Chess program written in 6502 assembly to run on KIM-1 emulator
DATA SEGMENT: 192 bytes (board, move offsets, etc.)
CODE SEGMENT: 717 bytes (search, make move & display)
TOTAL: 909 bytes of KIM-1 RAM
1. Copy and paste the code from src/chess.asm
to the code editor at KIM-1 emulator
(or you may try luck uploading program
from paper the tape file)
2. In the emulator click 'Assemble', set starting address to 0x0000, click 'Ok'
3. Click 'Upload' button, you should see \[00 00 16\] on the screen
4. Press 0200 on keypad, you should see \[02 00 A9\] on the screen
5. Press 'GO' on keypad - engine would start searching for a best move
for whites in starting position (unless you've made a move before)
and ends up displaying best move like \[63 43 00\] which means D2D4.
Default search depth is 3 which is the minimal depth to search
for a mate. With search depth 3 it takes around 1 minute to make
a move, in a complicated middlegame positions it may take up to
half an hour to come up with a best move. So you may want to change
the search depth to speed up KIM's thinking process, just alter
the value at $0201 for that purpose. Beware though - values greater
than 3 would take ages to complete, while values 2 and 1 would result
in a faster play but the engine would not be capable of finding a mate,
so if you're in the endgame, make sure the search depth is equal to 3.
00 16 14 15 17 13 15 14 16 Coordinates layout: RANK+FILE e.g. 64 = E2
10 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 $09 - White pawn $12 - Black pawn
30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 $0C - White knight $14 - Black knight
40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 $0D - White bishop $15 - Black bishop
50 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 $0E - White rook $16 - Black rook
60 09 09 09 09 09 09 09 09 $0F - White queen $17 - Black queen
70 0E 0C 0D 0F 0B 0D 0C 0E $0B - White king $13 - Black king
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 $00BC - Side to move, $08: white, $10: black
Now the version printing the board to the serial monitor is available,
see src/chess_tty - engine would print the board if in serial mode. If
you want to print the board after making a move use 03F6 [SPACE][G] in
TTY mode.
