It seems like it’s partially based on LeanChess [1], which is 288 bytes long. I’d be curious to know whether this program was AI-assisted or written entirely from scratch, since Lean Chess was written at a time predating the era of LLMs.
Another thing that amuses me is that these tiny programs often claim to be “complete” chess engines while not actually implementing all the rules. This one doesn’t appear to support en passant, and likely doesn't have pawn promotion either.
If you’re allowed to arbitrarily redefine the scope of chess, then code size stops being as impressive a metric.
I found some correctness issues that leave me a little unimpressed, although it’s a pretty phenomenal piece of code golf in general. For example, on my second move I mistakenly entered f1a1 instead of f1a6. It accepted this and then suddenly I had a bishop where the rook should be and no idea if my rook still exists.
Great Moments in PCMR History: A chess game published in 1982 includes a computer opponent but only uses 672 bytes of RAM. 1K ZX Chess has been described as "wizardry", "history's greatest game programming feat", and "the greatest program ever written". By comparison, this headline uses 298 bytes. <https://np.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3s9riy/great_m...>
The program terminated just a few moves into the game when there were plenty of legal moves left. Also, it is surprisingly hard to play chess as a human when there is no checkered board.
Another thing that amuses me is that these tiny programs often claim to be “complete” chess engines while not actually implementing all the rules. This one doesn’t appear to support en passant, and likely doesn't have pawn promotion either.
If you’re allowed to arbitrarily redefine the scope of chess, then code size stops being as impressive a metric.
[1] - https://leanchess.github.io
Instead it seems to have been "minimal thing that kinda looks like chess in yyy bytes"
Because then you're measuring on two axes. Which is better, 1500 elo in 300 bytes or 1550 elo in 310 bytes?
For a byte count comparison to make much sense, the program really ought to have a static target criteria.
Indeed, you can just play e1e8 and capture the opponents king (which doesn’t end the game). It’s a digital chessboard, not a chess engine.
https://nanochess.org/chess.html
I'm okay with trusting moves but not implementing all of the rules while still calling it complete feels a bit weird.
> Moves are trusted and given in plain coordinates: no click-to-move, no castling, en passant, or promotion.
Great Moments in PCMR History: A chess game published in 1982 includes a computer opponent but only uses 672 bytes of RAM. 1K ZX Chess has been described as "wizardry", "history's greatest game programming feat", and "the greatest program ever written". By comparison, this headline uses 298 bytes. <https://np.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3s9riy/great_m...>
Very cool this can be done in such a small amount of memory.