Little Wing

A bitboard chess engine written in Rust.

A work in progress since December 2014.

Tested on GNU/Linux 32 and 64 bits, should run anywhere.

Usage

First you need to install Rust:

$ curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh

Then you can compile and install the engine:

$ git clone https://github.com/vinc/littlewing.git
$ cd littlewing
$ LITTLEWING_VERSION=$(git describe) cargo build --release
$ sudo cp target/release/littlewing /usr/local/bin

Little Wing is compatible with the XBoard protocol, and it has its own text-based user interface:

$ littlewing --color --debug
Little Wing v0.3.0

> time 1 10
> show think
> show board
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| r | n | b | q | k | b | n | r |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| R | N | B | Q | K | B | N | R |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
> move e2e4
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| r | n | b | q | k | b | n | r |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   | P |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| P | P | P | P |   | P | P | P |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| R | N | B | Q | K | B | N | R |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
> play
# FEN rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq e3 0 1
# allocating 10000 ms to move
 ply   score   time     nodes  pv
   1       0      0         3  1. ... a6
   2       0      0        56  1. ... a6 2. a3
   3       0      0       205  1. ... a6 2. a3 a5
   4       0      1      1821  1. ... a6 2. a3 a5 3. b3
   5       0     10      7970  1. ... a6 2. a3 a5 3. b3 a4
   6       0     31     59151  1. ... a6 2. a3 a5 3. b3 a4 4. bxa4
   7       0    404    377742  1. ... a6 2. a3 a5 3. b3 a4 4. bxa4 Rxa4
   8       0    930   2170288  1. ... a6 2. a3 a5 3. b3 a4 4. bxa4 Rxa4 5. d3
# 9951 ms used in search
# 2239407 nodes visited (2.25e5 nps)
# tt size:       524288
# tt inserts:    6371
# tt lookups:    213735
# tt hits:       14459
# tt collisions: 1001
move a7a6
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| r | n | b | q | k | b | n | r |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   | p | p | p | p | p | p | p |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| p |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   | P |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| P | P | P | P |   | P | P | P |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| R | N | B | Q | K | B | N | R |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

As you can see, it's still pretty weak at the moment.

Test

Unit testing in Rust is wonderful. You can run the test suite directly from Cargo:

$ cargo test

Little Wing also have a perft command for counting the number of nodes at each depth from the starting position.

$ cargo run
Little Wing v0.3.0

> perft
perft(1) -> 20 (0.00 s, 5.83e4 nps)
perft(2) -> 400 (0.00 s, 7.62e5 nps)
perft(3) -> 8902 (0.01 s, 7.44e5 nps)
perft(4) -> 197281 (0.16 s, 1.26e6 nps)
perft(5) -> 4865609 (3.82 s, 1.27e6 nps)

And a perftsuite command for comparing the results of a perft calculation with the given EPD file.

$ cargo run -- --color
Little Wing v0.3.0

> perftsuite tests/perftsuite.epd
rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1 -> ......
r3k2r/p1ppqpb1/bn2pnp1/3PN3/1p2P3/2N2Q1p/PPPBBPPP/R3K2R w KQkq - 0 1 -> ......
4k3/8/8/8/8/8/8/4K2R w K - 0 1 -> ......
4k3/8/8/8/8/8/8/R3K3 w Q - 0 1 -> ......
4k2r/8/8/8/8/8/8/4K3 w k - 0 1 -> ......
r3k3/8/8/8/8/8/8/4K3 w q - 0 1 -> ......
4k3/8/8/8/8/8/8/R3K2R w KQ - 0 1 -> ......
r3k2r/8/8/8/8/8/8/4K3 w kq - 0 1 -> ......
8/8/8/8/8/8/6k1/4K2R w K - 0 1 -> ......
8/8/8/8/8/8/1k6/R3K3 w Q - 0 1 -> ......
4k2r/6K1/8/8/8/8/8/8 w k - 0 1 -> ......
r3k3/1K6/8/8/8/8/8/8 w q - 0 1 -> ......

And the usual others like divide, setboard or testsuite:

$ cargo run -- --color
Little Wing v0.3.0

> testsuite tests/wac.epd 1
2rr3k/pp3pp1/1nnqbN1p/3pN3/2pP4/2P3Q1/PPB4P/R4RK1 w - - bm Qg6 -> Qg6
8/7p/5k2/5p2/p1p2P2/Pr1pPK2/1P1R3P/8 b - - bm Rxb2 -> c3
5rk1/1ppb3p/p1pb4/6q1/3P1p1r/2P1R2P/PP1BQ1P1/5RKN w - - bm Rg3 -> Rg3
r1bq2rk/pp3pbp/2p1p1pQ/7P/3P4/2PB1N2/PP3PPR/2KR4 w - - bm Qxh7+ -> Qxh7+
5k2/6pp/p1qN4/1p1p4/3P4/2PKP2Q/PP3r2/3R4 b - - bm Qc4+ -> Qc4+
7k/p7/1R5K/6r1/6p1/6P1/8/8 w - - bm Rb7 -> Rb7
rnbqkb1r/pppp1ppp/8/4P3/6n1/7P/PPPNPPP1/R1BQKBNR b KQkq - bm Ne3 -> Nxe5
r4q1k/p2bR1rp/2p2Q1N/5p2/5p2/2P5/PP3PPP/R5K1 w - - bm Rf7 -> Rf7
3q1rk1/p4pp1/2pb3p/3p4/6Pr/1PNQ4/P1PB1PP1/4RRK1 b - - bm Bh2+ -> f6
2br2k1/2q3rn/p2NppQ1/2p1P3/Pp5R/4P3/1P3PPP/3R2K1 w - - bm Rxh7 -> Rxh7
r1b1kb1r/3q1ppp/pBp1pn2/8/Np3P2/5B2/PPP3PP/R2Q1RK1 w kq - bm Bxc6 -> Bxc6

Here we used cargo run to run the engine in debug mode, but you can invoke it from littlewing if you installed it to make it run faster.

littlewing 0.3.0

Little Wing

Usage

Test

License