Finding Difference Makers

Using JavaScript tools I recently created, you can determine the square utilization or occupancy for any particular piece, for any given square, across all moves and all games in a PGN database. One potentially useful application is to apply these tools separately to the wins and losses (1-0 versus 0-1) in the database of your choice. As featured in a recent ChessBase article, I have done this to find which piece movements or placements are featured more often in wins versus losses. These are potential difference makers in a chess game.

In this post, I will describe in more detail how I performed these calculations. Although this can be done by hand, I created an Excel spreadsheet to facilitate processing of the data you can get from using the aforementioned tools. This spreadsheet is available for download; select 'Read More' to see the rest of this article to find instructions on how use the excel file, as well tips on how to represent the results using the heatmap tool. Stay tuned for more differential data and analysis in the coming weeks.

My Excel "FEN to Diagram" Tool

Every Chess blogger and publisher must at one time grapple with the same issue: how to create and display diagrams and games. I have explored and tried a few options, including the pgn4web and chessup.net tools (at time of writing chessup.net server is down). A more detailed list is provided by Michael Goeller's Kenilworthian, among others. Here, I will recount how I came to develop my own, offline solution, an Excel file that converts FEN to chess diagrams.

For a time, I thought I had settled upon using the Chessup.net server, in which I could simply put a FEN string into the URL for the image, and viola, I would have chess diagrams on my site. However, it was unsettling to realized that when their servers went down, so did all the diagrams on my site. I should have saved each image and uploaded them. Even if I had done this, however, the failure of their service would mean that I would need to change the style of diagrams on my blog.

I value consistency when it comes to the appearance of these blog posts. Thus, I began to search for a more reliable, offline solution. However, since I use a Mac. I was found wanting for programs to quickly turn FEN strings into diagrams. My solution: make my own tool to accomplish the same end. I'm a bit of an excel guru, if you might have guessed from my Mutual Information articles (part 1 and 2). Naturally, I chose this program to craft my solution.

Here, I will make available the excel workbook that I have setup to generate all the new diagrams on the site. In order for this tool to work, you must have the Chess Cases font. I will provide the workbook in two different Excel formats: .xlsx, and .xls

Feel free to use this tool as you see fit. I would appreciate a mention if you use it for your site. If you do use it, experience problems, or have suggestions for improvement, I'd love to hear from you. Just drop a comment below!

Read on for more detailed instructions on how to use the Excel Chess Diagram tool. If you are trying to accomplish something special, or need some additional help, I may be able to give you a hand; simply post your inquiry as a comment.