chess-cpp

A chess game written in C++ with a terminal CLI and an X11 graphical interface.

Dependencies

Install the required packages:

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt-get install -y g++ make libx11-dev

# Fedora / RHEL
sudo dnf install -y gcc-c++ make libX11-devel

# Arch
sudo pacman -S gcc make libx11

# macOS (Homebrew) — CLI only, GUI not supported on macOS
brew install gcc make

Build

make        # build both CLI and GUI
make cli    # CLI only (no libX11 needed)
make gui    # GUI only
make clean  # remove build artifacts

Play

CLI

./chess

Input	Action
e2e4	Move piece from e2 to e4
e7e8q	Move with pawn promotion (q/r/b/n)
e2	Show legal moves for piece at e2
z / back / undo	Undo last move
h / help	Show help
q / exit	Quit

Legal moves are highlighted on the board — green for free squares, red for captures.

GUI

./chess-gui

If you get cannot open display, run:

export DISPLAY=:0 && ./chess-gui

Action	Control
Select piece	Left-click
Move piece	Left-click a highlighted square
Deselect	Right-click
Undo	Z
Quit	Esc

Click a piece to see its legal moves highlighted (green dots = free, red border = capture). Pawn promotion opens a dialog to choose the piece.

Rules supported

• All standard moves (pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, queens, kings)
• Castling (kingside and queenside)
• En passant
• Pawn promotion
• Check and checkmate detection
• Stalemate detection
• Fifty-move draw rule
• Threefold repetition draw rule