Play Chess Online With Zoho Writer

Our users always surprise us when it comes to using Zoho's services in esoteric ways. We came across this interesting post by Bidhan Adhikary (Bidhan is from Nepal) recently - 'How to play Chess online with your friend using Zoho Docs'. Bidhan had actually used the Zoho Writer's editor within Zoho Docs.

The post describes how to construct a black and white table in Zoho Writer, how to place the chess piece icons in the starting squares, how to make the moves (simply drag and drop the images) and how to play chess with your remote, online friend (share the Zoho Writer document with him/her, start making the moves). Since Zoho Writer offers near real-time document editing, each move gets shown to the remote user almost immediately.

You can choose to follow the steps that Bidhan outlines in his blog post. Or click the 'Download' link at the top-right of Bidhan's public Zoho Writer document, save it as a .doc/.docx file in your desktop and upload it back to your Zoho Writer account. Your online chess board is ready now. Invite your friend (share the document to your friend's email address) and start playing chess over the web.

Some pointers:

1. Once you have made your move, you'll have to take your cursor out of the chess board (since Zoho Writer locks the table down for collaborative editing).
2. For capturing an opponent's piece, you can click on a piece and delete it, before moving your piece to that square
3. You can use the 'Undo' icon for wrong capturing, moves etc
   
4. You can use the 'Collaborators' (text bubble) icon at the bottom-right to chat with your friend while making your moves.
5. For starting a new game, you can use Zoho Writer's 'Version' feature and revert back to the initial version
   

Go to Zoho Writer and try making your own online chess board now :)

Have you used any of Zoho's apps in such interesting ways? Share it with us in the comments.