess engines
- Better support for the XBoard protocol means Knights can play with more engines, including Crafty, Sloppy, Sjeng and Phalanx.
- Players can now make and receive offer for draw, pause, undo, adjourn and abort. All except Draw are only used when playing on the chess server.
- Players can now undo their moves.
Improved game dialog, with more game options.
- Improved server dialog, with a seek graph.
- Ability to interact with a chess server or a computer engine via a text console.
- Simple chat widget for talking to your remote opponent.
- Selecting and moving pieces by clicking, without dragging.

97 comments
 Comments

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ThAnderson

2 years ago

Any chance of a port to KDE Frameworks 5?

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snakebite

2 years ago

Yes please!!

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Meteorrock

4 years ago

Are you still developing this software? Just wondering if clocks can be added. Thanks.

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Meteorrock

5 years ago

Thanks for your reply. Let me take another look. Thank you, that does help.

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Meteorrock

5 years ago

I got that theme of mine up up in the KDE knights theme section. Its still not applying through the theme option for that app. I can not figure it out. Could you take a look over my theme and .desktop settings here at this link? I saved it as stated in the help theme read me file I found in your app. Used UTF-8 setting in gedit. I must be missing something. Here is the link. http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Fritz+look?content=157848

I went over your other themes and took a look over them on the .desktop configuration files, still not applying in your app. Any help would be appreciated. Did my theme in inkscape as an .svg. Thank you.

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C

Noughmad

5 years ago

Hello!

I can see you figured most of the things out, and thank you for the theme. Yes, Knights uses a libkdegames, which needs a slightly different format (.desktop file and SVG) than the KDE3 version on SourceForge.

I just tried installing you theme, and while it can be installed from Settings => Theme, it is not detected after installing. I checked it, and there are actually multiple things wrong with the theme (or with the program, whichever way you see it, they're mostly limitations of the kdegames library).

- files in archive are in a folder (Fritz_look_alike). This way the program can't find them, put them directly in the archive as top-level items.
- the .desktop file is missing a [KGameTheme] line at the top
- I see you included a separate .svg for each piece. No need to do that. Instead, have them all in one top-level svg (as you already do). However, the pieces in this file should be labeled. In Inkscape, this can be done by right click => Object Properties => Id. Set the object Id's to BlackTile, WhiteBishop etc.

You also have some files that are not needed in the archive (two hidden lock files, README and themes.conf). Nothing wrong with that, except taking up space. To avoid adding hidden files (and fix the first problem), select files for compression individually.

Once again, thank you for your work on the theme. If you have any more problems, please email me (miha@noughmad.eu) instead of posting here. You can also find me in #kde and #kde-devel channels as Noughmad.

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Meteorrock

5 years ago

That readme for your themes is not working in the apt-get for the knights chess game. Its not found in the .desktop hidden folder here on my KDE desktop for ubuntu. I uploaded one theme for this game and its not working here on the KDE website. My config file was added to the .tar gz as stated in your readme theme file.

I will sidedownload one of the apps here in a few days and see if it will work.

Did a <sudo find /.desktop> in the terminal, it did not find it.

Please input below the directory for the themes on this game so I can find it on my machine. Thanks.

Its also not in the usr/share/themes directory either.

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Meteorrock

5 years ago

Nevermind. I found you need to convert the images to svg. I looked over one of your other themes. I will try to change that one theme I uploaded here in a couple of days and correct that tarball.

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Meteorrock

5 years ago

hi I am trying to load different themes for this knights chess game and I get a, configuration file not found: "knights.knsrc".

Also could you upload all of the themes from sourceforge.net for this game? I am interested in the fritz gaming theme for this fine chess game. Here is the link for those other themes from sourceforge.net. http://sourceforge.net/projects/knights/files/knights-themepack/

Thank you.

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Evropi

5 years ago

Another open source game by the name of Knights already exists, based on the GPL'd source code and CC'd art.

The game is highly innovative and inspired by roguelikes and (possibly) Gauntlet. However, there are no immediate comparisons. And hey, it's a great game. You can find it at:
http://www.knightsgame.org.uk/

So, uhh, would you mind changing the name for your project?

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C

Noughmad

5 years ago

Hello!

I'm sorry for not noticing this earlier, I don't read this site regularly, pleas send me an e-mail (miha@noughmad.eu) for such issues.

