Guillem's Chess Engine

This is a project made by Guillem Cabré. Its purpose is to learn how a Chess Engine works, using algorithmic experience and learning from other projects to gain expertise in computer science. The program features a simple GUI for users to interact with the game using the cursor.

The project is implemented in C++.

Table of Contents

• Guillem's Chess Engine
  • Table of Contents
  • Requirements
    • Installing Dependencies on Ubuntu/Debian
  • Compiling and Executing
    • Executing Options
      • Example Usage
    • Commands
  • References

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Requirements

Before you begin, ensure you have met the following requirements:

• You have installed g++
• cmake is installed
• You have libsdl2-dev, libsdl2-image-dev, libsdl2-mixer-dev installed

If any of these are not installed, please refer to Installing Dependencies on Ubuntu/Debian.

To clone the repository, use the following command:

git clone https://github.com/Willyllem88/Chess-Engine.git
cd Chess-Engine

Installing Dependencies on Ubuntu/Debian

To install the necessary dependencies, run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install g++ cmake libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev

Compiling and Executing

1. Build the project:

   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake ..
   make

2. Executing the Program:

   After compiling, the executable file is engine, to see its options use --help.

   ./engine <options>

3. Cleaning the Build:

   To clean the directory of object files and executables, use:

   make clean

   In order to clean the entire build, use:

   make distclean

   The executable file will be named engine.

Executing Options

The options are specified using the -option format:

• -h or --help: Displays a usage message.
• -b <Player | <engine_name>> or --black <Player | <engine_name>>: Specifies who will play with the black pieces.
• -w <Player | <engine_name>> or --white <Player | <engine_name>>: Specifies who will play with the white pieces.
• -c or --console-only: Runs the program without the GUI, allowing moves to be entered via the console.
• -t <seconds> or --timespan <seconds>: Sets the time span (in seconds) that the engine will take to make a move after its opponent. Can handle decimals.
• -f "<fen>" or --load-fen "<fen>": Loads a FEN (Forsyth-Edwards_Notation) position to the board. Visit FEN documentation. Important: The FEN string must be enclosed in quotes. If not specified, the initial board will be set to the default position.

The default values are --white Player, --black Player, and --timespan 2.

Example Usage

To run the program with a player as white and an engine named "EngineV1" as black, with a timespan of 2.5 seconds, and displaying it through the console, with an example FEN string, use:

./engine -w Player -b EngineV1 -t 2.5 -c -f "4k2r/6r1/8/8/8/8/3R4/R3K3 w Qk - 0 1"

Commands

During the execution of the program, the user can enter the following commands:

• u or undo: Undoes the last move. The user can undo multiple moves until the initial board is reached.
• <algebraic-move-notation>: if it's a valid move, it will perform it.

References

• FEN-Forsyth Edwards Notation
• Negamax algorithm
• Alpha Beta Pruning
• Transposition Table
• Iterative Deepening
• Bartek Spitza: The Fascinating Programming of a Chess Engine
• Sebastian Lague: Coding Adventure: Chess

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