Is there a "Hello World" or MVP of chess programming?

[jaroslav.tavgen]

I would like to ask, is there something like a "Hello World" or "Minimum Viable Product" for a chess engine programming? Something like a required minimum in order to create a decent chess program? Some kind of "required minimum" which would help me understand the essence of chess engine without diving into non-important details. Something like a XOR problem for neural networks?

The closest I have found is the Bluefever Software tutorial .

Is this really an MVP or it could be something different?

Thank you!

[towforce]

How about...

1. Able to generate legal moves from given position

2. Have a mechanism for evaluating resulting positions

3. Either have a way of inputting and outputting moves, or a way to connect to a chess UI

[Brunetti]

1. Able to generate legal moves from given position
2. Have a mechanism for evaluating resulting positions
3. Either have a way of inputting and outputting moves, or a way to connect to a chess UI

0. Define your data structures, how to represent the chessboard (e.g., arrays or bitboards), encode moves (including special ones), and how to store game state details like castling rights, en passant, and move counters.

Alex

[hgm]

Micro-Max?

[smatovic]

Micro-Max?

Would like to add:

- MSCP
- TSCP
- VICE

These are all educational engines IIRC.

--
Srdja

[flok]

Micro-Max?

Would like to add:

- MSCP
- TSCP
- VICE

These are all educational engines IIRC.

--
Srdja

Could not find the sourcecode of MSCP. Does anyone still have it?

[smatovic]

[...]
Could not find the sourcecode of MSCP. Does anyone still have it?

archive.org helps:

https://web.archive.org/web/20201106235 ... .net/mscp/
https://web.archive.org/web/20130525161 ... /download/

There was once a 1.6? Jim Ablett version with time control, dunno where that one is gone.

--
Srdja

[flok]

[...]
Could not find the sourcecode of MSCP. Does anyone still have it?

archive.org helps:

https://web.archive.org/web/20201106235 ... .net/mscp/
https://web.archive.org/web/20130525161 ... /download/

There was once a 1.6? Jim Ablett version with time control, dunno where that one is gone.

--
Srdja

thanks!

[jaroslav.tavgen]

Micro-Max?

Would like to add:

- MSCP
- TSCP
- VICE

These are all educational engines IIRC.

--
Srdja

Thank you! I will google what do all those names mean:)

By MVP or "Hello World!" I meant chess engine that plays decently (at least 1800-2000 ELO). As I understand, Minimax is not enough. I wonder is Alpha-Beta Pruning could be enough or you also need to complement that technology with stuff like Quiescence and other.

Bluefever also introduced such things as Killer Moves, Principle Variation, Beta Cut-offs, moves that were evaluated during lower search depth. Is that an overkill (for a newbie) or all of these technologies are essential in order to make sure that your engine does not blunder every second move?

[smatovic]

[...]

These engines are all listed on CPW, take a look:

https://www.chessprogramming.org/

MSCP is rated ~1600 TSCP ~1700 are and Vice (C engine by BlueFeverSoft) ~2000 Elo points on CCRL.

https://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/402.a ... t_all.html

--
Srdja