Cchess

A straightforward command-line chess engine written in C.

Compiling

Compiled binaries are created in ./build/bin/.

Make

• make: Compile the chess engine in release mode.
• make debug: Compile with debug symbols enabled for easier debugging and development.
• make clean: Remove compiled binaries and object files.

CMake

1. Build:

   cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
   cmake --build build --config Release

2. Debug build:

   cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
   cmake --build build --config Debug

3. Clean:

   rm -rf build

Commands

Here is a list of the available commands:

• help: Display a list of available commands.
• exit: Exit the program.
• reset: Reset the board and clear history.
• back [n]: Undo previous n moves (default 1).
• lock: Lock board orientation to current player's perspective.
• unlock: Unlock board orientation to switch between each player's perspective.
• history: Display move history.
• list: List all legal moves for current position.
• perft <depth>: Count all possible positions up to depth, starting from the current position.
• play: Computer makes the best move for the current player.
• auto: Enable automatic play for the current player.
• <move>: Enter a legal move in algebraic coordinates (e.g., e2e4, g7g8q). Promotion suffixes: n=Knight, b=Bishop, r=Rook, q=Queen.

Some commands can be preloaded when launching the engine. Commands are executed in order, allowing you to start the engine with predefined behavior without interactive input. For example:

./build/bin/chess auto lock

• auto: Sets the current player (white at start) to be controlled by the engine.
• lock: Locks the board orientation to the perspective of the current player (now black).

Config

Configurable options are defined in ./src/config.h. Any changes to this file require the project to be recompiled for the changes to take effect.

License

This project is open source and licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License. see the LICENSE file for more details.