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A lightweight terminal-based chess game written in C++

Cless (short for CLI Chess, even though it's a TUI) is a terminal-based chess game written in C++ that allows you to play chess locally against another human or against UCI-compatible chess engines.

Requirements

• C++ Compiler: Supporting C++17 standard
• ncurses: For terminal UI functionality
• CMake: Version 3.25 or higher
• Make: Build system

Installation

Building from Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/2viny/cless.git
   cd cless

2. Create build directory and compile:

   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
   make

3. Run the executable:

   ./cless

Installing on Arch Linux

If you're using Arch Linux, you can install directly using the provided PKGBUILD:

makepkg -si

Note: In the future it will be possible to install cless from the AUR, once that is possible this README will be updated.

Usage

Basic Usage

Start the game without any arguments for human vs human play:

cless

Playing Against an Engine

To play against a UCI-compatible chess engine:

cless --engine "/path/to/your/engine"

Popular UCI engines you can use:

• Stockfish: cless --engine "stockfish"
• GNU Chess: cless --engine "gnuchess"

Note: In the future cless is supposed to also allow options to be passed to the engine, this is a work in progress at the moment.

Development

Building for Development

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ..
make

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Future Planned Features

• LAN Multiplayer Support: Play against friends over the network
• Game Analysis: Move history and position evaluation (when an engine is provided)
• Engine Configuration: Adjustable difficulty settings

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.