Does anyone know of an open-source chess engine for programming games with non-rectangular boards?

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

I invented and developed Castle Siege Chess, which is a chess variant that merges traditional chess with circular chess (Byzantine Chess). About 10 years ago, I scripted it for Zillions of Games. Over the years I have added many variations of my own game to Zillions. The games work very well, but there were 3 rules that players have to perform manually because I could not figure out how to write the script for them and the Zillions staff were not helpful at all.

I have been play testing the board games at chess clubs for 4 years. They have been received very well. However, I often get asked if the games can be played online. When I tell them that they can only play them with Zillions of Games but they have to buy the software for $25, they lose interest. They are too used to playing chess for free online.

Jocly was going to be my solution, but hackers destroyed their site and evidently gutted their servers. Jocly will probably not come back because they evidently did not have their site and server backed up.

I am having a difficult time finding an open-source, free-to-use chess engine that can handle circular boards. I would greatly appreciate your help in finding one.

Thanks, Rich V

What I have tried:

I scripted my games in Zillions of Games, but I could not figure out how to script them for castling, en passant, and a special rule for when the king is in next to a castle wall. My main problem with Zillions is its $25 price tag. I need a free one like Jocly was.

Posted 12-Aug-19 9:46am

RichVanD

Updated 12-Aug-19 14:35pm

Add a Solution

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Gerry Schmitz · Answer 1 · 2019-08-12T14:35:00

Solution 1

ONLINE requires "servers". Someone has to foot the bill if it isn't the advertisers.

OFFLINE .. you can develop all the "free" software you want using Unity, etc.

Posted 12-Aug-19 14:35pm

Gerry Schmitz

Comments

RichVanD 12-Aug-19 21:51pm

Using programs like Unity, I believe that I would have to start from scratch creating the chess engine and then program my game to run in the chess engine. Do you know of any existing chess engines that are open-source that written in Unity or other language? There are many existing chess engines already out there, many of which are free to use. For instance, Jocly was a game engine (I think written in Java) that was open-source and free to use. But unfortunately for me, some hacker(s) completely trashed their server and put them out of commission.

I don't have the programming skills or the time to reinvent the game/chess engine. Zillions of Games chess engine is proprietary but its scripting language for creating the games is open-source. But I can't afford to buy a user license at $25 each for everyone to play the game either as an app on their computer or online.

So I hope to find a chess engine similar to Zillions that already exists and that I can use for my game that can be purchased for a small amount as a computer app and can be played online for free like the many traditional chess sites provide.

Do you know of any existing chess engines that are versatile enough to handle circular chess boards and can be played either stand alone on one computer or can be played online?

Thanks