What is react-chessboard?

react-chessboard is a React component that provides chessboard functionality to your application. The Chess game logic that controls the board should be independent to the board, using a library such as Chess.js. An example of these two working together is shown in the example below. For interactive examples visit https://react-chessboard.vercel.app/.

ChessOpenings.co.uk was originally built utilising the chessboardjsx library. With chessboardjsx being unmaintained, it made it difficult to add functionality or optimise performance, so react-chessboard was made.

Installation

npm i react-chessboard

Examples

Storybook

Features

Current

• Accessible Functions
  • chessboardRef.current.clearPremoves();, takes optional boolean parameter clearLastPieceColour to allow/disallow further premoves of the last moved piece color. Default: true
• Board Orientation Choice
• Custom Actions
  • getPositionObject
  • onArrowsChange
  • onDragOverSquare
  • onMouseOutSquare
  • onMouseOverSquare
  • onPieceClick
  • onPieceDragBegin
  • onPieceDragEnd
  • onPieceDrop
  • onPromotionCheck
  • onPromotionPieceSelect
  • onSquareClick
  • onSquareRightClick
• Customisable Board Styles
• Customisable Pieces
• Customisable Square Styles
• Customisable Notation Styles
• Drag and Drop
• Draw Arrows with Drag or Props
• Mobile Compatibility
• Moving Piece Animations
• Optional Square Coordinates Notation
• Position Control
• Premoves
• Promotion Piece Select
• Responsive Board Width
• TypeScript Support

Usage

Bare Minimum

1import { Chessboard } from "react-chessboard";
2
3export default function App() {
4  return (
5    <div>
6      <Chessboard id="BasicBoard" />
7    </div>
8  );
9}

Basic Example

IMPORTANT: Examples use the current stable release of chess.js. As of writing this, chess.js v1.0.0 is still in beta. These examples use chess.js ^0.12.0

1import { useState } from "react";
2import Chess from "chess.js";
3import { Chessboard } from "react-chessboard";
4
5export default function PlayRandomMoveEngine() {
6  const [game, setGame] = useState(new Chess());
7
8  function makeAMove(move) {
9    const gameCopy = { ...game };
10    const result = gameCopy.move(move);
11    setGame(gameCopy);
12    return result; // null if the move was illegal, the move object if the move was legal
13  }
14
15  function makeRandomMove() {
16    const possibleMoves = game.moves();
17    if (game.game_over() || game.in_draw() || possibleMoves.length === 0)
18      return; // exit if the game is over
19    const randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * possibleMoves.length);
20    makeAMove(possibleMoves[randomIndex]);
21  }
22
23  function onDrop(sourceSquare, targetSquare) {
24    const move = makeAMove({
25      from: sourceSquare,
26      to: targetSquare,
27      promotion: "q", // always promote to a queen for example simplicity
28    });
29
30    // illegal move
31    if (move === null) return false;
32    setTimeout(makeRandomMove, 200);
33    return true;
34  }
35
36  return <Chessboard position={game.fen()} onPieceDrop={onDrop} />;
37}

Advanced Examples

For more advanced code usage examples, please see example boards shown in Storybook.

