Creating a Chess Board using Windows Forms

Question

What is the best way to create chess board using Windows Forms?

I am still new to graphics coding in winforms and I am not sure, which control to use for that?

Answer 1

There are a lot of ways. Here's an alternative that gets you started with some WinForms concepts:

(It uses a 2D grid of Panel controls to create a chessboard. To extend it you might change the background picture of each Panel to show chess pieces. The game play is up to you to define.)

    // class member array of Panels to track chessboard tiles
    private Panel[,] _chessBoardPanels;

    // event handler of Form Load... init things here
    private void Form_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        const int tileSize = 40;
        const int gridSize = 12;
        var clr1 = Color.DarkGray;
        var clr2 = Color.White;

        // initialize the "chess board"
        _chessBoardPanels = new Panel[gridSize, gridSize];

        // double for loop to handle all rows and columns
        for (var n = 0; n < gridSize; n++)
        {
            for (var m = 0; m < gridSize; m++)
            {
                // create new Panel control which will be one 
                // chess board tile
                var newPanel = new Panel
                {
                    Size = new Size(tileSize, tileSize),
                    Location = new Point(tileSize * n, tileSize * m)
                };

                // add to Form's Controls so that they show up
                Controls.Add(newPanel);

                // add to our 2d array of panels for future use
                _chessBoardPanels[n, m] = newPanel;

                // color the backgrounds
                if (n % 2 == 0)
                    newPanel.BackColor = m % 2 != 0 ? clr1 : clr2; 
                else
                    newPanel.BackColor = m % 2 != 0 ? clr2 : clr1;
            }
        }
    }

Answer 2

In the controls OnPaint eventhandler, you start out by drawing the chessboard pattern either implicitly using the formula (floor(x * 8) mod 2) = (floor(y * 8) mod 2) or by just drawing the squares with Graphics.FillRectangle. The second step would be to draw the pieces on top with Graphics.DrawImage.

Answer 3

I don't know what you want to do with this chess board, but if it's only a background to display after pieces, your best shot is to set a background image.

Answer 4

Best way is to use a 'chess starter kit': http://www.chessbin.com/page/Chess-Game-Starer-Kit.aspx (alternative project: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/game/SrcChess.aspx)

Nowadays a lot of things have starter kits (for C#) which gives you a sample to get started on.