chess-library is a multi-purpose library for chess in C++17.
It can be used for any type of chess program, be it a chess engine, a chess GUI, or a chess data anaylsis tool.
- Fast: This library is fast enough for pretty much any purpose in C++ and it is faster than most other chess libraries in C++.
- Documentation: Easy to browse documentation at https://disservin.github.io/chess-library
- Robust: Unit Tests & it has been tested on millions of chess positions, while developing the C++ part of Stockfish's Winrate Model.
- PGN Support: Parse basic PGN files.
- Namespace: Everything is in the
chess::namespace, so it won't pollute your namespace. - Compact Board Representation in 24bytes: The board state can be compressed into 24 bytes, using
PackedBoardandBoard::Compact::encode/Board::Compact::decode.
Note
Users are advised to update to the latest version of the library, to fix possible SAN/LAN issues.
This is a single header library.
You only need to include chess.hpp header!
Aftewards you can access the chess logic over the chess:: namespace.
This library might throw exceptions in some cases, for example when the input is invalid or things are not as expected.
To disable exceptions, define CHESS_NO_EXCEPTIONS before including the header.
Tested on Ryzen 9 5950X.
Ran with lichess_db_standard_rated_2017-03.pgn on a Samsung 980 SSD.
| Benchmark | Time | Throughput |
|---|---|---|
| ./build/example | 28.927s | 413.281 MB/s |
With movelist preallocation:
| Category | Depth | Time (ms) | NPS | FEN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Chess | 7 | 8988 | 355534749 | rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1 |
| Standard Chess | 5 | 430 | 449398352 | r3k2r/p1ppqpb1/bn2pnp1/3PN3/1p2P3/2N2Q1p/PPPBBPPP/R3K2R w KQkq - 0 1 |
| Standard Chess | 7 | 661 | 269839367 | 8/2p5/3p4/KP5r/1R3p1k/8/4P1P1/8 w - - 0 1 |
| Standard Chess | 6 | 1683 | 419266646 | r3k2r/Pppp1ppp/1b3nbN/nP6/BBP1P3/q4N2/Pp1P2PP/R2Q1RK1 w kq - 0 1 |
| Standard Chess | 5 | 210 | 426261582 | rnbq1k1r/pp1Pbppp/2p5/8/2B5/8/PPP1NnPP/RNBQK2R w KQ - 1 8 |
| Standard Chess | 5 | 377 | 434062304 | r4rk1/1pp1qppp/p1np1n2/2b1p1B1/2B1P1b1/P1NP1N2/1PP1QPPP/R4RK1 w - - 0 1 |
| Chess960 | 6 | 358 | 331644356 | rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w HAha - 0 1 |
| Chess960 | 6 | 710 | 269707784 | 1rqbkrbn/1ppppp1p/1n6/p1N3p1/8/2P4P/PP1PPPP1/1RQBKRBN w FBfb - 0 9 |
| Chess960 | 6 | 2434 | 379540629 | rbbqn1kr/pp2p1pp/6n1/2pp1p2/2P4P/P7/BP1PPPP1/R1BQNNKR w HAha - 0 9 |
| Chess960 | 6 | 927 | 332492639 | rqbbknr1/1ppp2pp/p5n1/4pp2/P7/1PP5/1Q1PPPPP/R1BBKNRN w GAga - 0 9 |
| Chess960 | 6 | 2165 | 402734901 | 4rrb1/1kp3b1/1p1p4/pP1Pn2p/5p2/1PR2P2/2P1NB1P/2KR1B2 w D - 0 21 |
| Chess960 | 6 | 6382 | 419555508 | 1rkr3b/1ppn3p/3pB1n1/6q1/R2P4/4N1P1/1P5P/2KRQ1B1 b Ddb - 0 14 |
- Stockfish Winrate Model https://github.com/official-stockfish/WDL_model
- CLI Tool for running chess engine matches https://github.com/Disservin/fast-chess
- GUI-based Chess Player as well as a Chess Engine https://github.com/Orbital-Web/Raphael
- UCI Chess Engine (~3.3k elo) https://github.com/rafid-dev/rice (old version)
- Texel tuner for HCE engines https://github.com/GediminasMasaitis/texel-tuner
This project is using the meson build system. https://mesonbuild.com/
meson setup buildmeson compile -C buildmeson test -C buildDownload the Lichess March 2017 database.
You can decompress this with the following command: unzstd -d lichess_db_standard_rated_2017-03.pgn.zst
cd example
meson setup build
meson compile -C build
./build/example ../lichess_db_standard_rated_2017-03.pgnBenchmark implementation for more information.