Chess Sets for Fixation

Fixation is a free program for Macintosh users that provides an easy-to-use graphical interface for the popular ICC and FICS online chess servers. The program includes several fanciful styles of chess pieces. I thought it would be useful to have a variety of more traditional looking pieces, as well as a set that looked good when very small. So I made some images, and you are free to use them in your personal copy of Fixation. For other uses, contact the creators (see Credits).

You can copy the GIF images from this web page and paste them into your own copy of Fixation by using a free utility program called ResEdit. It's not hard. Just follow these step-by-step instructions, and you can be done in less than fifteen minutes.

Before you begin, you'll need to download a copy of Fixation. You can use either Fixation 1.41 by Adam Miller or the more recent Fixation 2.0 by Craig Knelsen. You will also need a copy of ResEdit, a resource editor by Apple Computer.

Adding New Chess Sets

1. Click once on the Fixation icon and use File/Duplicate (Command-D) to duplicate it. You may want to rename the new file Fixation*. This copy is the version of the program that you will modify. If you make a mistake, you will still have an unchanged copy of the original. To be extra careful, move the original into a different folder for safekeeping.
2. Open ResEdit and open your Fixation* file. You may be able to do this by simply dragging the Fixation* file icon onto the ResEdit icon. A window titled "Fixation" will open.
3. If you don't see icons, use View/by Icon. When you see the icons, resize the window or scroll down until you see one labeled PICT. It looks like a paintbrush and house. Double-click the PICT icon. A window titled "PICTs from Fixation" will open.
4. If you don't see chess pieces, use View/by PICT. When you see the chess pieces, scroll down until you see a set of white pieces that you want to replace. (Make sure this is a set that you don't use, because the pieces will be deleted.) Double-click the image of the white pieces. A window titled "PICT ID=... from Fixation" will open and you should see the full-size set of white pieces.
5. Now open your web browser and return to the top of this web page. Find the set of white pieces that you want to add. Copy the GIF image by clicking and holding on the image. A pop-up menu will appear. Depending on your browser, you should select "Copy Image" or "Copy this Image" from the list of options. This puts a PICT version of the GIF image into the temporary memory area of your Macintosh called the Clipboard.
6. Return to the Fixation "PICT ID" window. Use the Edit/Paste (Command-V) feature. The new set of white pieces will replace the old set of white pieces.
7. Close the "PICT ID" window.
8. Repeat Steps 4-7 for the related set of black pieces.
9. Close the "PICTs from Fixation" window.
10. Close the "Fixation" window. Because you have made changes, you will see an alert dialog box asking if you want to save the changes you have made. Select "Yes" to save the changes. Then quit from ResEdit.

Testing Your New Set

If everything worked, the old set of pieces will be gone, and the new set of pieces will work. Test your new set of pieces by opening Fixation* and logging on to your favorite ICC or FICS server as usual. Use the "Option/Board and Pieces..." feature to select your new chess set by clicking its radio button.

These sets work best when you set the dark square color to a light color tint or light gray, as shown in the examples below.

A Usable Small Board

Notice also that the Cheq Mini font yields a very readable board when you shrink a game board to its smallest size. This is good if you want to use an unobtrusive board or want to observe several games at once. Compare the legibility of the Cheq Mini pieces to some of the other Fixation pieces.

Making Your Own Sets

If you have your own favorite chess font, you can use it to make your own new pieces. Just build an image that is 192 pixels by 32 pixels. Put the images of pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, and king in order, each one taking exactly 32 pixels by 32 pixels.

Whatever is white in your image will appear transparent, so use a light gray such as R=238, G=238, B=238 if you want a near-white color. I built the above pieces in Photoshop, using antialiasing for some of them, then flattened the images, used an indexed color table based on the 256-color Macintosh system palette, and saved them as GIF images.

If you make your own chess sets, you are welcome to send me a copy so I can consider adding them to this page.

Credits

If you like these bitmaps, you may want to acquire the actual fonts for setting diagrams.

Hastings and Linares are by Steve Smith, and are available from Alpine Electronics.
Linotype Game Pi font is by the Linotype staff, and is available from Adobe.
Chess Alpha (by Eric Bentzen) and Traveller Standard (by Alan Cowderoy) are freeware, and are available in a package from Jorge Salas.
Cheq is by John Renner, and is available from Adobe and in a free package from Exachess.

Fowell bitmaps are by Richard A. Fowell and appear in MacChess. Used by permission.

Fixation is free, but its creators Adam Miller and Craig Knelsen ask that you not distribute your altered version to others without their permission.

Will Johnston <wij@world.std.com>
FICS: wij

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