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.
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.
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ICC Help: style12