STYLE12

***** STYLE12 *****     

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.

The data is all on one line, e.g.:

 <12> rnbqkb-r pppppppp -----n-- -------- ----P--- -------- PPPPKPPP RNBQ-BNR B -1 0 0 1 1 0 7 Quimbee Darooha 1 2 12 39 39 119 122 2 K/e1-e2 (0:06) Ke2 0

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 "" at the beginning, e.g.

 game 6 white [PNBBB] black [PNB]

See also: programmers, interfaces, style