ChessVar

New update:
Introducing game history tab:

• Automatic saving of finished games (with result, reason, mode, variant, move count, and move list)
• Reopen past games in read-only review mode
  Full-screeen mode full supported on all platforms!
  ChessVar stores user progress/history locally in:
• ~/.chessvar/puzzle_progress.json
• ~/.chessvar/game_history.json
  Upgraded Chess Puzzles mode:
  • Loads puzzles from bundled CSV
  • Hint system (highlights the correct piece)
  • Show solution (arrow + UCI move)
  • Tracks solved puzzles and stores progress locally
  • Randomized order of unsolved puzzles

Big Update!:

• Introducing chess puzzles
• Full-screen mode
  In this update I added responsive scaling for the whole UI (board, puzzle panel, game sidebar, and main menu), so fullscreen and large windows look much better.
  I also improved puzzle mode technically by adding random unsolved puzzle selection, persistence of solved puzzles in ~/.chessvar/puzzle_progress.json, and stable puzzle flow (after correct move, user must click Next Puzzle).
  A key fix was preventing board rotation after solving a puzzle by introducing preserve_pov_on_move and enabling it in puzzle mode.
  Additionally, we added an F11 fullscreen shortcut in the main window.
  Some UI polishing has to be done before shipping. Happy hacking!

##Key Changes:
-Added bot move animation and smooth transitions when stepping through move history.
-Expanded bot difficulty to 5 tiers with distinct pacing and behavior.
-Improved UX by blocking moves when viewing past positions (with clear feedback).
-Added keyboard shortcuts and a dedicated shortcuts dialog in the main menu.

##Bot (Difficulty & Pacing):
-Beginner → random moves, instant
-Novice → very fast engine
-Intermediate → short think time
-Advanced → longer think time
-Master → longest think time

##UX & Controls:
← / →: previous/next move
Home / End: first/latest position
Ctrl+N: new game
Ctrl+M: main menu
Ctrl+S: export PGN

##UI Improvements:
-Improved variant descriptions (playstyle + rules).
-Enhanced title and subtitle visibility.
-Moved Rules and Shortcuts to a side panel.

##Fixes:
-Fixed crash when rapidly clicking New Game during bot operations.
-Prevented stale bot responses from applying after reset.
-Fixed errors when moving quickly after the opponent (validation + legality checks).

Progress:

• Bug fixes
  Thoughts:
  When testing on windows I saw a bug with theme and decided to fix it.

Progress:
-Many bug fixes
-Preparing for publishing
Thoughts:
The game is finished.

Progress:

• Working sidebar
• Game history
• Exporting game as FEN or PGN
• Drawing arrows and highlighting squares on board for better calculations
  Thoughts:
  I think the end is near.

Progress:

• Player vs Player mode
• move indicator
• choosing bot level
• minor changes, bug fixes
  Thoughts:
  It’s going great. I’m getting better at python and pyside6.

Progress:

• Finished all chess rules(castle, en passant, and others)
• Added option to play against a bot
• Improvments in provious code (it wasn’t scalable)
  Thoughts:
  It’s hard, but I hope I can finish this project.

Progress:

• Generating figures
• Moving figures
• Improving backend
• Sketch of the sidebar on the right
  Thoughts:
  Maybe making UI is not that hard.

Progress:

• basic game mechanic using python-chess
• generating chess board
  Thoughts:
  I’m trying to learn Qt doing this project, but it isn’t going great.