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Chess Coding Challenge (C#)

Welcome to the chess coding challenge! This is a friendly competition in which your goal is to create a small chess bot (in C#) using the framework provided in this repository. Once submissions close, these bots will battle it out to discover which bot is best!

I will then create a video exploring the implementations of the best and most unique/interesting bots. I also plan to make a small game that features these most interesting/challenging entries, so that everyone can try playing against them.

Change Log

I unfortunately missed a serious bug in the API and have had to update the project. Please keep an eye on the change log here in case I've made any other horrifying mistakes. Some additions and improvements may also be made to the API in the first few weeks of the challenge, but breaking changes will be strictly avoided. The version you are currently using will be printed to the console when running the program (unless you are using v1.0, in which case nothing will be printed).

  • V1.1 Fixed major bug affecting board.GetPiece() and PieceList functions. Added Board.CreateBoardFromFEN().
  • V1.11 UI changes: Added coordinate names to board UI and fixed human player input bug.
  • V1.12 Small fixes to board.IsDraw(): Fifty move counter is now updated properly during search, and insufficient material is now detected for lone bishops on the same square colour.
  • V1.13 Fixed issue with board.ZobristKey where value would sometimes be different after making and undoing a move. Added an alternative function for getting moves board.GetLegalMovesNonAlloc() (see docs for more info).
  • V1.14 A handful of additions to the Board API: board.IsInsufficientMaterial(), board.IsRepeatedPosition(), board.GameRepetitionHistory, board.FiftyMoveCounter, board.GameMoveHistory, board.GameStartFenString.
  • V1.15 Fixed incorrect move.CapturePieceType for en-passant moves and moves in board.GameMoveHistory. Added BitboardHelper.VisualizeBitboard() to help with debugging bitboards.
  • V1.16 Added timer.GameStartTimeMilliseconds, timer.OpponentMillisecondsRemaining, and board.ForceSkipTurn().

Submission Due Date

October 1st 2023.
You can submit your entry here.

How to Participate

  • Install an IDE such as Visual Studio.
  • Install .NET 6.0
  • Download this repository and open the Chess-Challenge project in your IDE.
  • Try building and running the project.
    • If a window with a chess board appears — great!
    • If it doesn't work, take a look at the FAQ/troubleshooting section at the bottom of the page. You can also search the issues page to see if anyone is having a similar issue. If not, post about it there with any details such as error messages, operating system etc.
  • Open the MyBot.cs file (located in src/MyBot) and write some code!
    • You might want to take a look at the Documentation first, and the Rules too!
  • Build and run the program again to test your changes.
    • For testing, you have three options in the program:
      • You can play against the bot yourself (Human vs Bot)
      • The bot can play a match against itself (MyBot vs MyBot)
      • The bot can play a match against a simple example bot (MyBot vs EvilBot).
        You could also replace the EvilBot code with your own code, to test two different versions of your bot against one another.
  • Once you're happy with your chess bot, head over to the Submission Page to enter it into the competition.
    • You will be able to edit your entry up until the competition closes.

Rules

  • You may participate alone, or in a group of any size.
  • You may submit a maximum of two entries.
    • Please only submit a second entry if it is significantly different from your first bot (not just a minor tweak).
    • Note: you will need to log in with a second Google account if you want submit a second entry.
  • Only the following namespaces are allowed:
    • ChessChallenge.API
    • System
    • System.Numerics
    • System.Collections.Generic
    • System.Linq
      • You may not use the AsParallel() function
  • As implied by the allowed namespaces, you may not read data from a file or access the internet, nor may you create any new threads or tasks to run code in parallel/in the background.
  • You may not use the unsafe keyword.
  • You may not store data inside the name of a variable/function/class etc (to be extracted with nameof(), GetType().ToString(), Environment.StackTrace and so on). Thank you to #12 and #24.
  • If your bot makes an illegal move or runs out of time, it will lose the game.
    • Games are played with 1 minute per side by default (this can be changed in the settings class). The final tournament time control is TBD, so your bot should not assume a particular time control, and instead respect the amount of time left on the timer (given in the Think function).
  • Your bot may not use more than 256mb of memory for creating look-up tables (such as a transposition table).
  • If you have added a constructor to MyBot (for generating look up tables, etc.) it may not take longer than 5 seconds to complete.
  • All of your code/data must be contained within the MyBot.cs file.
    • Note: you may create additional scripts for testing/training your bot, but only the MyBot.cs file will be submitted, so it must be able to run without them.
    • You may not rename the MyBot struct or Think function contained in the MyBot.cs file.
    • The code in MyBot.cs may not exceed the bot brain capacity of 1024 (see below).

Bot Brain Capacity

There is a size limit on the code you create called the bot brain capacity. This is measured in ‘tokens’ and may not exceed 1024. The number of tokens you have used so far is displayed on the bottom of the screen when running the program.

All names (variables, functions, etc.) are counted as a single token, regardless of length. This means that both lines of code: bool a = true; and bool myObscenelyLongVariableName = true; count the same. Additionally, the following things do not count towards the limit: white space, new lines, comments, access modifiers, commas, and semicolons.

FAQ and Troubleshooting

  • Will the final tournament games be played from the standard starting position, or from custom positions?
    • Games will be played from the standard starting position. If tiebreak games are required, custom positions will be used.
  • Unable to build/run the project from my IDE/Code editor
    • After downloading the project and installing .Net 6.0, open a terminal / command prompt window.
    • Navigate to the folder where Chess-Challenge.csproj is located using the cd command.
      • For example: cd C:\Users\MyName\Desktop\Chess-Challenge\Chess-Challenge
    • Now use the command: dotnet run
    • This should launch the project. If not, open an issue with any error messages and relevant info.
  • Running on Linux Or with the Dockerfile provided (run: ./run.sh (you need to have docker or podman installed on your machine))
  • Issues with illegal moves or errors when making/undoing a move
    • Make sure that you are making and undoing moves in the correct order, and that you don't forget to undo a move when exiting early from a function for example.
  • How to tell what colour MyBot is playing
    • You can look at board.IsWhiteToMove when the Think function is called
  • GetPiece() function is giving a null piece after making a move
    • Please make sure you are using the latest version of the project, there was a bug with this function in the original version
  • There is a community-run discord server over here.