So, if I had a working brain 1 week ago (at least), I would write a small python program that would eat that PGN and make it into a nicely formatted skaknew TeX formatted file!

Here is that much wanted program, that took just 5 minutes to write:

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#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
#
# vim:syntax=python:sw=4:ts=4:expandtab
import sys,re
 
HEADER="""\
\\documentclass[10pt,twocolumn]{article}
 
\\usepackage[skaknew]{chessboard,skak}
%\\usepackage[ps]{skak}
\\usepackage{latexsym}
\\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\\font\\logo=logo10
\\font\\sknf=SkakNew-Figurine
\\font\\sknfbx=SkakNew-FigurineBold
\\font\\skndia=SkakNew-DiagramT
\\def\\Metafont{\\mbox{\\logo METAFONT}}
 
\\usepackage{a4wide}
%\\usepackage{geometry} % to change the page dimensions
%\\geometry{a4paper}
%%\\geometry{margin=5in}
%\\geometry{portrait}
 
\\usepackage{fancyhdr} % This should be set AFTER setting up the page geometry
\\pagestyle{fancy} % options: empty , plain , fancy
\\renewcommand{\\headrulewidth}{0pt} % customise the layout...
\\lhead{}\\chead{}\\rhead{}
\\lfoot{}\\cfoot{\\thepage}\\rfoot{}
 
\\frenchspacing
\\begin{document}
"""
 
TEMPLATE="""\
\\chessboard[
   setfen=%s,
   ]
 
"""
 
END_DOC = "\\end{document}"
 
def main():
    pre = sys.argv[1].split('.',2)[0]
    output_file = open("%s-out.tex" % pre,'w')
 
    # First, write the header
    output_file.write(HEADER)
 
    expr = re.compile('^\[FEN "([^"]+)"\]')
    for line in open(sys.argv[1]).xreadlines():
        result = expr.search(line)
        if result:
            output_file.write(TEMPLATE % result.group(1))
 
    output_file.write(END_DOC)
    output_file.close()
 
if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

And the best of all, is that I have now full control in its output (well, in my light LaTeX’s knowledge limits). So now I can add a marker to tell which turn it is (little colored square box next to each game). You wll still get 196 pages, that is 1171 mate in one diagrams to solve.

So, to summarize, here are the files:

• The generated PDF
• The intermediate file, in TeX format
• The original file, in PGN format

And the only way I had for converting from PGN to TeX was through Scid (still cool, still being developed), but supporting only exports to TeX with chess12 module. Fortunately, Dirk Baechle wrote a tool to convert directly from PGN format to TeX, using his tool pgn2ltx. That tool, written in C++ hasn’t been updated since 2003, so after a small patch to the source, it worked!

And the best part, is that it generates TeX files for the skak module, the best alternative to the old, dead chess12 module.

So, if you wan to generate yourself the PDF, here is my procedure:

• First, download the pgn2ltx zip file and uncompress it
• Patch it with the following diff file:

<div id="_mcePaste">--- pgn2ltx.cpp.ori	2010-12-27 21:06:56.000000000 +0100</div>
<div id="_mcePaste">+++ pgn2ltx.cpp	2010-12-27 21:07:10.000000000 +0100</div>
<div id="_mcePaste">@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@</div>
<div id="_mcePaste">/*------------------------------------------------------------- Includes */</div>
<div id="_mcePaste">#include <iostream></div>
<div id="_mcePaste">+#include <cstring></div>
<div id="_mcePaste">#include <string></div>
<div id="_mcePaste">#include <fstream></div>
<div id="_mcePaste">#include <sstream></div>

./pgn2ltx  < mate_in_one.pgn  > temp.tex

Now, if you generate your PDF file with that temp.tex file, you’ll get just one diagram per page, and horrible text placement, so I modified the header to remove the useless text and also remove the answers. That makes space for 6 diagrams on each page.

