ChessCpp is a program written in C++ that runs in the console, that allows you to simulate a game of chess, and to play against a basic chess AI. I wrote it (without following any tutorials) over the first two weeks of December 2021.
A small demo of ChessCpp is available in the /Demo folder.
Since it's written in Visual Studio, I expect that only Windows users can use it. I haven't checked how to compile Visual Studio C++ files in other OS's, so I'm not certain if that's possible, but I suspect that all that's required for compilation are the .cpp and .h files.
The player can enter moves into the console to play them on the chessboard, against a rudimentary AI. ChessCpp does move validation to ensure that only legal moves can be played at any time.
There are a whole host of other features, including:
- Displaying the move history
- Displaying the legal moves at any point in time
- Undoing the last move played on the chessboard.
Check out the help message in the ChessCpp for all the available commands and features.
Some possilbe future improvements:
- Feature for alternative variants of chess (e.g. Fischer random)
- Feature to set up any initial board state
- More sophisticated move inputs (e.g. using "Ng7" instead of "f5g7")
- More sophisticated evaluation engine and AI (I will have to study this)
I started with an MVC design that I learnt about in my software engineering module (CS2103). I decided to adapt the observer pattern to parts of the architecture.
That was the plan, anyway. I'd say I stuck to it fairly well, but I did introduce some unintended coupling which could have gone wrong if I had decided to work on the project further.
After completing the main body of the chess software, I added the analysis portion afterwards, so that the player could play against some sort of AI, instead of having to play both sides.
This was my second concerted attempt at writing a chess program that runs on the console in C++. The last attempt petered out - failed, to be honest - so I took another stab at it over the holidays, which was much more successful.
I took it more slowly this time, learning more about the details of C++ before jumping into actually coding. learncpp.com was a godsend for learning the features and best practices of modern C++, much better than some of the other books I tried to study. One thing that I had to get used to was the use of C++ smart pointers, which I was initially very hesitant about using. They required knowledge of how memory management was handled in C++, but they ultimately turned out to be simpler to use than I had originally anticipated.
Something else I improved on this time was beginning with a proper structure. The software engineering module I took was very helpful in this regard, and I used an MVC structure and observer pattern that was taught to plan the overall architecture of the program.
I'm glad with the lessons I learnt and the progress I made with this project, but I think it's time I worked on something else.
okyntary - 15 Dec 21