# β™ŸοΈ Whimsy Chess **Chess as an exchange of nutrients in an ecological dome β€” scored as music, narrated as a story, and analyzed with hierarchical relaxation labeling.** Watch a chess game come alive: each piece is a character with a name, the board grows rivers and mountains from the flow of the battle, the relaxation-labeling engine reads each piece's *role* in the position, and the whole game is turned into music whose **time signature is inferred from the moves themselves** β€” a quiet maneuvering game breathes in 3/4, a wild tactical scramble lurches into 7/8. It runs entirely in your browser from a single self-contained HTML file. No build, no server, no dependencies. It also installs to an iPad/iPhone home screen as an app. This repository is the canonical development home for Chess Maestro and its supporting tools. The live, curated copy is published through [`hrl-portfolio`](https://github.com/rmichaelglover/hrl-portfolio); reusable Python algorithm work belongs in [`relaxation-labeling-python`](https://github.com/rmichaelglover/relaxation-labeling-python). > πŸŽ₯ Demos & tutorials: **[youtube.com/@mannyglover](https://www.youtube.com/@mannyglover)** --- ## Try it **[Open the published Chess Maestro](https://rmichaelglover.github.io/hrl-portfolio/whimsy-chess/maestro.html)** or open **`maestro.html`** locally in any modern browser. That exact `whimsy-chess/maestro.html` path is the flagship; similarly named pages under `lichess-emulator/` and `genesis/maestro/` are separate experiments. - Pick a game, press **β–Ά** to play it back *in rhythm*, or step with the arrow keys. - **🧠 Roles** β€” tint each piece by the role the relaxation-labeling engine assigns it (attacker, defender, controller, outpost, runner, tactic, or idle "noise"). - **🏞️ Terrain** β€” a topographic influence field: water pools in the contested squares, land rises by elevation. Built with a trinary relaxation labeling over the 64 squares. - **πŸ”Š Music** β€” orchestrated Web Audio playback. **πŸ₯ Click** adds a metronome so you can hear the inferred meter. - **⬇ Export** β€” MIDI, WAV (upload to Suno), a Suno text prompt, or a **🌍 World JSON** that the included Roblox script reads to build an evolving 3D world of the game. ### Install it as an app (iPad / iPhone) See `PWA-INSTALL.md`. Short version: host the folder over HTTPS, open `maestro.html` in Safari, and *Share β–Έ Add to Home Screen*. It runs fullscreen and offline. --- ## The idea: hierarchical relaxation labeling Relaxation labeling (Hummel & Zucker, 1983) is an identify-by-constraints algorithm: you have objects, a set of labels for them, and a measure of how *compatible* any two label assignments are for any two objects. It iterates everything toward a globally consistent labeling. This project applies it, hierarchically, in three places: - **Roles** β€” pieces are objects, roles are labels; compatibility comes from how pieces support and threaten each other, so coherent plans emerge as label coalitions. - **Terrain** β€” squares are objects labeled white / contested / black; a contested seam emerges, then becomes water, with land elevation rising away from it. ### HydroGRRLE terrain timeline Every ply begins by recomputing Maestro's HRL coloration. That white/contested/black field is the spatial prior for ChessGRRLE, not a decorative after-effect. The initial board is nearly flat, with a small White-side height advantage representing the first-move evaluation. Each move then raises or lowers its source, destination, and nearby squares according to the evaluation change. Continuous water relaxes toward the contested prior and flows downhill over several small passes; ice and sky fields travel beside it in the World JSON. Correspondence games use a wide ecological attention radius, while rapid and ultrabullet games emphasize the immediate tactical neighborhood. Legacy integer `height` and `water` grids remain available to existing Minecraft and Roblox consumers; the richer values live under each frame's `hydro`. - **Rhythm** β€” each move becomes a note; its think-time (or move salience) labels its duration, and the game's accent pattern selects the **time signature**. The thread tying it together: *boundaries, things, and exchange.