vipermate-journal

A journal for the ViperMate chess engine

ViperMate is my pet project: developing a chess engine.

My only goals are to learn the topics of chess programming and to have fun by concentrating on the activity I like the most: optimizing algorithms and code. The evil practice of premature optimization is welcome here, because this is not a serious project. No expectations, no stress, I just enjoy the journey. This journal documents the path taken so far.

Enrico Altavilla

Status of the chess engine

ViperMate is in its alpha stage: the technological backbone is largely implemented. Now it has to learn all the rules of a chess game and how to interact with the outside world. The goal is to release its source code when it becomes a fully functional UCI-compliant engine.

Technologies implemented at the moment:

Alpha-beta search with negamax
Quiescence search
Iterative Deepening
Transposition Tables
Search controllable by external functions
Engine modes (UCI, Test, Benchmark, Matefinder)
UCI support
Pruning techniques:
- In Alpha-beta search: Alpha-beta pruning, Principal Variation Search, Null-Move pruning, Mate Distance Pruning
- In Quiescence search: Alpha-beta pruning, Standing-pat check, Delta pruning
Move ordering/scoring:
- Killer moves
- Positional gain of a move
- Moves found in transposition tables
- MVV-LVA captures (Most Valuable Victim - Least Valuable Attacker)
Evaluation function
- Incrementally updated at each move
- Material balance
- Positional balance, from piece-square tables