Linux Bash Scripting: how to print a big chess board anywhere on the screen

In this post, we will see how to create a big chess board that can be displayed anywhere on the screen rather than being displayed left aligned. Below is the script which displays the Chess board on the screen.

#!/bin/bash # SCRIPT : bigchess.sh # PURPOSE : Prints big chess board on the screen using Linux style for loop. clear # clears the screen row=6 # This indicates after how many lines the chess board should be displayed col=15 # This indicates after how many cols the chess board should be displayed for i in `seq 9` do for j in 1 2 # prints same line twice to increase height of the block do tput cup $row $col # moves cursor to partcular ROW(here row) & COLUMN(here col) for k in `seq 9` do c=`expr $((i+k)) % 2` # to determine whether it is odd or even block if [ $c -eq 0 ] then echo -e -n "\033[47m " # White background, no. of spaces indicates the width of the block else echo -e -n "\033[40m " # Black background, no. of spaces indicates the width of the block fi done row=`expr $row + 1` done done echo -e "\033[0m" # Restores color settings read key # Waits for enter

If you want to make changes to the above script for changing the size and the position of the chess board, you can change the following variables in the script.

1) row - to change the number of lines to leave from top before printing the chess board
2) col - to change the number of columns to leave from left before printing the chess board
3) j in second for loop - to increase or decrease the height of the block
4) No. of spaces in echo statement to change the width of the block


The same script using C style for loop:

#!/bin/bash # SCRIPT : bigchess.sh # PURPOSE : Prints big chess board on the screen using C style for loop. clear # clears the screen row=6 # This indicates after how many lines the chess board should be displayed col=15 # This indicates after how many cols the chess board should be displayed for (( i=1 ; i<=9; i++ )) do for (( j=1 ;j<=2; j++ )) # prints same line twice to increase height of the block do tput cup $row $col # moves cursor to partcular ROW(here row) & COLUMN(here col) for (( k=1 ; k<=9; k++ )) do c=`expr $((i+k)) % 2` # to determine whether it is odd or even block if [ $c -eq 0 ] then echo -e -n "\033[47m " # White background, no. of spaces indicates the width of the block else echo -e -n "\033[40m " # Black background, no. of spaces indicates the width of the block fi done let row=row+1 done done echo -e "\033[0m" # Restores color settings read key # Waits for enter