Skiull 0.6

Download links

Please don't mirror the download link, just send it to this page!!

I can compile it for macos, but only if someone request it, just give some time and I will compile it, leave a comment and later I will edit this post

NOTE: Android compiles were not tested

Operating & architectures	Compiled with	Link
Windows x64	gcc 7.1 mingw64	skiull-0.6-x64.zip
GNU/Linux x64	gcc 12.2	skiull-0.6-x64-linux.zip
Android arm64-v8a, armeabi-v7a, x86, x86_64	android-ndk-r25c, android-19=Android 4.4, android-21=Android 5.0	skiull-0.6-android.zip

Please report any bug

What's new

• A lot of code refactoring
• Some improvements
• Added a basic LMR
• Eval is still the same

Tests says that is 90± ELO than 0.5

Skiull 0.5

Download link

Please don't mirror the download link, just send it to this page!!

Only Windows 64-bit with popcount and without it

Download Skiull 0.5 Here!

What's new

After 0.4 version I decided to keep working on the next version but sadly I did something wrong with the git repo and I just f*ckep up the repo, some changes were lost in that but luckily it was't much and that was the reason that this project wasn't active

• Added evasion move generation when in check
• Some refactoring code, still needs more works
• In Vice the materialDraw function was in eval, now I put it in the isDraw function
• Added check extension
• Eval is still the same

Tests says that is 60± ELO than 0.3

EDIT:

Also I forgot to mention that this time I compiled it with GCC 7.1.0, is faster than compiling with Visual Studio

Skiull 0.3

Download link

Please don't mirror the download link, just send it to this page!!

Only Windows 64-bit with popcount and without it

Download Skiull 0.3 Here!

What's new

Well this version was ready to release months ago but I just delayed thinking on formating and separating the code, but that will take some time so I think I will do it in the 0.4 version

• Quiescent function now search all moves in the 0,-1,-2 depth and when in check
• Forgot to write that in the 0.2 version I added stage move generation with captures ordered by MVV/LVA, now this is also in the qsearch
• Keep repeating even in win positions but that is because the previous move made by the engine is not taken into account so that's why it repeats the position
• Eval is still the same

Tests says that is ~100+ ELO than 0.2

Skiull 0.2 released

Download link

Please don't mirror the download link, just send it to this page!!

I'm sure that this engine is not bug free!!
Any bug report will be appreciated!!

Only (for now) Windows 64-bit with popcount and without it

Download Skiull 0.2 Here!

What's new

• Refactored Make and Unmake move, gave in start position like 600kns more
• Added Transposition table, up to 2048MB, default 16MB
• Added repetition detection (but in some games still repeat even winning)
• Added null move
• According to 1m + 1s 1000 games should be like ~1750 ELO CCRL 40/4
• vs Skiull 0.1: +228 ELO
• vs Pigeon 1.5.0: -22 ELO

Skiull 0.1 chess engine download

Well, today is the day... a modified version of Stockfish, is not a clone because I modified part of the code, you know, you can't create a chess engine from scratch, that's impossible!!! nah just kidding!!

Image from Google is NOT mine

Download link

Please don't mirror the download link, just send it to this page!!

I'm sure that this engine is not bug free!!
Any bug report will be appreciated!!

No 32-bits plan because I don't have 32-bits systems to test it
With popcnt enabled and without it

Download Skiull 0.1 here!

Files hosted on Mediafire

03/11/2016 Update!
Added macOS binaries

The zip file contains binaries for:

Operating system	Compiled with
Windows	MSVC 2013
GNU/Linux	gcc 6.1.2
macOS	gcc 4.2.1 LLVM 8.0.0

A little story

I discovered the chess engine world in ~2010, I'm self-taught programmer, I started programming in  ~2000, Visual Basic 6.0 ☻, then ASP, PHP, C#, C/C++, not much about C++


Since 2013 I started "programming" a chess engine, watching the youtube videos: Chess Engine In C a chess engine called Vice (Video Instructional Chess Engine) from BlueFeverSoft

After that I just modified the Vice to play "better", but never released

Tests

This is the very first version and it's weak, can't even win against Pigeon 1.5.0, so I think it's like ~1500 ELO
I have tested others weak engines but there were not 100% functional, the only one that worked fine was Pigeon developed by Stuart Riffle

Programming language

Skiull it's developed in C99 and it's almost a total rewrite, "almost" because shares little things from Vice that I will improve later...

Features

• Implements the UCI protocol that I also took from Vice with some minors improvements
• Just a plain vanilla alphabeta search, no extensions, no reductions, no killers, no history moves... no nothing
• No transposition table
• Quiescence search, I don't qsearch when in check, I skip all moves that gives checks in qsearch, and recently discovered that suffers search explosion with this posistion: r4rk1/1ppqbpp1/2npbn1p/4p3/p1P1P3/3PBN2/PP1NBPPP/2RQ1RK1 w - - 0 1, as you can see it takes some time to show the pv and spent too much time in qsearch, look the qnodes and nodes
• Very basic eval, just the PST from CPW and nothing more
• Magic moves from Pradu Kannan (I'm trying to do one by myself)
• Bitboard move generator, the one that is implemented in Sungorus or called Kindergarten bitboard (sorry I was confused with the term, it implements magic move generator)
• MakeMove and UnmakeMove are exactly from Vice but with bitboards, I will try to improve this
• The move encode are also from Sungorus:

  #define ENCODE_MT(mt, to, fr) ((mt) << 12 | (to) << 6 | (fr))

  I know I can improve this
• In the pv only print the root move
• Same time management as Vice

Non UCI standard commands

When you start Skiull, it will be in "console" mode you can type:

perftsuite [depth]

Default depth it's 6
The file: my_perftsuite.epd should be in the same directory as Skiull, you can download it from here

perftrookie [depth]

Default depth it's 6
The file: perft-random.epd, like 6000+ positions (Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 by Marcel van Kervinck, thanks Marcel) should be in the same directory as Skiull, you can download it from here

divide [depth] [fen]

Default depth it's 6
Default fen is startpos

 perft [depth] [fen]

Default depth it's 6
Default fen is startpos

Chess GUIs

Skiull is a console program, so I recommend to play with a chess GUI like

• Arena 
• Winboard 
• SCID 
• and many more...

Where comes the name?

The name Skiull comes from putting together Skill and Skull, a skull with skills? maybe... but not like Ghost Rider... bad movie

Many thanks to..

• Vice, the guy that no one knows the name but I refer him as BlueFever, many thanks to him, without those videos tutorials I will no be releasing Skiull today!
• Chess Computer Community on talkchess.com, Robert Hyatt, Ronald de Man, Gerd Issenberg [....]
• CPW https://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com
• Pablo Vasquez programmer of Sungorus
• Jeffrey An and Michael An programmers of Laser 
• Pawel Koziol programmer of Rodent and CPW engine
• Ed Schroder programmer of Rebel
• Jon Dart programmer of Arasan
• many many others....