Props

Prop	Default Value	Options	Description
allowDragOutsideBoard	boolean: false	[true, false]	Whether or not to allow pieces to be dragged outside the board.
animationDuration	number: 300		Time in milliseconds for piece to slide to target square. Only used when the position is programmatically changed. If a new position is set before the animation is complete, the board will cancel the current animation and snap to the new position.
areArrowsAllowed	boolean: true	[true, false]	Whether or not arrows can be drawn with right click and dragging.
arePiecesDraggable	boolean: true	[true, false]	Whether or not all pieces are draggable.
arePremovesAllowed	boolean: false	[true, false]	Whether or not premoves are allowed.
autoPromoteToQueen	boolean: false	[true, false]	Whether or not to automatically promote pawn to queen.
boardOrientation	string: 'white'	['white', 'black']	The orientation of the board, the chosen colour will be at the bottom of the board.
boardWidth	number: 560		The width of the board in pixels.
clearPremovesOnRightClick	boolean: true	[true, false]	If premoves are allowed, whether or not to clear the premove queue on right click.
customArrowColor	string: 'rgb(255,170,0)'	rgb or hex string	String with rgb or hex value to colour drawn arrows.
customArrows	[Square, Square, string?][]	array of string arrays	Array where each element is a tuple containing two Square values (representing the 'from' and 'to' squares) and an optional third string element for the arrow color e.g. [ ['a3', 'a5', 'red'], ['g1', 'f3'] ].
customBoardStyle	object: {}	inline CSS styling	Custom board style object e.g. { borderRadius: '5px', boxShadow: '0 5px 15px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5)'}.
customNotationStyle	object: {}	inline CSS styling	Custom notation style object e.g. { fontSize: '12px' }.
customDarkSquareStyle	object: { backgroundColor: '#B58863' }	inline CSS styling	Custom dark square style object.
customDndBackend	BackendFactory: undefined		Custom react-dnd backend to use instead of the one provided by react-chessboard.
customDndBackendOptions	any: undefined		Options to use for the given custom react-dnd backend. See customDndBackend.
customDropSquareStyle	object: { boxShadow: 'inset 0 0 1px 6px rgba(255,255,255,0.75)' }	inline CSS styling	Custom drop square style object (Square being hovered over with dragged piece).
customLightSquareStyle	object: { backgroundColor: '#F0D9B5' }	inline CSS styling	Custom light square style object.
customPieces	object: {}		Custom pieces object where each key must match a corresponding chess piece (wP, wB, wN, wR, wQ, wK, bP, bB, bN, bR, bQ, bK). The value of each piece is a function that takes in some optional arguments to use and must return JSX to render. e.g. { wK: ({ isDragging: boolean, squareWidth: number, square: String}) => jsx }.
customPremoveDarkSquareStyle	object: { backgroundColor: '#A42323' }	inline CSS styling	Custom premove dark square style object.
customPremoveLightSquareStyle	object: { backgroundColor: '#BD2828' }	inline CSS styling	Custom premove light square style object.
customSquare	ElementType: "div"		Custom renderer for squares. Can also use an html element.
customSquareStyles	object: {}	inline CSS styling	Custom styles for all squares.
id	number: 0	[string, number]	Board identifier, necessary if more than one board is mounted for drag and drop.
isDraggablePiece	function: ({ piece, sourceSquare }) => true	returns [true, false]	Function called when a piece drag is attempted. Returns if piece is draggable.
getPositionObject	function: (currentPosition) => {}		User function that receives current position object when position changes.
onArrowsChange	function: (squares) => {}		User function is run when arrows are set on the board.
onDragOverSquare	function: (square) => {}		User function that is run when piece is dragged over a square.
onMouseOutSquare	function: (square) => {}		User function that is run when mouse leaves a square.
onMouseOverSquare	function: (square) => {}		User function that is run when mouse is over a square.
onPieceClick	function: (piece, square) => {}		User function that is run when piece is clicked.
onPieceDragBegin	function: (piece, sourceSquare) => {}		User function that is run when piece is grabbed to start dragging.
onPieceDragEnd	function: (piece, sourceSquare) => {}		User function that is run when piece is let go after dragging.
onPieceDrop	function: (sourceSquare, targetSquare, piece) => true	returns [true, false]	User function that is run when piece is dropped on a square. Must return whether the move was successful or not. This return value does not control whether or not the piece was placed (as that is controlled by the position prop) but instead controls premove logic.
onPromotionCheck	function: (sourceSquare, targetSquare, piece) => (((piece === "wP" && sourceSquare[1] === "7" && targetSquare[1] === "8") || (piece === "bP" && sourceSquare[1] === "2" && targetSquare[1] === "1")) && Math.abs(sourceSquare.charCodeAt(0) - targetSquare.charCodeAt(0)) <= 1)	returns [true, false]	User function that is run when piece is dropped. Must return whether the move results in a promotion or not.
onPromotionPieceSelect	function: (piece, promoteFromSquare, promoteToSquare) => true	returns [true, false]	User function that is run when a promotion piece is selected. Must return whether the move was successful or not.
onSquareClick	function: (square, piece) => {}		User function that is run when a square is clicked.
onSquareRightClick	function: (square) => {}		User function that is run when a square is right clicked.
position	string: 'start'	['start', FEN string, { e5: 'wK', e4: 'wP', ... }]	FEN string or position object notating where the chess pieces are on the board. Start position can also be notated with the string: 'start'.
promotionDialogVariant	string: 'default':	['default', 'vertical', 'modal']	Style of promotion dialog.
promotionToSquare	string or null	['a1', 'a2', ..., 'h8', null]	The square to promote a piece to. Must be passed when promotion dialog is manually shown.
showBoardNotation	boolean: true	[true, false]	Whether or not to show the file and rank co-ordinates (a..h, 1..8).
showPromotionDialog	boolean: false	[true, false]	Whether or not to manually show the promotion dialog.
snapToCursor	boolean: true	[true, false]	Whether or not to center dragged pieces on the mouse cursor.

Contributing

1. Fork this repository
2. Clone your forked repository onto your development machine

   git clone https://github.com/yourUsernameHere/react-chessboard.git
   cd react-chessboard
   

3. Create a branch for your PR

   git checkout -b your-branch-name
   

4. Set upstream remote

   git remote add upstream https://github.com/Clariity/react-chessboard.git
   

5. Make your changes
6. Test your changes by running storybook

   npm run storybook
   

7. Push your changes

   git add .
   git commit -m "feature/cool-new-feature"
   git push --set-upstream origin your-branch-name
   

8. Create pull request on GitHub
9. Contribute again

   git checkout main
   git pull upstream main
   git checkout -b your-new-branch-name
   

LICENSE

MIT