Chess

Description

The following is a program for playing chess in the console written in python3. The program has been built to use the computer chess standard EPD (extended position description) for loading and exporting game positions. The program also makes use of standard chess notation (English) as you would in an actual chess tournament so that the games can be universally understood and later analysed.

Board Display

Pieces

• White = Upper Case (Positive)
• Black = Lower Case (Negative)
• P,p = Pawn (1,-1)
• N,n = Knight (2,-2)
• B,b = Bishop (3,-3)
• R,r = Rook (4,-4)
• Q,q = Queen (5,-5)
• K,k = King (6,-6)

Board

a8	b8	c8	d8	e8	f8	g8	h8
a7	b7	c7	d7	e7	f7	g7	h7
a6	b6	c6	d6	e6	f6	g6	h6
a5	b5	c5	d5	e5	f5	g5	h5
a4	b4	c4	d4	e4	f4	g4	h4
a3	b3	c3	d3	e3	f3	g3	h3
a2	b2	c2	d2	e2	f2	g2	h2
a1	b1	c1	d1	e1	f1	g1	h1

Launch Instructions

(PVP)
step 1: open main.py and make sure the "white" & "black" global variable are as follows;

white = 'human' #Values ['human','ai']
black = 'human' #Values ['human','ai']

setp 2: make sure your game is set to use the initial board position you would like

#Default
chess_game = Chess() #Uses 'rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq -' as EPD hash

or

#Custom starting position
chess_game = Chess(EPD='1b4k1/Q7/p2np1/P1P2p2/1P3P2/1R5R/q6P/5rK1 b - -') #Any EPD hash you want to start with

step 3: open your console
step 4: type the following command "cd [app directory]"
step 5: type the following command "python3 main.py"

(PVAI)
step 1: open main.py and make sure the "white" & "black" global variable are as follows;

#Play as white
white = 'human' #Values ['human','ai']
black = 'ai' #Values ['human','ai']

or

#Play as black
white = 'ai' #Values ['human','ai']
black = 'human' #Values ['human','ai']

step 2: makes sure you have imported the ai you wish to play

from ai_ben.ai import Agent

step 3: make sure your ai is properly initialized

#Play as white
b_bot = Agent(max_depth=100) #Initailize white bot

or

#Play as black
w_bot = Agent(max_depth=100) #Initailize white bot

setp 4: make sure your game is set to use the initial board position you would like

#Default
chess_game = Chess() #Uses 'rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq -' as EPD hash

or

#Custom starting position
chess_game = Chess(EPD='1b4k1/Q7/p2np1/P1P2p2/1P3P2/1R5R/q6P/5rK1 b - -') #Any EPD hash you want to start with

step 5: open your console
step 6: type the following command "cd [app directory]"
step 7: type the following command "python3 main.py"

Write Up

To get a better understanding of why the code is written this way check out my detailed write ups:

• https://medium.com/@bellerb/building-a-chess-engine-part1-9758da877be7
• https://medium.com/@bellerb/building-a-chess-engine-part2-db4784e843d5