Someone asked about using Chesspark with other XMPP or Jabber accounts and I thought I would make a quick post on how to do it with livejournal. Any XMPP account will work the same as livejournal, so you do not have to limit yourself.

First, if you have a livejournal account, you will need to create a Chesspark account using your livejournal username.

See the following urls :
http://www.chesspark.com/faq/#general-5
http://www.chesspark.com/join/

I used this one, so the username I put in the form field was thetofu@livejournal.com
Note the '@livejournal.com' , you will need to add this when creating and logging into the account.

Now here is the only part where it may get confusing. You have to enter a Chesspark password. This can and should be different from your livejournal password. It is used to access the Chesspark website and not the live game server. This will be changed soon and support for openid is in the works. So fill in your Chesspark password, but remember to use your livejournal password on the next part.

Next we want to play some games. To get to the live game server you can use the web or download a client.
Web: http://www.chesspark.com/play/
Download: http://www.chesspark.com/download/

Going to the play url or starting up the Chesspark application you will be presented with a login screen.
Here you will enter your full livejournal username and password. ( NOTE: not your Chesspark password from above).

So, I enter thetofu@livejournal.com and my livejournal password and I am off! Playing Chesspark with my livejournal account!

So, how does this work? Well, Chesspark is XMPP based and can communicate with other XMPP chat servers. Livejournal has XMPP chat and when you log in with a Chesspark client you are actually logging into livejournal.com. After that you can communicate via livejournal to Chesspark and do anything you like as if you were on the Chesspark server.

I hope this helps and have fun!

Jack and I was recently interviewed by Duncan McGreggor at twisted.

http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/wiki/InterviewChesspark200802

We talk about twisted, python, XMPP, and of course, Chesspark. Thank you very much for the interview Duncan!

A new feature at chesspark is a game viewer widget. So that you can embed chess games in a blog post or web page. This game is one I recently lost (which I do a lot). Of course you can also download the PGN, but the game viewer is cooler. :) There are gonna be many more features for sharing games and chess info. One is embedding live games and chat in a widget similar to this.



If you can not see this try http://thetofu.com/chess.html for the same example.

If you are in the San Francisco area this Saturday, there is an interesting event coming up. It is a Hip Hop Chess Federation event and I wish I could go. Notice the sponsor at the bottom of the image. ;)




http://chesspark.com/article/7/

Just some quick notes that I feel I should blog about.

Danielle will be 30 on the 31st! Contact me if you feel like you should be at the party. :)

Just released a bug fix version of palaver!

Chesspark is going well and we have made many improvements lately.

Vote for it on jyte! :) You will need an openid account to vote.

http://jyte.com/cl/chesspark.com-is-the-best-place-to-play-chess-online?

The following is a quick overview of what I am doing these days:

1. I just bought a new house and have been doing all the fun stuff that comes with it, like painting, moving furniture, and fixing things. I also installed some flood lights on the back porch. I will have pictures up eventually.


2. MUSC is as fun as usual. ;)


3. Punjab should have a new release and a mochikit javascript library that ships with it soon.


4. Palaver should also have a new release with many new features added, more to come on this later.


5. Last but not least has been Chesspark. It has been just over a month since beta release and things have been moving along. We are about to release some new features like correspondence games and tournaments. If you have not checked it out yet, you should check it out now! We are also in need of a web developer to help with the web client and website. If you are interested in working with python, django, twisted, xmpp, or ajax then please apply. Chesspark is also open source friendly. :)