FirstChess

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FirstChess,
a very simple open source chess program with a command line interface by Pham Hong Nguyen, written in C for didactic purpose, introduced in 2002 ¹. Since FirstChess lacks en passant and castling, there is implicit invitation to improve it.

Description

Board

The 8x8 board consists of two arrays for piece type and color.

#define PAWN    0x0
#define KNIGHT  0x1
#define BISHOP  0x2
#define ROOK    0x3
#define QUEEN   0x4
#define KING    0x5
#define EMPTY   0x6
#define WHITE   0x0
#define BLACK   0x1

int piece[64] = {
    ROOK,  KNIGHT,BISHOP,QUEEN, KING,  BISHOP,KNIGHT,ROOK,
    PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,
    EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY,
    EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY,
    EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY,
    EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY,
    PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,  PAWN,
    ROOK,  KNIGHT,BISHOP,QUEEN, KING,  BISHOP,KNIGHT,ROOK
};

int color[64] = {
    BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK,
    BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK,
    EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY,
    EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY,
    EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY,
    EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY, EMPTY,
    WHITE, WHITE, WHITE, WHITE, WHITE, WHITE, WHITE, WHITE,
    WHITE, WHITE, WHITE, WHITE, WHITE, WHITE, WHITE, WHITE
};

Search

The negamaxed alpha-beta lacks any move ordering techniques:

static int Search(int alpha, int beta, int depth, MOVE * pBestMove)
{
  int i, value, havemove, movecnt;
  MOVE moveBuf[200], tmpMove;
    
  nodes++; /* visiting a node, count it */
  havemove = 0;
  pBestMove->type = MOVE_TYPE_NONE;
  movecnt = Gen(side, moveBuf); /* generate all moves for current position */
  /* loop through the moves */
  for (i = 0; i < movecnt; ++i) {
    mm2 = moveBuf[i];
    if (!MakeMove()) {
      TakeBack();
      continue;
    }
    havemove = 1;
    if (depth - 1 > 0) /* If depth is still, continue to search deeper */
      value = -Search(-beta, -alpha, depth - 1, &tmpMove);
    else /* If no depth left (leaf node), go to evalute that position */
      value = Eval(); 
    TakeBack();
    if (value > alpha) {
      /* This move is so good and caused a cutoff */
      if (value >= beta)
        return beta;
      alpha = value;
      *pBestMove = moveBuf[i]; /* so far, current move is the best reaction
                                * for current position */
    }
  }
  if (!havemove) { /* If no legal moves, that is checkmate or
                    * stalemate */
    if (IsInCheck(side))
      return -MATE + ply; /* add ply to find the longest path to lose or shortest path to win */
    else
      return 0;
  }
  return alpha;
}

Evaluation

FirstChess' evaluation considers material with following point values:

#define   VALUE_PAWN      100
#define   VALUE_KNIGHT    300
#define   VALUE_BISHOP    300
#define   VALUE_ROOK      500
#define   VALUE_QUEEN     900
#define   VALUE_KING      10000

int Eval()
{
  int value_piece[6] = {VALUE_PAWN, VALUE_KNIGHT, VALUE_BISHOP, VALUE_ROOK, VALUE_QUEEN, VALUE_KING};
  int i, score = 0;
  for (i = 0; i < 64; i++) {
    if (color[i] == WHITE)
      score += value_piece[piece[i]];
    else if (color[i] == BLACK)
      score -= value_piece[piece[i]];
  }
  if (side == WHITE)
    return score;
  return -score;
}

See also

• Ax

Forum Posts

• FirstChess - a crazy project! by Pham Hong Nguyen, CCC, July 24, 2002
• Beginner programmer Winboard and chess computing advice by tr2, Winboard Forum, June 09, 2009

External Links

• Index of /cc65 from atarionline.pl ²

References