chess-tcn 1.0.0

Encode and decode TCN, a move format used by Chess.com's API

Chess TCN Python

Overview

Chess TCN Python is a Python package that provides functionality to encode and decode TCN (Tournament Chess Notation), a move format used by Chess.com's live-game API. This package is ideal for developers looking to work with TCN in Python applications.

What is TCN?

TCN is a format used by Chess.com to transmit move lists in its JSON API. A typical endpoint for retrieving a game’s move list is:

https://www.chess.com/callback/live/game/{gameId}

This endpoint returns a moveList field containing a TCN string.

Features

• Decode TCN strings into PGN (Portable Game Notation).
• Encode PGN back into TCN format.

Installation

To install the package, use pip:

pip install chess-tcn

Usage

Here’s a quick example of how to use the package:

from chess_tcn import decode_tcn, encode_tcn, tcn_to_pgn, pgn_to_tcn

# Example TCN string (e.g. from Chess.com live‐game API)
tcn_string = "mC0Kgv7Tbq5Qlt9IqHT7cM1TMFWOHs2MFwZRfm6Eeg"

# Decode TCN to a list of move dicts
moves = decode_tcn(tcn_string)
print("Decoded moves (dicts):", moves)

# Re-encode that move list back into a TCN string
reencoded_tcn = encode_tcn(moves)
print("Re-encoded TCN string:", reencoded_tcn)

# Convert the TCN string directly to a PGN move-text string
pgn_text = tcn_to_pgn(tcn_string)
print("PGN move-text:", pgn_text)

# Convert a PGN move-text string back into TCN
roundtrip_tcn = pgn_to_tcn(pgn_text)
print("TCN from PGN:", roundtrip_tcn)

API Reference

For complete details on usage, check out the documentation.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See below for full text.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2021-2025 chess-tcn

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of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
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The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
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