Chesster - Scalable Chess Game

A two-player chess game with full move validation and database persistence.

Architecture

Chesster/
├── backend/          # Node.js + Express API
│   ├── config/       # Supabase config
│   ├── controllers/  # Request handlers
│   ├── models/       # Database operations
│   ├── routes/       # API endpoints
│   ├── services/     # Chess engine logic
│   └── database/     # SQL schemas
└── frontend/         # React + TypeScript
    └── src/
        └── components/  # ChessBoard, GameLobby

Setup Instructions

1. Supabase Setup

1. Go to supabase.com and create a project
2. In SQL Editor, run the schema from backend/database/schema.sql
3. Copy your project URL and anon key

2. Backend Setup

cd backend
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and add your Supabase credentials
npm install
npm run dev

Backend runs on http://localhost:3000

3. Frontend Setup

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Frontend runs on http://localhost:5173

How to Play

1. Player 1: Click "Create New Game" → Share the game code
2. Player 2: Enter game code → Click "Join as Black"
3. Click a piece to select it, then click destination square to move
4. All moves are validated and stored in Supabase

Features

✅ Full chess move validation (pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, queens, kings) ✅ Two-player turn-based gameplay ✅ Real-time board updates (polling every 2s) ✅ Move history stored in database ✅ Scalable architecture for adding more games ✅ Clean separation of concerns (MVC pattern)

API Endpoints

• POST /api/games - Create new game
• POST /api/games/:code/join - Join game
• GET /api/games/:code - Get game state
• POST /api/games/:code/move - Make move
• GET /api/games/:code/moves - Get move history

Database Schema

games table: Stores game state, board position, turn, status moves table: Records every move with position, piece, and resulting board state

Extending to Other Games

The architecture supports multiple game types:

1. Add new engine in services/ (e.g., checkersEngine.js)
2. Update gameModel.js to handle different game types
3. Create new frontend component for the game board
4. Use same API endpoints with different gameType parameter