Introduction

Pulse Chess is a simple and accessible chess engine designed to help developers learn about building their own chess engines. It's a great starting point for those who want to understand the fundamentals of chess engine programming.

Key Features

UCI Compatible: Supports the Universal Chess Interface (UCI) protocol, making it easy to integrate with various chess GUIs.
0x88 Board Representation: Utilizes the 0x88 board representation for efficient move generation and board management.
Material and Mobility Evaluation: Implements basic evaluation functions focusing on material and mobility, providing a clear example of how to assess positions.
Pseudo-Legal Move Generator: Generates pseudo-legal moves, offering insight into the process of move generation and validation.
Basic Search with Alpha-Beta Pruning and Quiescent Search: Incorporates a basic search algorithm enhanced with alpha-beta pruning and quiescent search to improve decision-making and performance.

Pulse Chess is ideal for novice programmers and experienced developers alike, offering a hands-on approach to understanding chess engines.

Implementations

Pulse Chess is currently available in Java and C++. However, I am working on additional engines in different languages that all have the same feature set.

Language	Features	Platforms	Requirements
Java	Complete	Linux, Windows, macOS	Java 17
C++	Complete	Linux, Windows	C++17
Kotlin/Native	In Progress	Linux, Windows, macOS	Kotlin Multiplatform 2.0.21
Go	In Progress	Linux, Windows	Go 1.23.4

Build them

First clone the repository using git clone https://github.com/fluxroot/pulse.git.

Java

./gradlew :pulse-java:build
ls pulse-java/build/distributions/pulse-java-*.zip

C++

# Linux
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --config Release --target package
(cd build; ctest -C Release)
ls build/pulse-cpp-linux-*.tar.gz

# Windows
cmake -B build
cmake --build build --config Release --target package
cd build; ctest -C Release; cd ..
ls build/pulse-cpp-windows-*.zip

Kotlin/Native

# Linux
./gradlew :pulse-kotlin:linuxDistTar
ls pulse-kotlin/build/distributions/pulse-kotlin-linux-*.tar.gz

# Windows
./gradlew :pulse-kotlin:windowsDistZip
ls pulse-kotlin/build/distributions/pulse-kotlin-windows-*.zip

# macOS
./gradlew :pulse-kotlin:macosDistTar
ls pulse-kotlin/build/distributions/pulse-kotlin-macos-*.tar.gz

Go

# Linux
cd pulse-go
go build -v ./...
# No distribution archive yet

# Windows
cd pulse-go
go build -v ./...
# No distribution archive yet

Acknowledgments

The Pulse Chess logo was created by Silvian Sylwyka. Thanks a lot!

License

Pulse Chess is released under the MIT License.