ConsoleChess

A chess game on the command prompt, including an engine to play against or to play itself.

This initially served both as a benchmark for the Python Chess script (https://github.com/BaranCanOener/PythonChess), as well as a little project to learn more about C++. As such, the general concept of the engine is largely the same, comprising of an iterative deepening search supported by alpha beta pruning and quiescence searches; the valuation function has been tweaked to reward castlings, and the valuation tables have been updated, along with some other minor improvements.

The difference in performance are quite significant, with PythonChess running at approx. 30kN /sec and ConsoleChess averaging 2.000 kN/sec on an i5-9300H. That being said, I can't rule out that the Python-version can be written more efficiently [while keeping the overall (object-oriented, rather than bitboard) approach the same].

Update April/21: Zobrist key based hashtables Hashtables have been added (see the Hashtable class in board.h), and the engine now activates the king during the endgame; moreover, the engine is much better at avoiding stalemates now. Several minor improvements and bugfixes were made.