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Hobby & special docs

LaTeX is not only for papers. Its precise layout makes it great for hobby and special documents too — chess games and diagrams, sudoku and crossword puzzles, even knitting charts. This page is a quick tour of the packages.

Chess — skak / xskak / chessboard

skak / xskak (by Ulrike Fischer) typeset chess from PGN (standard game notation). xskak extends skak and also loads the chessboard package for drawing positions. Start a game with \newchessgame, record and print moves with \mainline{1. e4 e5 ...}, and draw the current position with \chessboard (partial boards, coloring, and marks are all possible).

latex
\usepackage{xskak}
...
\newchessgame
\mainline{1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6}   % 棋譜 / the moves
\chessboard                       % 現在の局面 / the current position

Sudoku & crosswords — sudoku / cwpuzzle

The sudoku package sets a 9×9 sudoku grid: list cells separated by | and close each row with |.. For crosswords, use cwpuzzle (by Gerd Neugebauer) — its Puzzle environment typesets the frame and clue numbering, with cells like |[number]X (a letter square) and |* (a blocked square). cwpuzzle also handles Sudoku and Kakuro.

latex
\usepackage{sudoku}
\begin{sudoku}
|2| | |6| |7| | |1|.
| |8| | | | | |5| |.
% …全 9 行 / all 9 rows…
\end{sudoku}

Knitting — knitting

The knitting package (by Ariel Barton) provides symbol fonts and commands (\chart, \textknit) for cable and lace knitting charts. You type symbols as ordinary letters inside a chart (the key is in knitkey), with grid and non-grid rendering. A fun illustration of LaTeX’s reach.

latex
\usepackage{knitting}
...
\textknit{kpkp}   % 記号は英字で / symbols typed as letters

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