README.md

uci

Introduction

uci is a client package for Universal Chess Interface protocol (UCI) compliant engines (such as Stockfish).

Installation

uci requires an engine to be useful. On macOS you can install Stockfish with:

brew install stockfish

All installation methods are listed on Stockfish's Download Page

Supported Commands

Engine's Run method takes commands that implement the Cmd interface. Here is a supported commands:

Command	Type	Description
uci	CmdUCI	tell engine to use the uci
isready	CmdIsReady	this command can be used to wait for the engine to be ready again or to ping the engine to find out if it is still alive
setoption	CmdSetOption	this is sent to the engine when the user wants to change the internal parameters
ucinewgame	CmdNewGame	this is sent to the engine when the next search (started with "position" and "go") will be from a different game.
position	CmdPosition	set up the position described in fenstring on the internal board and play the moves on the internal chess board.
go	CmdGo	start calculating on the current position set up with the "position" command.
stop	CmdStop	stop calculating as soon as possible
ponderhit	CmdPonderHit	This will be sent if the engine was told to ponder on the same move the user has played
quit	CmdQuit	quit the program as soon as possible

Example Stockfish v. Stockfish

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"time"

	"github.com/notnil/chess"
	"github.com/notnil/chess/uci"
)

func main() {
	// set up engine to use stockfish exe
	eng, err := uci.New("stockfish")
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer eng.Close()
	// initialize uci with new game
	if err := eng.Run(uci.CmdUCI, uci.CmdIsReady, uci.CmdUCINewGame); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	// have stockfish play speed chess against itself (10 msec per move)
	game := chess.NewGame()
	for game.Outcome() == chess.NoOutcome {
		cmdPos := uci.CmdPosition{Position: game.Position()}
		cmdGo := uci.CmdGo{MoveTime: time.Second / 100}
		if err := eng.Run(cmdPos, cmdGo); err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
		move := eng.SearchResults().BestMove
		if err := game.Move(move); err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
	}
	fmt.Println(game.String())
	// Output: 
	// 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nf6 6.a3 d5 7.cxd5 exd5 8.Bf4 Bc5 9.Ndb5 O-O 10.Nc7 d4 11.Na4 Be7 12.Nxa8 Bf5 13.g3 Qd5 14.f3 Rxa8 15.Bg2 Rd8 16.b4 Qe6 17.Nc5 Bxc5 18.bxc5 Nd5 19.O-O Nc3 20.Qd2 Nxe2+ 21.Kh1 d3 22.Bd6 Qd7 23.Rab1 h6 24.a4 Re8 25.g4 Bg6 26.a5 Ncd4 27.Qb4 Qe6 28.Qxb7 Nc2 29.Qxa7 Ne3 30.Rb8 Nxf1 31.Qb6 d2 32.Rxe8+ Qxe8 33.Qb3 Ne3 34.h3 Bc2 35.Qxc2 Nxc2 36.Kh2 d1=Q 37.h4 Qg1+ 38.Kh3 Ne1 39.h5 Qxg2+ 40.Kh4 Nxf3#  0-1
}