Now, I really would mind changing the name. My program is inspired by Knights for KDE3 (http://knights.sourceforge.net/) which was a popular game that I enjoyed. Of course, if you feel strongly about this, I could change it. But please send me a private email so we can discuss the details.

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kjetilk

6 years ago

No package for openSUSE 12.2? :-(
I updated to KDE 4.9 and Knights was removed. I found out why when I checked the available software. Do you know why it hasn't been included in the Extras repository, not even with the recent 4.9.2 update?

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C

Noughmad

6 years ago

The problem is that KDE games library broke compatibility with 4.9, hence two different versions of Knights. I think the majority of users are still on older versions of KDE, so I kept the packages for the <4.9 version.

I don't use openSUSE, but if you want to have Knights included in their repositories, try writing to their maintainers.

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Contrast

6 years ago

Ubuntu packages: https://launchpad.net/~mikevaughn/+archive/omnilinux

(Requires KDE 4.9)

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johu

6 years ago

Can you please release a KDE 4.9 compatible version?

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C

Noughmad

6 years ago

Done. Better late than never :)

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johu

6 years ago

Thanks. Good job.

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tobaj

6 years ago

Trying to build from clean, freshly cloned source (last commit: f1d3153 Improve notation for castling moves). I'm getting the following error:

[ 72%] Building CXX object src/CMakeFiles/knights.dir/gamedialog.o
/<patch-to-knights-src>/src/rules/chessrules.cpp: In member function ‘virtual void Knights::ChessRules::checkSpecialFlags(Knights::Move*, Knights::Color)’:
/<patch-to-knights-src>/src/rules/chessrules.cpp:444:9: error: expected ‘;’ before ‘qt_noop’
[ 74%] Building CXX object src/CMakeFiles/knights.dir/offerwidget.o
make[2]: *** [src/CMakeFiles/knights.dir/rules/chessrules.o] Error

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tobaj

6 years ago

I've just pulled fresh commits and now Knights builds OK. Thanks!

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snakebite

7 years ago

I made a new package for knights for arch users (here: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=52811 ) thanks for your awesome work!

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C

Noughmad

7 years ago

Thanks!

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chomp

7 years ago

When I try to compile I get:

make[2]: *** No rule to make target `/usr/lib/libkdegames.so', needed by `src/knights'. Stop.
make[1]: *** [src/CMakeFiles/knights.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [all] Error 2

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C

Noughmad

7 years ago

This happens with a clean buld? I sometimes get such errors (with other programs) and they are resolved by removing the build directory and trying again.

Alternatively, it's possible there's a problem with your libkdegames install. Did you remove the library but still have a CMake file pointing to it?

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defilers

7 years ago

I have stockfish and crafty installed. But unfortunately they don't work. Will be great if we can play against other engines and even better if we can watch engine battle in tournament like in arena.

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C

Noughmad

7 years ago

Stockfish doesn't support the XBoard interface, but Crafty should work, and I have tested with it.

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8 years ago

Version 2.5.0: Port to new KDEGames library, compatible with KDE 4.9

Version 2.4.2: A handful of usability fixes

Version 2.4.1 introduces support for the UCI protocol, setting the difficulty level of chess engines, game history display, and loading and saving PGN files.

Version 2.4.0 brings voice support, possibility of external control by dbus, and a couple of bug fixes.

Version 2.3.2 is a bugfix release with several fixes, mostly by Dave Kaye. It fixes drag-coused freezes, dropping pieces outside of the board, and a theme appearing twice in the selection dialog.

Version 2.3.1 fixed exactly one bug; the peace captured by en-passant is now properly removed.

The changelog since the last stable release (2.2.0) includes:

- Watching two engines play
- Improved time control support for chess engines
- Better support for the XBoard protocol means Knights can play with more engines, including Crafty, Sloppy, Sjeng and Phalanx.
- Players can now make and receive offer for draw, pause, undo, adjourn and abort. All except Draw are only used when playing on the chess server.
- Players can now undo their moves.
Improved game dialog, with more game options.
- Improved server dialog, with a seek graph.
- Ability to interact with a chess server or a computer engine via a text console.
- Simple chat widget for talking to your remote opponent.
- Selecting and moving pieces by clicking, without dragging.

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