HalfKP is a free, powerful UCI chess engine derived from Stockfish. It is not a complete chess program and requires a UCI-compatible GUI (e.g. Cute Chess, Fritz, Arena, Sigma Chess, Shredder, Chess Partner or Komodo) in order to be used comfortably.
Currently, HalfKP has the following UCI options:
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Write all communication to and from the engine into a text file.
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A positive value for contempt favors middle game positions and avoids draws.
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The number of CPU threads used for searching a position. For best performance, set this equal to the number of CPU cores available.
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The size of the hash table in MB.
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Clear the hash table.
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Let HalfKP ponder its next move while the opponent is thinking.
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Output the N best lines (principal variations, PVs) when searching. Leave at 1 for best performance.
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Lower the Skill Level in order to make HalfKP play weaker.
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Assume a time delay of x ms due to network and GUI overheads. This is useful to avoid losses on time in those cases.
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Search for at least x ms per move.
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Lower values will make HalfKP take less time in games, higher values will make it think longer.
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Tells the engine to use nodes searched instead of wall time to account for elapsed time. Useful for engine testing.
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An option handled by your GUI. If true, HalfKP will play Chess960.
The MSYS2 environment is recommended for compiling HalfKP on Windows.
To compile, type:
make target ARCH=arch [COMP=comp]
Example: make build ARCH=x86-64 COMP=mingw
Lists of supported targets, archs and compilers can be viewed by typing make help.
