chess_engine

A UCI chess engine written in C++. GUI is developed using GTK4.

Coding blog: What, when, why I wrote what I wrote

@SohamChessBot is on LiChess: Watch or Challenge

about

features

• Board representation
  • Array of 64 pieces
• Search
  • Minimax with α-β pruning
  • Quiescence search
  • Iterative deepening
  • Mate distance pruning
  • Null move pruning
  • Late move reduction
  • Check extension
  • Repetition draw detection using transposition table
• Move ordering
  • Capture, en passant, promotion moves are ordered first
• Evaluation
  • Piece-square tables
  • Material
  • Mop-up evaluation
• Perft
• Time management
  • Time per move
  • Time per game
  • Infinite
• UCI protocol
• GUI
  • Premoves
  • Flip board
  • Promotion
  • Open in LiChess
  • Move navigation
  • FEN board setup

supported UCI options

None as of now.

why did I make this?

I wanted to learn more about chess engines and how they work. I also wanted to learn more about C++.

how did I make this?

I read a lot of articles and watched a few videos on chess programming. I used Chess Programming Wiki as a reference time and again. I also spent a lot of time reading the source code of Stockfish.

how to run

using Makefile

Linux:

cd src
make
./main # for UCI engine
./gui  # for GUI chess application

using CMake

prerequisites

• CMake 3.20 or higher
• C++23 compatible compiler (GCC, Clang, etc.)
• GTK4 and pkg-config (optional - GUI will only build if GTK4 is found)

building with CMake

# Configure the build
cmake -B cmake-build-debug -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

# Build all executables
cmake --build cmake-build-debug

# Or build specific targets
cmake --build cmake-build-debug --target main    # UCI engine
cmake --build cmake-build-debug --target runtest # Test executable
cmake --build cmake-build-debug --target gui     # GUI (requires GTK4)

installing GTK4 (for GUI)

macOS:

brew install gtk4 pkg-config

Linux:

sudo apt-get install libgtk-4-dev pkg-config

license

Haven't thought of yet.