NiCim Engine

IMPROVED 3rd version of Nissim engine: NiCim. Working with UCI protocol. Written in C++.

You can play against NiCim here: https://lichess.org/@/NissimEngine

Features:

• Efficient Bitboards representation of Chess Board (https://www.chessprogramming.org/Bitboards)
• Pre-Calculated Moves and Attacks, using MagicBitboards (https://www.chessprogramming.org/Magic_Bitboards)
• Alpha Beta pruning based search, with:
  • Quiescence Search (https://www.chessprogramming.org/Quiescence_Search)
  • Principal Variation Search (https://www.chessprogramming.org/Principal_Variation_Search)
  • Move ordering by (https://www.chessprogramming.org/Move_Ordering):
    • Principal variation Node (https://www.chessprogramming.org/PV-Move)
    • Killer moves (https://www.chessprogramming.org/Killer_Heuristic)
    • History moves (https://www.chessprogramming.org/History_Heuristic)
  • Late Move Reduction (https://www.chessprogramming.org/Late_Move_Reductions)
  • Null Move Pruning (https://www.chessprogramming.org/Null_Move_Pruning)
  • Razoring (https://www.chessprogramming.org/Razoring)
• NNUE Evaluation! (by https://github.com/dshawul/nnue-probe)
• Transposition Table (https://www.chessprogramming.org/Transposition_Table)
• Opening Book support with polyglot format. (as described in this toturial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjZtevzCa5Y&list=PLZ1QII7yudbc-Ky058TEaOstZHVbT-2hg&index=88&ab_channel=BluefeverSoftware)

How to install and Use NiCim:

There are two ways to compile NiCim:

• you can use Cmake with the provided CMakeLists.txt file. (really easy to do with CLion)
• you can use the provided makefile. currently, the makefile supports only windows machines.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• NiCim executable must be next to the provided .nnue file, otherwise, it's evaluation won't work.
• NiCim can support polyglot format opening books, and provided by one. if you wish to change the book you need to chage the default NAME_OF_BOOK in "PolyBook.h". If you with to turn off this option, you can through the uci protocol.
• If you wish to use NiCim as a bot Player on lichess (using this awsome code by ShailChoksi : https://github.com/ShailChoksi/lichess-bot) it is very recommanded to change the delay time of NiCim so it won't accidently lose on time. to do that, simply add txt file named (EXACTLY) "ONLINE_TIME_CONFIG.txt" to the working directory\ same directory where NiCimEngine.exe file is in. you don't have to write any thing in it, NiCim will automatically change it's delay time accordingly

Thanks A Lot to these Wonderful guides:

• Chess Programming : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUNP-UjujBM&list=PLmN0neTso3Jxh8ZIylk74JpwfiWNI76Cs&ab_channel=ChessProgramming
• Logic Crazy Chess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5IGltn95Bk&ab_channel=LogicCrazyChess
• Bluefever Software: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGAfaepBco4&list=PLZ1QII7yudbc-Ky058TEaOstZHVbT-2hg&ab_channel=BluefeverSoftware

Additional Credits and Thanks:

• Noga Regev for the AMAZING artwork of Nicim Icon.