python-chess: a pure Python chess library

Introduction

This is the scholars mate in python-chess:

>>> import chess

>>> board = chess.Bitboard()

>>> board.push_san("e4")
Move.from_uci('e2e4')
>>> board.push_san("e5")
Move.from_uci('e7e5')
>>> board.push_san("Qh5")
Move.from_uci('d1h5')
>>> board.push_san("Nc6")
Move.from_uci('b8c6')
>>> board.push_san("Bc4")
Move.from_uci('f1c4')
>>> board.push_san("Nf6")
Move.from_uci('g8f6')
>>> board.push_san("Qxf7")
Move.from_uci('h5f7')

>>> board.is_checkmate()
True

Documentation

https://python-chess.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

Features

• Supports Python 2.7 and Python 3.

• Legal move generator and move validation. This includes all castling rules and en-passant captures.

  >>> chess.Move.from_uci("a8a1") in board.legal_moves
  False

• Make and unmake moves.

  >>> Qf7 = board.pop() # Unmake last move (Qf7#)
  >>> Qf7
  Move.from_uci('h5f7')
  
  >>> board.push(Qf7) # Restore

• Detects checkmates, stalemates and draws by insufficient material.

  >>> board.is_stalemate()
  False
  >>> board.is_insufficient_material()
  False
  >>> board.is_game_over()
  True
  >>> board.halfmove_clock
  0

• Detects repititions. Has a half move clock.

  >>> board.can_claim_threefold_repitition()
  False
  >>> board.halfmove_clock
  0
  >>> board.can_claim_fifty_moves()
  False
  >>> board.can_claim_draw()
  False

  With the new rules from July 2014 a game ends drawn (even without a claim) once a fivefold repitition occurs or if there are 75 moves without a pawn push or capture. Other ways of ending a game take precedence.

  >>> board.is_fivefold_repitition()
  False
  >>> board.is_seventyfive_moves()
  False

• Detects checks and attacks.

  >>> board.is_check()
  True
  >>> board.is_attacked_by(chess.WHITE, chess.E8)
  True
  
  >>> attackers = board.attackers(chess.WHITE, chess.F3)
  >>> attackers
  SquareSet(0b100000001000000)
  >>> chess.G2 in attackers
  True

• Parses and creates SAN representation of moves.

  >>> board = chess.Bitboard()
  >>> board.san(chess.Move(chess.E2, chess.E4))
  'e4'

• Parses and creates FENs.

  >>> board.fen()
  'rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1'
  >>> board = chess.Bitboard("8/8/8/2k5/4K3/8/8/8 w - - 4 45")
  >>> board.piece_at(chess.C5)
  Piece.from_symbol('k')

• Parses and creates EPDs.

  >>> board = chess.Bitboard()
  >>> board.epd(bm=chess.Move.from_uci("d2d4"))
  'rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - bm d4;'
  
  >>> ops = board.set_epd("1k1r4/pp1b1R2/3q2pp/4p3/2B5/4Q3/PPP2B2/2K5 b - - bm Qd1+; id \"BK.01\";")
  >>> ops == {'bm': chess.Move.from_uci('d6d1'), 'id': 'BK.01'}
  True

• Read Polyglot opening books.

  >>> import chess.polyglot
  
  >>> book = chess.polyglot.open_reader("data/opening-books/performance.bin")
  >>> board = chess.Bitboard()
  >>> first_entry = next(book.get_entries_for_position(board))
  >>> first_entry.move()
  Move.from_uci('e2e4')
  >>> first_entry.learn
  0
  >>> first_entry.weight
  1
  
  >>> book.close()

• Read and write PGNs. Supports headers, comments, NAGs and a tree of variations.

  >>> import chess.pgn
  
  >>> from __future__ import print_function # Python 2 compability for
  >>>                                       # this example.
  
  >>> pgn = open("data/games/molinari-bordais-1979.pgn")
  >>> first_game = chess.pgn.read_game(pgn)
  >>> pgn.close()
  
  >>> first_game.headers["White"]
  'Molinari'
  >>> first_game.headers["Black"]
  'Bordais'
  
  >>> # Iterate through the mainline of this embarrasingly short game.
  >>> node = first_game
  >>> while node.variations:
  ...     next_node = node.variation(0)
  ...     print(node.board().san(next_node.move))
  ...     node = next_node
  e4
  c5
  c4
  Nc6
  Ne2
  Nf6
  Nbc3
  Nb4
  g3
  Nd3#
  
  >>> first_game.headers["Result"]
  '0-1'

• Probe Syzygy endgame tablebases.

  >>> import chess.syzygy
  
  >>> tablebases = chess.syzygy.Tablebases("data/syzygy")
  
  >>> # Black to move is losing in 53 half moves (distance to zero) in this
  >>> # KNBvK endgame.
  >>> board = chess.Bitboard("8/2K5/4B3/3N4/8/8/4k3/8 b - - 0 1")
  >>> tablebases.probe_dtz(board)
  -53
  
  >>> tablebases.close()

• Communicate with an UCI engine.

  >>> import chess.uci
  >>> import time
  
  >>> engine = chess.uci.popen_engine("/usr/games/stockfish")
  >>> engine.uci()
  >>> engine.author
  'Tord Romstad, Marco Costalba and Joona Kiiski'
  
  >>> # Synchronous mode.
  >>> board = chess.Bitboard("1k1r4/pp1b1R2/3q2pp/4p3/2B5/4Q3/PPP2B2/2K5 b - - 0 1")
  >>> engine.position(board)
  >>> engine.go(movetime=2000) # Gets tuple of bestmove and ponder move.
  BestMove(bestmove=Move.from_uci('d6d1'), ponder=Move.from_uci('c1d1'))
  
  >>> # Synchronous communication, but search in background.
  >>> engine.go(infinite=True)
  >>> time.sleep(2)
  >>> engine.stop()
  BestMove(bestmove=Move.from_uci('d6d1'), ponder=Move.from_uci('c1d1'))
  
  >>> # Asynchronous mode.
  >>> def callback(command):
  ...    bestmove, ponder = command.result()
  ...    assert bestmove == chess.Move.from_uci('d6d1')
  ...
  >>> command = engine.go(movetime=2000, async_callback=callback)
  >>> command.done()
  False
  >>> command.result()
  BestMove(bestmove=Move.from_uci('d6d1'), ponder=Move.from_uci('c1d1'))
  >>> command.done()
  True

Peformance

python-chess is not intended to be used by serious chess engines where performance is critical. The goal is rather to create a simple and relatively highlevel library.

You can install the gmpy2 or gmpy (https://code.google.com/p/gmpy/) modules in order to get a slight performance boost on basic operations like bit scans and population counts.

python-chess will only ever import very basic general (non-chess-related) operations from native libraries. All logic is pure Python. There will always be pure Python fallbacks.

Installing

• With pip:

  sudo pip install python-chess
  

• From current source code:

  python setup.py build
  sudo python setup.py install
  

Featured projects

If you like, let me know if you are creating something intresting with python-chess, for example:

• a stand alone chess computer based on DGT board - http://www.picochess.org/
• a cross platform chess GUI - https://asdfjkl.github.io/jerry/
• a website to probe Syzygy endgame tablebases - https://syzygy-tables.info/

License

python-chess is licensed under the GPL3. See the LICENSE file for the full copyright and license information.

Thanks to the developers of http://chessx.sourceforge.net/. Some of the core bitboard move generation parts are ported from there.

Thanks to Ronald de Man for his Syzygy endgame tablebases (https://github.com/syzygy1/tb). The probing code in python-chess is very directly ported from his C probing code.