Python & chess

[Paolo Pantaleo]

Well Python is not a good language for writing a chess engine (even if
a chess engine exists:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/jyrki.alakuijala/pychess.html), but it could be
grat for chess interfaces, for drawing boards, and similar things. I
foudn out a library for these things
(http://www.alcyone.com/software/chess/). Does anyone konw about more
chess related modules?

Thnx
PAolo

 

[tobiah]

Well Python is not a good language for writing a chess engine

I'm curious; how does python fall short here, and what are the
features that make some other language more suitable for the
task?

Toby

 

[Will McGugan]

Well Python is not a good language for writing a chess engine (even if
a chess engine exists:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/jyrki.alakuijala/pychess.html), but it could be
grat for chess interfaces, for drawing boards, and similar things. I
foudn out a library for these things
(http://www.alcyone.com/software/chess/). Does anyone konw about more
chess related modules?

I have written a chess module that may be of use to you.

http://www.willmcgugan.com/2006/06/18/chesspy/


Will McGugan

 

[Laszlo Nagy]

tobiah írta:

I'm curious; how does python fall short here, and what are the
features that make some other language more suitable for the
task?

Hmmm. I think that if you need to write a very clever chess game, then
you need to use very fast routines, written in C or even assembly. I
have heard that the best chess programs use a database. That database
contains hundreds of thousands of games played previously by famous
chess players. Usually they play the first few steps by using this
database (and not using any AI).

Do you plan to beat "Chessmaster"? If you only want to try your AI
abilities, then Python is ideal for the task. At least this is my opinion.

Laszlo

 

[tobiah]

Hmmm. I think that if you need to write a very clever chess game, then

you need to use very fast routines, written in C or even assembly.

Oh, right. Speed. I thought that you were talking about
some mismatch of capabilities.

Toby

 

[Paul Boddie]

I have written a chess module that may be of use to you.

http://www.willmcgugan.com/2006/06/18/chesspy/

See also ChessBoard - a nice implementation of chess using pygame:

http://www.pygame.org/projects/9/282/

Paul