* A chess game is a little ecology β€” material is eaten, traded, regrown β€” and relaxation labeling is how the system finds the meaningful structures inside that flow. --- ## What's in here | Path | What it is | |---|---| | `maestro.html` | **The flagship.** Board + roles + terrain + music/rhythm + exports + PWA. | | `pythonista/` | Pythonista host for running Maestro offline on iPhone/iPad with native PGN import. | | `lichess.html` | Earlier clean web viewer (roles + music), preserved. | | `index.html`, `v2.html`, `v3.html` | Early whimsical/bio viewers (the lineage). | | `vim/` | **A Vim-native emoji chess study tool** (`chess_emoji.vim`) β€” 25 narrated games, stepped with `h`/`l`/arrows, board drawn in emoji, plus a self-test. | | `CAST-POLICY.md` | The tested default: Manny as Woodland, opponents as classical; Pappymagee's result-sensitive retirement edition. | | `ROADMAP-LICHESS-AND-NLP-GRRLE.md` | Official-Lichess licensing/architecture milestones, followed by generic-stream NLP-GRRLE research. | | `worldkit.js` | One `chess-world` v1 export β†’ **Minecraft datapack + Roblox builder**. Zero dependencies, including its own store-only zip writer. Runs in the browser *and* in Node. | | `roblox/` | Roblox Studio scripts that read the exported World JSON into a 3D world. | | `test/` | `bash test/run.sh` β€” 21 assertions over WorldKit's terrain, roles, and both exporters. | | `tools/` | `build_games_library.py` β€” assemble the embedded games library. | | `media/` | Showcase stills and an animated replay of the KΓ‘das game. | | `games/` | Source-game archive plus rigorous and Woodland reviews of the latest a6699–mannyfresher study chapter. | | `novella/` | Linear tween, classroom, and advanced editions; the Master Board adventure; and the opening-based Narnian Clones companion. | | `status/` | Wide project status, current frontier, near-term polish, and preview. | | `engine-coach/` | Future dual-overlay coach for played, study, and engine moves across exact wins and losses. | ## House chess setup Chess Maestro defaults to the Woodland Cast on Mannyfresher's side and black or white classical figurines on the opponent's side. The setup follows Manny when a chapter or imported PGN places him on Black. The two piece-set menus remain available for optional themed casts and visual experiments. The game menu also carries a result key from Mannyfresher's perspective: green on black for a win as Black, red on black for a loss as Black, green on white for a win as White, white on red for a loss as White, and a white field for every draw or stalemate. Text tooltips preserve the meaning when color is difficult to read. | `hydro-computing/` | Speculative water/air/light computing habitat with thermodynamic and safety boundaries. | | `experiments/` | Rough side sketches (some AI-assisted). | | `*.md` | Design notes: musical mapping, the boundaries/Markov-blanket musing, PWA install. | ### The Vim study tool ```bash vim -c 'source vim/chess_emoji.vim' -c 'ChessEmoji queendab' ``` `l` / `β†’` step forward, `h` / `←` back, `<` `>` jump, `t` toggles emoji vs. classic figurines, `q` quits. Twenty-five games ship with it β€” `queendab`, `kadas`, `roundup`, `carr`, `schroflag`, `horsey`, `crabblack`, `crab`, `goldsmith`, `fathersday`, `houdini`, `daisies`, `deadmove2`, `crawlnamed`, `scandi`, `stalemategambit` β€” plus `ninjastalemate`, `jerryball`, `jerryballas`, `creepyharriet`, `bongcloudpilgrim`, `bongcloudgeneral`, `creepycrown`, `kadascakes`, and `ravencliff`, each with hand-written narration at its turning points. Verify them all with: ```bash vim -u NONE -N -es -c 'source vim/chess_emoji.vim' \ -c 'for l in g:ChessEmojiSelfTest() | echo l | endfor' -c 'qa!' ``` --- ## License - **Code:** [AGPL-3.0](LICENSE) β€” free to use, study, share, and modify; if you distribute it or run a modified version as a service, share your changes back. A **commercial license** is also available β€” see [`NOTICE`](NOTICE). - **Creative assets** (the character cast, narration, musical & visual designs): [CC BY-SA 4.0](ART-LICENSE.md). - Embedded chess games are public game records. Built by **Manny Glover** (R. Michael Glover). Contributions welcome under a short CLA that keeps the dual-license possible. If you teach with this, build on it, or want to collaborate β€” please reach out.