3D Chess Engine

A blazingly fast, bitboard-based C++ chess engine paired with a real-time 3D OpenGL renderer, multithreaded AI opponent, and full audio support.

Description

A robust C++ Chess Engine featuring a dedicated 3D Renderer powered by raylib. Built on highly optimized bitboard architectures (utilizing both standard and magic bitboards), this engine offers a massive performance leap over traditional array-based structures. The front-end renders clean, 3D chess pieces and dynamic lighting, while the back-end runs a highly optimized AI on a separate thread. Combined with integrated background music and sound effects, it bridges low-level engine speed with a smooth, modern 60 FPS gameplay experience.

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Key Features

• Advanced AI Opponent:
  • Features a custom engine utilizing Negamax with Alpha-Beta Pruning.
  • Quiescence Search to prevent horizon effect blunders.
  • MVV-LVA (Most Valuable Victim - Least Valuable Attacker) move ordering for highly efficient branch pruning.
  • Mop-Up Heuristic allows the AI to force checkmates in endgames.
• Multithreaded Architecture: AI calculations run asynchronously via std::thread, ensuring the UI and animations never freeze during deep searches.
• Bitboard Architecture: Uses normal and magic bitboards for ultra-fast move generation and static evaluation.
• Raylib 3D Graphics & Audio: Full 3D board, piece models, custom shaders, dynamic lighting calculations, background music, and piece-movement sound effects.
• Game Modes: Features a fully interactive Main Menu with options for local Two Player or Player vs AI (with adjustable depth/difficulty settings).
• Comprehensive Rule Enforcement: Full implementation of standard chess rules including En Passant, Castling, Pawn Promotion, checkmate, and stalemate detection.

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Media

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Controls & Gameplay

Navigate the menus using your mouse. During gameplay, the engine reads keyboard inputs to navigate the 3D board selector and handle selections.

Board Navigation

• W -> Move selector Up
• A -> Move selector Left
• S -> Move selector Down
• D -> Move selector Right
• Enter -> Select/Place Piece

Pawn Promotion

When a pawn reaches the final rank, input one of the following numbers to choose your promotion piece:

• 1 -> Knight
• 2 -> Bishop
• 3 -> Rook
• 4 -> Queen

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Compilation and Build Instructions

This project uses CMake for clean, cross-platform out-of-source builds.

Running the Pre-compiled Executable

If you do not want to compile the source code yourself, a pre-compiled executable is available with the project so you don't have to.

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Prerequisites

Ensure you have g++, cmake, make, and the raylib library installed on your machine.

On Linux (Debian/Ubuntu), you can install the build essentials, CMake, and the necessary audio dependencies via:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential cmake libasound2-dev

Building the Project

To compile the source code and generate the standalone static executable (chess_engine), run the following command in the root directory:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

Cleaning Build Files

To remove the compiled binary and prepare for a clean rebuild, run:

rm -rf build

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Credits & Resources

• Magic Board Implementation By Code Monkey King

• ASCII Art Core: Built using tools from ASCII-ART by 7IRE.

• Legacy Version: Check out the original, array-based predecessor: (Chess V-1) Based on Arrays.

• Raylib - Simple and easy-to-use library to enjoy videogames programming.

• Music by Samuel F. Johanns from Pixabay

• Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay

• Sound Effect by SoundShelfStudio from Pixabay

• Sound Effect by CreatorsHome from Pixabay