Darkstar Chess

The goal of this fourth assignment in the sequence of five is to set up an online server for playing chess using the Darkstar framework. The client side of this assignment will also be used as your entry into the Darkstar-mediated computer chess tournament on the last day of class.

Here's instructions for how to get started working on this assignment:

• Download and unzip the Server and Client Binaries from the Downloads tab at the Darkstar site.

• Follow the instructions in the README file in the second level server folder (at the same level as the tutorial folder) to copy:
  • The following files to the server lib folder: mina-core-1.1.jar, slf4j-api-1.4.0.jar, slf4j-jdk14-1.4.0.jar.
  • The following file to the server lib/bdb folder: db.jar.
  • The appropriate bdb native directory, e.g., win32-x86, to the server lib/bdb folder.

• Open ServerAppTutorial.pdf in the tutorial folder of the server download and skim through the first 10 pages.

• Carefully study and execute all of Lesson 1 (Hello World!) of the server tutorial.

  Note: Make sure you put the directory containing sgs.bat on your exec PATH.

• Carefully study and execute all of Lesson 5 (Hello User!) of the server tutorial.

• Open ClientTutorial.pdf in the tutorial folder of the client download and carefully study and execute all of Lesson 1 (HelloUserClient).

• If you are developing your homework in Eclipse:
  • Add the following jar files in the lib folders of the server and client downloads to your project Build Path > Add External Archives (no duplicates required): sgs.jar, db.jar, sgs-client.jar, mina-core-1.1.jar, slf4j-api-1.4.0.jar, slf4j-jdk14-1.4.0.jar.

  • Open the Libraries entry for db.jar, select Native library location > Edit > External Folder, and browse to and select the appropriate subdirectory of bdb-4.5.20 (in server download) for your platform, e.g., win32-x86.

  • Create an empty directory named 'dsdb' at toplevel in your project directory. This is where the data will be stored for your chess server whenever you start it from inside Eclipse. You will need to delete its contents every time you want a fresh run of the server.

  • To run your server code from inside Eclipse, run the class com.sun.sgs.impl.kernel.Kernel as an Application with the following as the Program arguments:

    turnin/darkstar.properties

    Note: Don't forget to create the darkstar.properties file as per turn-in instructions below!

As an aid to development, we are providing the following two small Java class definitions for you to download. Both of these are initially defined in the unnamed package. Feel free to edit them as needed to integrate them into your code.

• The class ChessProtocol defines the communication protocol to be used between the chess client and server. This will make it possible for all of your assignments to communicate in the tournament. Following a common Java convention, the main method of this class is a test program which illustrates how the class is intended to be used.

• The class InOrderTree defines an abstract class for performing a depth-first ordered tree search without exceeding the time limit for Darkstar tasks (threads). It should be straightforward to implement your minimax search as an extension of this class.

• Copy the following files to your turnin directory: sgs-client.jar, mina-core-1.1.jar, slf4j-api-1.4.0.jar, slf4j-jdk14-1.4.0.jar

• Add 'sgs-client.jar' as shown below to the Class-Path declaration in the manifest.mf file in your turnin directory:

    Class-Path: ../../jme/bin/ ../../jme/lib/lwjgl.jar sgs-client.jar

• Create a file named 'darkstar.properties' in your turnin directory with the following contents:

     com.sun.sgs.app.name=Chess
     com.sun.sgs.app.root=.
     com.sun.sgs.app.port=1139
     com.sun.sgs.app.listener=Chess

• Create an empty directory named 'dsdb' in your turnin directory. This is where the data will be stored for your chess server whenever you start it with the sgs command below. You will need to delete its contents every time you want a fresh run of the server.

• Use the same procedure for creating a jar file as for previous assignments, except make sure to also include both your server and client code in the same jar file.

• To test your homework, in the turnin directory, first start the server using the following command (assuming you named your jar file for this assignment 'darkstar.jar');

    sgs darkstar.jar darkstar.properties

• Then start your client as usual with the command:

    java -Djava.library.path="../../jme/lib" -jar darkstar.jar

Technical Requirements

• You shall implement a Darkstar client and a Darkstar server program, which communicate using the chess protocol provided.

• Your toplevel server class (which implements AppListener) must be named 'Chess' in the unnamed package, and shall execute the NegaMax with Alpha-Beta Pruning algorithm using the DarkStar task framework (see InOrderTree above).

• Your client program shall preserve all of the code and capabilities of Assignment #3 (Shallow Blue), including the AI code, legal move and check/mate verification, etc., with the following adjustments to support tournament play:
  • When auto is true, the client AI plays against the server AI
  • When auto is true, the client checks that moves from the server are legal and correctly marked as check or mate, and prints an error message when an illegal move is received.

  Note: If your Assignment #3 was substantially incomplete and you feel you cannot catch up, contact the instructor as soon as possible regarding the possibility of obtaining another student's version of Assignment #3 as a starting point for this assignment.

• Include in your README.txt file the record of two complete games that actually ran in auto=false mode: one in which the human wins and one in which the computer wins.

Please post any questions to the myWPI discussion board for the course.