Kami Chess 1.6.2
====================

Chess on a 3D board with boxwood and walnut pieces. Play a friend at the same
computer, play against the computer, or, with a Kami Chess account, play other
players online.


Start
-----

1. Right-click kami-chess-1.6.2-windows-x86_64.zip and choose Extract All.
2. Open the folder kami-chess-1.6.2-windows-x86_64 it made, then the folder
   kami-chess-1.6.2 inside it, and double-click kami-chess.exe.

Nothing is installed. The program finds its board and pieces in the assets
folder beside it, so keep the folder together; to remove the game, delete it.


The first start: Windows protected your PC
------------------------------------------

Kami Chess is not signed with a code signing certificate. The first time you
start a new version, Microsoft Defender SmartScreen may show a blue window,
"Windows protected your PC". To start the game:

1. Click More info.
2. Check that the app it names is kami-chess.exe, then click Run anyway.

Smart App Control: on Windows 11 with Smart App Control turned on, Windows
blocks unsigned apps, and there is no way to allow a single app. Kami Chess
will not start on such a computer. Windows Security shows the setting under
App & browser control, Smart App Control.


Playing
-------

Beside the board, on the right (below it in a window taller than it is wide),
are the status line and four buttons. The status line says whose turn it is,
that the computer is thinking, and how the game ended, by checkmate or a draw.

  Undo    Takes back a move. Against the computer it takes back its reply
          and your move.
  Flip    Turns the camera to the other player's side.
  Reset   Puts the camera back where it started. The position stays.
  Menu    Opens the menu.

To play against the computer, click Menu and choose under Play against the
side the computer plays, White or Black; you play the other one. Nobody, where
the game starts, is two players at one computer. Strength sets how strong the
computer plays: Gentle, Steady (where it starts) or Strong. A new strength
applies from the computer's next move; a move it is already thinking about
keeps the strength it started with.

The menu also holds How to play, the game in a few lines; Privacy, which opens
the privacy policy (kamidesigns.be/privacy/kami-chess) in your browser; and
the version. On How to play, Close goes back to the menu. Close on the menu, a
click outside the menu or the Esc key closes it.

Under Account, Log in opens the Kami Chess login page (auth.kamidesigns.be)
in your browser, and Create account opens its form for a new account. Once
you have logged in there, the browser hands you back to the game, which then
shows the name you are logged in as. It stays logged in the next time you
start it, until you choose Log out. The game keeps its login in
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Kami Chess\account.dat, sealed so that only your Windows
account can read it; Log out removes it.

Logged in, Multiplayer lists the players of Kami Chess: those online now
first, the others greyed, and beside each name your wins and losses against
them (-/- before your first game). Click a name to challenge that player,
online or not; they see the challenge in Your games, which also holds your
open and finished games and your record. An online game has no time limit and
waits for as long as it takes: close Kami Chess or log out, and it is still
there in Your games. In an online game Resign stands where Undo was, and the
result says whom you won or lost against.

Kami Chess goes online only for your account: to log in, and while you are
logged in, to say that you are playing, to show the other players and to
play your online games. Without an account it sends nothing anywhere. What
an account keeps, and what other players see, is in the privacy policy for
accounts (kami-chess.kamidesigns.be/privacy).


Options
-------

The options start a game with the computer already chosen, another way to do
what the Menu does. Start the game from cmd or PowerShell in its folder with
them, or give a shortcut to kami-chess.exe these options:

    kami-chess.exe                                     two players at one computer
    kami-chess.exe --opponent black                    you play white, the computer black
    kami-chess.exe --opponent white                    the computer moves first
    kami-chess.exe --opponent black --depth 6 --time-ms 3000
                                                       the computer thinks longer

  --opponent none|white|black   The side the computer plays. Default none: two
                                players. Otherwise you play the other side.
  --depth N                     How many half-moves ahead the computer looks,
                                1 to 64. Default 4.
  --time-ms N                   How long the computer may think, in
                                milliseconds, before it plays its best move so
                                far. Default 1000; 0 means no limit.
  --fen FEN                     Start from a position written in FEN instead of
                                the start position.
  --width N, --height N         The window size. Default 1280 x 960. The window
                                can also be resized.
  --help, --version             Print the options, or the version.

The Menu shows the choice --opponent made. It shows Steady whatever --depth
and --time-ms say, and choosing a Strength replaces them.

While the computer thinks, a pulsing blue strip lights its half of the board
frame and the board ignores your clicks.


Controls
--------

The buttons have keys too, and the mouse turns and zooms the camera:

  Click a piece, then a      Move. A pawn reaching the last rank opens a choice
  highlighted square         of four pieces on the board.
  Drag with the left button  Turn the camera around the board.
  Mouse wheel                Zoom.
  f                          Turn the camera to the other player's side.
  r                          Reset the camera.
  u                          Undo. Against the computer it takes back its reply
                             and your move.
  Esc                        Close the menu if it is open; otherwise deselect,
                             or close the promotion choice.
  q r b n                    Choose the promotion piece while the choice is open.
  Ctrl+Q                     Quit.


Requirements
------------

  - Windows 10 version 1903 or newer, or Windows 11, 64-bit (x64).
  - Graphics with an OpenGL 3.3 driver, which the graphics card maker's
    driver installs (NVIDIA, AMD or Intel). If the game cannot open its window,
    it shows a message saying so; install the driver from the maker's website.

Everything else the game needs is built in or part of Windows.


Licences
--------

THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt holds the licences of the libraries built into the
program.
