For our final project, we decided to make a player versus computer implementation of chess using the pygame library for Python. It includes all the essential rules for chess. The computer player uses the minimax strategy with alpha-beta pruning for generating and deciding moves. It explores all possible moves, then explores their possible moves and so on. This essentially creates a search tree to a depth of 3. The best move is decided by evaluating the 'score' of the board. A graphical representation of the board is rendered with a side menu with contextual tips, that displays useful information such as whose turn it is, if the move you're attempting is invalid, if someone is in check, among other things. The mouse is used to select pieces and move them. The program only allows you to make valid moves according to the rules of chess, and also includes the special moves: castling, and promotion. The program automatically detects check and checkmate, and for the latter, ends the game and declares the winner.
For more specific instructions on how to play, see 'Usage Instructions'.
sudo apt install python3-pip
pip3 -m install --user pygame
python3 chess.pysudo pacman -S python-pip
pip -m install --user pygame
python chess.pyInstall the latest version of python 3 (Tested on 3.6.4 and 3.6.5)
https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-365/
Then, Open a command prompt window:
pip -m install --user pygame
python chess.py
Use the mouse to select one of your pieces and then select the square you want to move it to. If you selected one of your pieces, the square that piece is on will be highlighted by a purple square. If you choose an invalid place to move to, a message will be displayed informing you of the rule infringement, and you will be able to try again. If you decide to not move this piece, just select it again to cancel the move, and the purple square will go away to indicate that you deselected that piece.
If your opponent places you in check, a message will be displayed informing you that you are in check. Your next move MUST get you out of the check. If you attempt to make a move that doesn't get you out of check, a warning message will be displayed, and the move will not be allowed. Once you get out of check, the game proceeds as normal.
If there is indeed a checkmate, the game will end and the winner will be displayed. To play again, close the game, and run it again.
If the rook and the king have not yet moved, the spaces are empty between them, none of the in betweens or the new location of the king are in check, you can castle. To perform the castling maneuver, select your king, and then select the square where the king moves in the castling maneuver, and the move will be performed automatically. Refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castling for valid criteria for castling, if you are unfamiliar with this rule.
If one of your pawns reaches the opposite end of the board, it will automatically be promoted to a queen, because why would you want anything else?
Run this if you want to play the game
Contains the board class
Contains move generation and the computer player's minimax algorithm
Contains all the chess piece classes
Contains picture assets
The images of the chess pieces were taken off of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:PNG_chess_pieces/Standard_transparent
The camstream() function is modified from a gist. It's used to take a picture of the player https://gist.github.com/snim2/255151
The assets/draw_chessboard.py function is modified from a gist as well. It generates the background chess board image using pillow (since the image is already generated, there is no need to install pillow) https://gist.github.com/victorfei/1843ffd5fe871ef74d6bb3ce2a01dee8
king and queen from the welcome menu are from: https://thenounproject.com Vasily Gedzun from the Noun Project
Font: Google Roboto
