Chess programming C++

[FainterSquare]

Hello my name is FainterSquare and I was wondering how to code a chess program in C++. I found it very difficult to find way to code a chess program on my own from the references on the internet so I was wondering if there were any good resources that would allow me to code a chess program on my own from scratch. I have looked at chessprograming wiki and looked over the internet yet no one seems to have made any videos on how to code chess..




-----Sincerely FainterSquare

[smatovic]

Hello my name is FainterSquare and I was wondering how to code a chess program in C++. I found it very difficult to find way to code a chess program on my own from the references on the internet so I was wondering if there were any good resources that would allow me to code a chess program on my own from scratch. I have looked at chessprograming wiki and looked over the internet yet no one seems to have made any videos on how to code chess..

-----Sincerely FainterSquare

I started with C and a MiniMax search for TicTacToe first,
then implemented AlphaBeta,
then started to implement move generation for chess by CPW,
which was a mind wrapping task back then....

--
Srdja

[Dann Corbit]

Hello my name is FainterSquare and I was wondering how to code a chess program in C++. I found it very difficult to find way to code a chess program on my own from the references on the internet so I was wondering if there were any good resources that would allow me to code a chess program on my own from scratch. I have looked at chessprograming wiki and looked over the internet yet no one seems to have made any videos on how to code chess..




-----Sincerely FainterSquare

Did you find this place:
https://www.chessprogramming.org/Main_Page

[odomobo]

Here's a great resource (the vice chess engine), but it uses c instead of c++ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGAfaep ... tZHVbT-2hg

TSCP is the classic "reference" chess engine, in c (not significantly different from vice, in terms of features).

My engine GearHeart https://bitbucket.org/odomobo/gearheart is supposed to be a kind of a reference engine in c++17. However, I suspect it might be too advanced for people new to chess programming, and there's currently not much documentation.

[jdart]

See also https://arasanchess.org/programr.shtml.

--Jon

[hgm]

If you don't mind plain C, (which after all is a sub-set of C++) you could also start with micro-Max (far simpler than TSCP, and stronger), or KingSlayer (stronger still, and a bit more conventional). Both sources are elaborately commented.

[supriyala]

Great information here. Thank you. Excellent share!

[tocnaza]

Nice info! Thanks for sharing us!

[jorose]

Definitely take a look at Andrew Grant's Ethereal. It is written in C, not C++, but the code is fairly straightforward and it is some of the cleanest and most well commented code I am aware of.
Stockfish also has a lot of good comments and is in C++, but I find it a bit more difficult to follow as it is extremely optimized and sometimes a bit over-engineered.
The benefit of these two (and Arasan from further up, but I haven't looked at that code myself) is that you won't really outgrow the codebase and most of the state of the art ideas for classical AB engines are implemented.

A large portion of the other engines I am aware of are small projects by individual (but oftentimes brilliant) programmers and this is unfortunately quite visible in the lack of comments and code cleanliness.

[SlowThought]

I used C++ for Zotron (last release in 2004), with extensive use of object orientation to describe the various pieces. It helped me get the program working, but there is a performance price. If I were to do it again, and my goal was a strong engine, I'd stick to C.