ICC Help: style12

Many old interfaces use style 12, although new ones are encouraged to use style 13 and "level 2 datagrams" instead. Reading this help-file through a style-12 interface may have strange effects.

The data is all on one line, e.g.:

<12> rnbqkb-r pppppppp -----n-- -------- ----P--- -------- PPPPKPPP RNBQ-BNR B -1 0 0 1 1 0 7 Quimbee Darooha 1 2 12 39 39 119 122 2 K/e1-e2 (0:06) Ke2 0

This always begins on a new line, and there are always exactly 31 non-empty fields separated by blanks. They are:

* The string "<12>" to identify this line. * Eight fields of eight characters each, representing the board position. The first 8-character field is rank 8, then rank 7, etc, regardless of whose move it is. * Color whose turn it is to move ("B" or "W") * -1 if the previous move was NOT a double pawn push, otherwise the file (numbered 0--7 for a--h) in which the double push was made * can white still castle short? (0=no, 1=yes) * can white still castle long? * can black still castle short? * can black still castle long? * the number of moves made since the last irreversible move. (0 if last move was irreversible. If this is >= 100, the game can be declared a draw due to the 50 move rule.) * The game number * White's name * Black's name * my relation to this game: -3 isolated position, as in "ref 3" or sposition -2 observing examined game 2 the examiner of this game -1 I am playing, it's the opponent's move 1 I am playing and it's my move 0 observing played game * initial time (in minutes) of the match * increment (in seconds) of the match * white strength * black strength * white's remaining time * black's remaining time * the number of the move about to be made (standard chess numbering -- White's and Black's first moves are both 1, etc.) * verbose coordinate notation for the previous move ("none" if there were none) [note this used to be broken for examined games] * time taken to make previous move "(min:sec)". * pretty notation for the previous move ("none" if there is none) * flip field for board orientation: 1 = black down, 0 = white down.

New fields may be added to the end in the future, so programs should parse from left to right.

When showing positions from wild-24 (bughouse) or wild-23 (crazyhouse) games, a second line showing piece holding is given, with "<b1>" at the beginning, e.g.

<b1> game 6 white [PNBBB] black [PNB]

See also: programmers, interfaces, style