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Wondering the best unicode characters to draw a chessboard... particularly the right combination of square and row/col delimiters (if any) to give a readable layout in a terminal window. Here's what I have so far ... somehow this looks really "busy" to me.

enter image description here

Any idea of how to improve it so that the eye can easily follow the movement?

Would like the tags "chess" and "unicode", but unfortunately don't have the rep.

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Is there some reason that you are restricted to outputting this in a terminal? – JohnGB Mar 4 at 19:23
@JohnGB yes -- that's by design; nevertheless, unicode is unicode, right? – g33kz0r Mar 4 at 19:27
Is it possible to change the colour of certain terminal characters? – Jimmy Breck-McKye Mar 4 at 20:17
I'm going to use NCurses after I get the basic structure of the board down, so yes, there can be color applied to a single character or range of characters. I plan on using this color capability to track things like the last move, player turn, etc. – g33kz0r Mar 4 at 20:26
@g33kz0r - then I would experiment by reducing the luminosity of the lines. – Jimmy Breck-McKye Mar 4 at 20:57
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2 Answers

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The guy here has written a python code to generate the chessboard using unicode characters. You may want to use the same characters for the board - they make a full square.

Hope this helps!

Python code to generate unicode chess

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The image in my question was also generated using python :) My question is not "how do I draw a chessboard in unicode" (I've already done that) but rather, "what are the most visually appealing or best looking unicode line characters to draw said board". – g33kz0r Mar 4 at 20:28
yes, I do understand that. My point was that the guy who wrote that code used a different set of unicode characters than yours and they are more visually appealing. Refer to the screenshot attached in the second comment in the link I provided. – user22624 Mar 4 at 22:20
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I don't think you need any unicode characters to draw the board itself.
One of the main characteristics of a chess board is the black & white pattern, right?

You should add that pattern as a background instead of those lines. Especially those vertical lines makes the picture a mess.

enter image description here enter image description here

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The OP wants to do this with a terminal and unicode. How does this apply? – Seth Mar 4 at 21:08
If it's possible to set the background, then it's better to focus on this, than to try to draw those lines. – Jørn E. Angeltveit Mar 4 at 23:22
Is that comic sans? – g33kz0r Mar 5 at 15:27
@g33kz0r Ouch... :-P ... I think it is... Well, those chars/numbers aren't important, though. Is it possible for you to change background color in your terminal solution? – Jørn E. Angeltveit Mar 5 at 18:50
Yes it is possible – g33kz0r Mar 5 at 19:59
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