♟️ ChessLink

ChessLink is a real-time WebSocket API for facilitating chess game interactions — minimal, TypeScript-driven, and designed for rapid integration.

🧠 This project is a personal learning exercise where I explored WebSocket communication patterns, practiced deploying a Node.js server to Render.io, and built a simple TypeScript API for real-time chess gameplay with basic lobby management.

🔧 Tech Stack

• Node.js with TypeScript
• Socket.io for real-time WebSocket communication
• Docker for containerization and deployment
• Jest for testing
• Render.io for production deployment

✅ Features

• Real-time multiplayer chess gameplay via WebSocket connections
• Basic lobby system for game discovery and matchmaking
• Game state management with move validation
• Reconnection handling with 5-second grace period
• Draw offers and resignation support
• Player-specific game state updates
• Dockerized for deployment consistency
• TypeScript implementation with type definitions

🚀 Quickstart

Local Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/BeckettFrey/ChessLink.git
cd ChessLink

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run in development mode
npm run dev

The server will start on http://localhost:3000 with health check available at /health.

🐳 Docker Setup

# Build and run with Docker
docker build -t chesslink .
docker run -p 3000:3000 chesslink

# Or use Docker Compose
docker-compose up --build

🧪 Testing

# Run all tests
npm test

# Run tests with coverage
npm run test:coverage

# Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:watch

Tests are not fully complete but structurally thought out. Test files are located in:

src/
├── gameManager/__tests__/
├── middleware/__tests__/
├── services/__tests__/
└── sockets/__tests__/

🎯 Use Cases

Useful for developers who need:

• Simple chess integration — Basic API for chess functionality
• Minimal lobby setup — Straightforward multiplayer chess implementation
• Real-time game state — Synchronized gameplay across clients
• Learning reference — Example implementation for similar projects

📚 Learning Achievements

This repository documents my hands-on exploration of real-time application development. Through building ChessLink, I:

• Learned WebSocket Communication: Implemented bidirectional real-time communication with event handling and state synchronization
• Practiced Production Deployment: Successfully containerized and deployed a TypeScript application to Render.io
• Explored TypeScript APIs: Developed a structured API with type definitions and basic error handling
• Experimented with Game State Management: Created systems for handling game states, disconnections, and player interactions
• Applied Development Practices: Used Docker for consistency, Jest for testing, and organized project structure

🔗 Integration Example

import io from 'socket.io-client';

const socket = io('your-chesslink-api-url');

// Join game
socket.emit('joinGame', gameId);

// Handle game updates
socket.on('updateChessLink', (chessLink) => {
  // Update state accordingly
  setChessLink(chessLink);
});

// Make a move
socket.emit('makeMove', { from: 'e2', to: 'e4' })