I used this grep command to remove the text:

cat temp.tex |grep -v "White to Move and Mate in One" |grep -v mate | grep -v mainline > temp2.tex

Replace the header with the following :

\documentclass[10pt,twocolumn]{article}
 
\usepackage[ps]{skak}
 
\usepackage{latexsym}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}\usepackage{a4wide}
\usepackage{fancyhdr} % This should be set AFTER setting up the page geometry
\pagestyle{fancy} % options: empty , plain , fancy
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt} % customise the layout...
\lhead{}\chead{}\rhead{}
\lfoot{}\cfoot{\thepage}\rfoot{}

Here is the result, 196 pages of mate in one! (here is the .tex file, if someone is interested)

Note: There are two problems left.

• First is that when generating the PDF, I get a lot of “Underfull \vbox (badness 10000) has occurred while \output is active“. If a LaTeX expert can take a look…
• Second problem, I just noticed that some diagrams have the Black mate in one. I thought there were only White mate in one. So there is no way to know whose turn it is. A solution to this is to use a small coloredbox with the side to play. I think the skak module supports it. Some reading in perspective…

In my journey to teach chess to Ido, an easy (I thought) job was to generate diagrams where he has to find mate in a fixed number of turns. Starting with mate in one.
It appeared that making diagrams is an easy task, as there are many programs (Linux and Windows) that permit this.
On Linux, the best I could find is scid. That’s cool as I use it to maintain my databases of games. Even cooler, is that scid development has just restarted (stopped around 2004!), with the help of Pascal Georges. Using scid (I’m using the 3.7devel2009 version) I can export games to HTML or even to LaTeX files.

At first I thought I’d create the endings myself, for example, using online diagrams generators or using Wikipedia/MediaWiki’s templates, but it was not so easy, so I thought about making a program to generate them.
Generating one from scratch would take me time I really don’t have, and there are just two python modules that give high-level functions to chess.
So I started looking for projects similar to mine, that include games with mate in one. I found a small database of mate in one on my favorite chess website, in the download section: a Chessbase datafile with 1171 mate in one studies! So cool.

Well, It was really a pain to convert that Chessbase (.cbv) file, as the only program able to convert to PGN is running on Windows (at least it’s free). You just have to follow the instructions from this thread.
After getting a nice PGN file, just open it with scid, go to “Tools”, then select “Write the filter”, and choose LaTeX. You’ll get a TeX file. Use you favorite TeX generator (Live TeX seems to be the one today), like this for example, to generate directly a PDF file:

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cat mat_temp.tex |grep -v "\\\\$" > mate_in_one.tex
latex --output-format=pdf mate_in_one.tex

(Yes I had to cleanup a bit the file before generating the .pdf)

The result is here, 196 pages of tests (6 one each page) if you don’t want to fight with the missing TeX modules (you’ll need chess12.sty) and get a nice result.

I’m sure many people search for this kind of file, so I’m pretty happy to help other parents/coaches.

White mate in one

Edit: I added a PDF version without the solution included.

Here are some ideas (some not yet implemented):

• Using a DIY plastified chess board, allows me to show/play different positions really fast, anywhere.
• Colorize squares where a piece is allowed to go :
  

  

• Pawn race games (no en-passant rule yet).
• Really small games (must not go over 5 minutes) with reduced chess set (for example Queen and 3 pawns vs Knight, bishop and 3 pawns).
• Checkmate in one, using DiagTransfer program to draw series of chess diagrams. This program works only on Windows, but it works fine with Wine.
  

  

  For quick single diagrams, I found wbeditor, an online javascript diagram generator.

There’s a thread (french) about experience from different teachers, giving really good advices.
Most notably, Véronique Houck who has 15 years of experience of teaching chess to kindergarten/maternelle children. She wrote two books (in french). One is named Bibou & le monde des échecs, and the other one Le jeu d’échecs au cycle2. It’s not so easy to find, but using Google, you can find shows many links.

I’ve not yet read them. I’ll make a review when I get them.