DON Chess Engine

Discussion of anything and everything relating to chess playing software and machines.

Moderator: Ras

erashid
Posts: 206
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 8:40 pm
Full name: Ehsan Rashid

DON Chess Engine

Post by erashid »

DON is a modern chess engine focused on search quality, deterministic behavior, and low-level performance engineering. It implements a highly optimized alpha–beta framework with advanced pruning, selective extensions, and carefully tuned move ordering to maximize node efficiency under strict time constraints.

The engine is written in modern C++ with heavy attention to data locality, branch predictability, and instruction-level parallelism. Core subsystems make extensive use of bitboards, compact lookup tables, and cache-aware layouts, while critical hot paths are designed to minimize allocations and unpredictable control flow. DON is built to scale across contemporary x86-64 CPUs, leveraging optional SIMD and BMI instructions where available.

Time management, PV handling, and evaluation integration are engineered to behave robustly in real tournament conditions, prioritizing stability, reproducibility, and measurable Elo gains over heuristic complexity. The project serves both as a competitive engine and as a platform for experimenting with search optimizations and evaluation refinements.

DON engine now supports up to 7-man Syzygy tablebases. It allows fast and precise endgame evaluation by leveraging precomputed perfect-play databases, enabling accurate move decisions even in complex seven(7)-piece endgames.

Feature:
- Faster tablebases algorithm implemented.



Thanks
Ehsan Rashid
erashid
Posts: 206
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 8:40 pm
Full name: Ehsan Rashid

DON Chess Engine

Post by erashid »

DON engine now supports up to 7-man Syzygy tablebases. It allows fast and precise endgame evaluation by leveraging precomputed perfect-play databases, enabling accurate move decisions even in complex seven(7)-piece endgames.

Feature:
- Supports up to 7-man Syzygy tablebases.
- Faster tablebases algorithm implemented.
- Faster Memory management on Linux, Ubuntu & Windows. (still working on Andriod)

Please check out the latest build of DON here:
I uploaded to 3 servers.

1. mediafire
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/06ewg9vo8mfuj/DON

2. mega
https://mega.nz/folder/Cc1zkbAR#bnycmCX38aGjK6YavnMWqw

3. pixeldrain
https://pixeldrain.com/l/cvMpTsdy

I uploaded the following builds:

Windows:
1. DON-windows-armv8
2. DON-windows-armv8-dotprod
3. DON-windows-x86-64-ssse3
4. DON-windows-x86-64-ssse3-popcnt
5. DON-windows-x86-64-sse41-popcnt
6. DON-windows-x86-64-avx2
7-. DON-windows-x86-64-bmi2
7*. DON-windows-x86-64-bmi2-comp
8-. DON-windows-x86-64-avxvnni
8*. DON-windows-x86-64-avxvnni-comp
9-. DON-windows-x86-64-avx512
9*. DON-windows-x86-64-avx512-comp

Ubuntu:
1. DON-ubuntu-x86-64-sse41-popcnt
2. DON-ubuntu-x86-64-avx2
3. DON-ubuntu-x86-64-bmi2
4. DON-ubuntu-x86-64-avxvnni

macOS:
1. DON-macos-m1-apple-silicon
2. DON-macos-x86-64-sse41-popcnt
3. DON-macos-x86-64-avx2
4. DON-macos-x86-64-bmi2

Andriod:
1. DON-android-armv8
2. DON-android-armv8-dotprod

*NOTE: *comp = Compressed version

Thanks
Ehsan Rashid
Chacal X
Posts: 127
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2025 9:06 pm
Full name: flavio thomazini

Re: DON Chess Engine

Post by Chacal X »

Hello.
I've said this several times, this program can't finish the game (checkmate). After playing 5 or 6 games, it freezes, making it difficult to even switch engines. Has no one else tested this? Or have they never played more than 5 games in a row with it? I really don't understand why they haven't fixed this serious flaw yet, it's regrettable...
Joerg Oster
Posts: 991
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Germany
Full name: Jörg Oster

Re: DON Chess Engine

Post by Joerg Oster »

erashid wrote: Fri Jan 23, 2026 12:47 pm DON engine now supports up to 7-man Syzygy tablebases. It allows fast and precise endgame evaluation by leveraging precomputed perfect-play databases, enabling accurate move decisions even in complex seven(7)-piece endgames.

Feature:
- Supports up to 7-man Syzygy tablebases.
- Faster tablebases algorithm implemented.
- Faster Memory management on Linux, Ubuntu & Windows. (still working on Andriod)

Please check out the latest build of DON here:
I uploaded to 3 servers.

1. mediafire
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/06ewg9vo8mfuj/DON

2. mega
https://mega.nz/folder/Cc1zkbAR#bnycmCX38aGjK6YavnMWqw

3. pixeldrain
https://pixeldrain.com/l/cvMpTsdy

I uploaded the following builds:

Windows:
1. DON-windows-armv8
2. DON-windows-armv8-dotprod
3. DON-windows-x86-64-ssse3
4. DON-windows-x86-64-ssse3-popcnt
5. DON-windows-x86-64-sse41-popcnt
6. DON-windows-x86-64-avx2
7-. DON-windows-x86-64-bmi2
7*. DON-windows-x86-64-bmi2-comp
8-. DON-windows-x86-64-avxvnni
8*. DON-windows-x86-64-avxvnni-comp
9-. DON-windows-x86-64-avx512
9*. DON-windows-x86-64-avx512-comp

Ubuntu:
1. DON-ubuntu-x86-64-sse41-popcnt
2. DON-ubuntu-x86-64-avx2
3. DON-ubuntu-x86-64-bmi2
4. DON-ubuntu-x86-64-avxvnni

macOS:
1. DON-macos-m1-apple-silicon
2. DON-macos-x86-64-sse41-popcnt
3. DON-macos-x86-64-avx2
4. DON-macos-x86-64-bmi2

Andriod:
1. DON-android-armv8
2. DON-android-armv8-dotprod

*NOTE: *comp = Compressed version

Thanks
Ehsan Rashid
Please, either include the sources or give a link to them.
DON is still based on Stockfish. Removing all references to its origin is ... well, a bit unfortunate, to say the least.
You really should comply to the license.
Jörg Oster