I created the first draft of ChessTask when I started tutoring some of the kids in our local chess club. I wanted to prepare sheets with tasks on them, such that they could do some homework during the week. All I found for LaTeX at that time was the style chess by Piet Tutelaers (CTAN:fonts/chess/chess). It is OK for replaying and commenting complete games but setting up an arbitrary position is not really user-friendly. I needed some sort of graphical interface for editing diagrams more quickly.
Another problem that I tried to solve was the separation between the actual tasks and their solutions. I wanted to edit each single task in a whole but produce output with just the tasks or both, without having to reedit my input.
Up until today, this is how ChessTask mainly works. It manages a list of task ``chunks'', where each entry consists of a diagram, a task and a solution. You give it all the information you have and during the export to a LaTeX file you can specify what you would like to see in the final PDF.
The figure shows the main screen of ChessTask, which is what you will work with most of the time. You have the diagram at the top and can enter a text for the task and, if required, give a solution. Your text is formed as a sequence of these ``task sets''. It's as simple as that.
During the years, a lot of features were introduced that helped me in my work. One of the first things that I added was the output to HTML files. Other output formats and options like the export of whole directories and the special ``ChessCards'' format followed. The import functions offer to read in whole sets of FEN or EPD lines from a file. While converting a single position, ChessTask even recognizes EPD commands like ``am'' (avoid move) and adds an appropriate comment to the text of the task.
For a more complete overview, visit the homepage of ChessTask at http://chesstask.sourceforge.net and read the online manual, please. Even better, try out the program itself and check whether it fits your needs.
Currently, a new version of ChessTask is under development which will support things like:
It will take some months for the next release to appear, so be patient please and take a peek at the homepage and download area from time to time.
Finally, I want to direct your attention to a few packages for typesetting chess with LaTeX:
This excellent package is what ChessTask relies on for creating all the diagrams, informator symbols and move stuff in general. It is a great replacement for the chess style and helps a lot when writing texts about chess. The moves of a game can be input in PGN (Portable Game Notation) and single board positions are set up by FEN (Forsyth Edwards Notation) strings. You can highlight single squares, draw move arrows, hide pieces...the list goes on and on. The latest version 1.4 has been revised by its author Torben Hoffmann and Ulrike Fischer for a better support of different chess fonts in notation text and the diagrams. It is now based on the chessfss package (see below), making it possible to draw boards in any size you like, for example.
Ulrich Dirr took care of the original skak font sources and converted them from METAFONT to Type1. He added a lot of corrections to the figures and informator symbols and the result looks great, as you can see in this article. Highly recommended if you use the latest version of skak.
This package, aiming at writers of chess styles, offers commands to use and switch between chess fonts. It is based on the LaTeX font selection scheme (NFSS) and was written by Ulrike Fischer.
Another nice add-on by Ulrike Fischer for the extended display of board diagrams. Thanks to her effort you can crank the look of your chess boards to eleven by using bended move arrows or exotic pieces like for fairy chess, highlighting squares, colouring the background, colouring the figures, colouring...whatever.
A collection of Type1 fonts, ready for use with the chessfss package. It contains most of the TrueType chess fonts available at http://www.enpassant.dk and was compiled by Ulrike Fischer.
All together, they can be very powerful and offer a lot of options. So if the output of this article convinces you and you plan to write about chess: Try them out today!
