Pythonic way to print a chess board in console
I was wondering what would be the best pythonic way to print a console chess board using a dictionary.
Should I use list ? but what happens if their is no piece on the board on a certain row?
Edit :
In chess programs (typically for computing best moves, solve riddles, etc.) internally a 10×10 board is used where the middle 8×8 fields are used by the visible and playable board. (The margin helps keep the code simple.) To simplify memory management, typically a linear memory is used to store this, i. e. 100 fields. The position of a field of the board is then computed using board[(y+1) * 10 + (x+1)] with x, y in the range 0..7. (Init by board = [ 0 ] * 100.)
So you might want to use this, just in case your program later should expand to also compute moves or stay compatible with a library doing this.
As for graphics, I propose to use this board:
A B C D E F G H
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
| @___@ | %~b | .@. | \o*o/ | __+__ | .@. | %~b | @___@ |
8| @@@ | `'dX | @@@ | @@@ | `@@@' | @@@ | `'dX | @@@ |8
| d@@@b | d@@b | ./A\. | d@@@b | d@@@b | ./A\. | d@@b | d@@@b |
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
| _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
7| (@) | (@) | (@) | (@) | (@) | (@) | (@) | (@) |7
| d@b | d@b | d@b | d@b | d@b | d@b | d@b | d@b |
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
| | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . |
6| | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . |6
| | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . |
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
| . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | |
5| . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | |5
| . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | |
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
| | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . |
4| | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . |4
| | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . |
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
| . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | |
3| . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | |3
| . . . | | . . . | | . . . | | . . . | |
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
| _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
2| ( ) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ) |2
| /_\ | /_\ | /_\ | /_\ | /_\ | /_\ | /_\ | /_\ |
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
| [___] | %~\ | .O. | \o^o/ | __+__ | .O. | %~\ | [___] |
1| [ ] | `')( | \ / | [ ] | `. .' | \ / | `')( | [ ] |1
| /___\ | <__> | /_\ | /___\ | /___\ | /_\ | <__> | /___\ |
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
A B C D E F G H
I made these ASCII graphics back in the 90s for Tubmud. Feel free to use them.