GNU Chess
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 GNU Chess 6.0.0 running with the XBoard front end, v. 4.1.5. | |
| Developer(s) | GNU Project |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1984 |
| Stable release | 6.2.9[1] 
/ 13 July 2021 |
| Repository | |
| Operating system | Linux, Unix, macOS, Windows |
| Type | Computer chess |
| License | 2010[a]: GPL-3.0-or-later 1992[b]: GPL-2.0-or-later 1986: Chess-GPL[c][2][3] |
| Website | www |
| This article is part of the series on |
| Chess programming |
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GNU Chess is a free software chess engine and command-line interface chessboard. The goal of GNU Chess is to serve as a basis for research, and as such it has been used in numerous contexts.
GNU Chess is free software, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3 or any later version, and is maintained by collaborating developers. As one of the earliest computer chess programs with full source code available, it is one of the oldest for Unix-based systems and has since been ported to many other platforms.
Features
As of 2 September 2017 GNU Chess 5.60 is rated at 2813 Elo points (when using one CPU) on CCRL's 40-moves-in-40-minutes list. For comparison, the strongest chess engine in the list using one CPU, Strelka 5.5, has an Elo rating of 3108 (the 295 ELO point difference indicates that Strelka 5.5 would beat GNU Chess 5.60 in about 85% of games). On the same list, Fritz 8 is rated at only 2701, and that program in the 2004 Man vs Machine World Team Championship beat grandmasters Sergey Karjakin, Veselin Topalov and reached a draw with Ruslan Ponomariov. The IQ6 test suite (a collection of chess problems from Livshits's book Test Your Chess IQ) indicates that on a single core of an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU GNU Chess performs at the senior master/weak international master strength of 2500+ on the Elo rating system.[citation needed]
It is often used in conjunction with a GUI program such as XBoard or GNOME Chess, where it is included as the default engine. Initial versions of XBoard's Chess Engine Communication Protocol were based on GNU Chess's command-line interface. Version 6 also supports the Universal Chess Interface (UCI). Since version 6.1 GNU chess supports a graphical mode for terminal emulators.
History
The first version of GNU Chess was written by Stuart Cracraft. Having started in 1984 in collaboration with Richard Stallman prior to his founding of the GNU Project, GNU Chess became one of the first parts of GNU.[citation needed]
GNU Chess has been enhanced and expanded since. Versions from 2 to 4 were written by John Stanback. Version 5 of GNU Chess was based on the Cobalt chess engine written by Chua Kong-Sian.[4]
In 2011, GNU Chess transitioned to version 6, which is based on Fabien Letouzey's Fruit 2.1 chess engine. According to CEGT[5] version 5.60 of this code base is stronger than Fruit 2.3, the latest version of that chess engine.
See also
Notes
References
- ^ Antonio Ceballos Roa (14 July 2021). "GNU Chess 6.2.9 released". Retrieved 18 July 2021.
- ^ "GNU Chess General Public License". 1986.
- ^ Yigit, Ozan (1986-12-17). "yetti's Christmas/New Year goodies (gnu chess)". Newsgroup: ont.general.
- ^ "Redirecting to Google Groups".
- ^ "The CEGT rating list". Archived from the original on 2011-03-08.