ChessV

ChessV

Two engines playing Capablanca chess in ChessV 2.2
Developer(s)	Gregory Strong

Stable release	2.2 / January 22, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-01-22)

Operating system	Windows
Type	Computer chess
License	GPL
Website	http://www.chessv.org

ChessV (short for Chess Variants) is a free computer program designed to play many chess variants. ChessV is an open-source, universal chess variant program with a graphical user-interface, sophisticated AI, support for opening books and other features of traditional chess programs. The developer of this program, Gregory Strong, has been adding more variants with each release of ChessV. Over 100 chess variants are supported, including the developer's few own variants^[1] and other exotic variants, and can be programmed to play additional variants. ChessV is designed to be able to play any game that is reasonably similar to chess. ChessV is one of only a few such programs that exist. The source code of this program is freely available for download as well as the executable program.

As of ChessV 0.93, it is possible to customize the variants it supports. Of all chess variants supported, two of the most-played variants are probably Fischer Random Chess and Grand Chess.

ChessV is capable of playing:

2 variants on 6×6 squares
17 variants on 8×8 squares
15 variants on 10×8 squares

(including 10 Capablanca Chess variants)

15 variants on 10×10 squares
3 variants on 12×8 squares

Some of the provided variants can be customized in their details. While users can create custom variants with ChessV 0.93, it needs to be recompiled, which is tedious when programming. ChessV 2.0+ fixes this, using a scripting language. While the pieces in a custom variant have to be chosen from a limited list, this allows ChessV to play hundreds or thousands of variants of each game it directly supports.

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Engine features

Searching: Alpha-Beta Nega-Max Principal variation search, Iterative deepening, Null-move Forward Pruning, Static Exchange Evaluation (SEE).

Search Extensions: check extension, recapture extension, null-move threat extension, PV extension, Futility Pruning and Razoring, History Heuristic, Killer-move heuristic.

Evaluation: Piece-square tables, Pawn structure evaluation, Mobility evaluation, King safety, King tropism, Lazy evaluation.
Hash Tables: Transposition table, Pawn structure table, Evaluation cache, Repetition detection.

Since ChessV 2.2, the engine can be set to adjust to their player's needs:

Transposition Table Size can be adjusted.
The engine can be allowed for variance of play.
Weaken the chess engine to be human-beatable even for beginners.

Current limitations

No games with more than two players are supported.
No games with randomness or hidden information are supported.
No ability to edit the board mid-game is provided.

Supported games

ChessV supports many variants. Other than chess, it supports:

Alice Chess, Almost Chess, Archchess, Berolina Chess, Bird's Chess, Capablanca Chess and its variants, Carrera's Chess, Chess480, Chess and a Half,^[2] Chess with Different Armies, Courier Chess, Cylindrical Chess, Diagonal Chess, Diamond Chess, Doublemove chess, Embassy Chess, Eurasian Chess, Extinction Chess, Fischer Random Chess (Chess960), Great Chess, Great Shatranj, Grand Chess, Grotesque Chess, Janus Chess, Kinglet, Ladorean Chess, Legan's Game, Los Alamos Chess, Makruk, Omega Chess, Opulent Chess, Roman Chess, Royal Court, Shatranj, Shatranj Kamil, Sosarian Chess, Switching Chess, TenCubed Chess, Three Checks Chess, and more infamous variants.

Since ChessV can be programmed to play additional variants, here are a few examples:

Almost Chess, Enep, Butterfly Chess,^[3] Nightrider chess and Janus Kamil.

Syntax

ChessV code is saved as the extension ".cvc" (ChessV Code). Its syntax is reasonably similar to C#. The scripting language is mostly stable, but creating new rules for new pieces is not supported yet. Here is an example of "Almost Chess" in .cvc code:

Game 'Almost Chess' : Chess
{
	Invented = "1977";
	InventedBy = "Ralph Betza";
	
	AddPieceTypes
	{
		Queen.Enabled = false;
		AddPieceType( Chancellor, "Chancellor", "C", 900, 925 );
	}

	SetGameVariables
	{
		Array = "rnbckbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBCKBNR";
		PromotionTypes = "CRNB";
	}
}

Competitions

ChessV software won third place in a 2004 Gothic Chess Computer World Championship.^[4]^[5]

References

^ "Opulent Chess". The Chess Variant Pages.
^ https://www.chessvariants.com/rules/chess-and-a-half Chess and a Half,
^ https://www.chessvariants.com/invention/butterfly-chess Butterfly Chess
^ The 2004 Gothic Chess Computer World Championship by Ed Trice http://www.chessville.com/GothicChess/ComputerWorldChampionships.htm
^ Trice E (Dec 2004). "The 2004 Gothic Chess Computer World Championship". ICGA Journal. 27 (4): 249–254. doi:10.3233/ICG-2004-27414.

External links

Chess variants (list)

Orthodox rules

Different starting position	Fischer random chess Displacement chess Transcendental chess
Different number of pieces	Dunsany's chess Handicap
Unorthodox board	Balbo's game Circular chess Cylinder chess Double chess Grid chess Hexagonal chess (Cross chess, Masonic chess) Infinite chess Millennium 3D chess Minichess (Los Alamos chess) Rhombic chess Spherical chess Three-dimensional chess Triangular chess

Unorthodox
rules with
traditional
pieces

Standard 8×8 board	Andernach chess Atomic chess Beirut chess Checkless chess Chessplus Circe chess Crazyhouse Cubic chess Dynamo chess Extinction chess Hostage chess Knight relay chess Legan chess Losing chess Madrasi chess Monochromatic chess Patrol chess PlunderChess Portal chess Progressive chess Three-check chess Way of the Knight
Multimove variants	Avalanche chess Kung-Fu Chess Marseillais chess Monster chess Progressive chess
Elements of chance	Dark chess Dice chess Knightmare Chess Kriegspiel Penultima
Unorthodox rules on an unorthodox board	Alice chess Apocalypse Chad Chessence Congo Diplomat chess Dragonfly Jeson Mor Parallel worlds chess Rollerball 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel

Unorthodox
rules using
non-traditional
pieces

Standard 8×8 board	Baroque Berolina Chakra Chess with different armies Duell Falcon–hunter chess Grasshopper chess Musketeer chess Pocket mutation chess
Compound pieces	Almost chess Capablanca chess Capablanca random chess Chancellor chess Embassy chess Grand Chess Janus Chess Maharajah and the Sepoys Modern chess Seirawan chess Tutti-frutti chess
Unorthodox boards and pieces	Chesquerque Chess on a really big board Courier-Spiel Dragonchess Gess Omega Chess Stratomic Dekle's triangular chess 2000 A.D. Wildebeest chess Wolf chess

Multiplayer

Inspired games

Chess-related
games

Historical	Chadarangam Chaturaji Chaturanga Courier chess Grant Acedrex Shatranj Short assize Tamerlane chess
Regional	Janggi variants Makruk Senterej Shatar Shogi Chu shogi Dai shogi Other variants Sittuyin Xiangqi Jungle Banqi Manchu chess Game of the Three Kingdoms Game of the Three Friends Game of the Seven Kingdoms Other variants

Software

This page was last edited on 7 January 2022, at 22:33

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