title: 0x88 chess board representation
body: <p>I am trying to make a 2 player chess program with a GUI in wxPython that is able to validate moves and follow every chess rule. </p>
  
  <p>Right now, I am at the beginning of my design and figuring out which board representation technique I should use. I recently thought the obvious, two dimensional array, but then I read about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_representation_%28chess%29#0x88_method" rel="nofollow">0x88 board representation</a> that is supposedly faster in terms of lookups and logically checks if the square is inside the chessboard or not. But, if I make a program without AI, there is no need to check if someone has moved a move that is outside of the board. </p>
  
  <p>Is there any other advantages with the 0x88 representation that I'm not aware of and which one would you recommend , the 8x8 approach or 0x88. Also, would it be easy to first use a 8x8 representation , and then later, maybe if I decide to add AI, use the 0x88 one ?
  Thank you very much for your thoughts.</p>