Converting chess diagrams to machine readable FEN with Chessify

Chessify is a multi-service chess platform. Since I am not registered with I cannot say much about it. But a single feature of their phone app is really amazing: it allows to take photos of chess diagrams (printed or screen) and converts them into FEN (Forsyth-Edwards-Notation). This is a standard for machine readable description of chess positions. PGN employs it to record games which do not start from the standard beginning position. And you can directly past it into ChessBase and many other chess apps. This is pretty helpful in these times where chess training is restricted to online meetings.

I made a series of tests with diagrams from books out of my private library. Roughly spoken it is very reliable with books from the 1980s and later. The only fail I experienced there is a book dealing with chess programnming having very low resolved diagrams (presumably for matrix printers or shells).

Prior to that date most tests failed. Main reason is a bishop with a kind of pompom hat that confuses the app. The test series in chronological order:

Converting chess diagrams to machine readable FEN with Chessify 3

Converting chess diagrams to machine readable FEN with Chessify 4

FAIL

Jean Dufresne, Sammlung leichterer Schachaufgaben 2.
Leipzig: Reclam n. d. [ca. 1882].

Converting chess diagrams to machine readable FEN with Chessify 5

Converting chess diagrams to machine readable FEN with Chessify 6

FAIL

Karl J. S. Portius, Katechismus der Schachspielkunst. Leipzig: J. J. Weber ¹⁰1889.

Converting chess diagrams to machine readable FEN with Chessify 7

Converting chess diagrams to machine readable FEN with Chessify 8

FAIL

Rudolf Spielmann, Richtig opfern! Voraussetzungen, Ziel und Durchführung des Opfers im Schachspiel. Leipzig: Hedwig n. d. [ca. 1935] [Reprint Düsseldorf: Schachverlag Manfred
Mädler ²1985].

Converting chess diagrams to machine readable FEN with Chessify 9

Converting chess diagrams to machine readable FEN with Chessify 10

FAIL

Kurt Richter, Der Weg zum Matt. Ein Blick in die Schachtechnik
[Sonderdruck für das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Abteilung Inland]. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co. 1941.