♟️ Python Chess Engine

A high-performance, bitboard-based chess engine written in Python, complete with a playable GUI built using Pygame. This project was developed as a deep dive into the worlds of chess programming and artificial intelligence.

It supports all standard chess rules and is designed for experimentation, learning, and as a foundation for more complex chess AI projects.

✨ Features

• Efficient Bitboard Representation: Utilizes bitboards for fast and efficient move generation and board evaluation.
• Complete Rule Set: Full implementation of all chess rules, including:
  • Pawn promotions
  • En passant captures
  • Castling (king-side and queen-side)
  • Stalemate and checkmate detection
• Playable GUI: A clean and simple graphical interface powered by Pygame, allowing you to play against the AI or another human.
• AI Opponent: A built-in AI that uses a classic search algorithm to find the best move.
• Move Validation: Highlights legal moves for a selected piece, making it user-friendly.

🧠 The AI Engine

The brain of this engine is a Minimax search algorithm with Alpha-Beta Pruning. This allows the AI to search several moves deep into the game tree, pruning branches that are guaranteed to be worse than a move already found. This significantly speeds up the decision-making process without sacrificing the quality of the move.

The board's position is evaluated using a heuristic function that considers:

• Material Advantage: The total value of pieces for each side.
• Piece-Square Tables: The strategic value of a piece's position on the board (e.g., a knight in the center is more valuable than one in a corner).
• King Safety: Basic checks to evaluate the safety of the king.

This is a great foundation for anyone interested in game theory and AI search algorithms.

🛠️ Getting Started

Follow these instructions to get a copy of the project up and running on your local machine.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9 or higher
• Git

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/K6EDWIN/Chess.git
   

2. Install the required packages:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

   (Note: Your requirements.txt should contain pygame)

🚀 Usage

To run the game, execute the Gui script from the root directory:

python gui.py