Python Chess Engine ♟️

A chess engine written entirely in Python as a personal learning project for Programming I.

The objective of this project is to build a complete chess engine from scratch while learning the fundamentals of software engineering, object-oriented programming, algorithms, debugging, testing, and version control.

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Features

Board

• 8×8 board representation
• Standard chess starting position
• Terminal board display
• Piece movement

Piece Movement

• ✅ Pawn
• ✅ Rook
• ✅ Knight
• ✅ Bishop
• ✅ Queen
• ✅ King

Each piece has its own movement validation function contained within pieces.py.

Game Logic

• Move validation
• Check detection
• Board rule enforcement

Testing

• Dedicated board testing file
• Easily expandable test suite for future development

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Project Structure

src/ │ ├── main.py # Starts the program ├── game.py # Future game loop and turn management ├── board.py # Board state and game rules ├── pieces.py # Individual piece movement rules └── test_board.py # Board testing

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Current Progress

Completed

• Board implementation
• Initial piece setup
• Piece movement validation
• Move dispatcher
• Check detection
• GitHub version control
• Basic testing framework

In Progress

• Prevent illegal moves that leave the king in check

Planned Features

• Checkmate detection
• Stalemate detection
• Castling
• En passant
• Pawn promotion
• Turn management
• Complete game loop
• Move history
• Game saving/loading
• Simple AI opponent

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Technologies

• Python
• Git
• GitHub
• Visual Studio Code

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Purpose

This project is intended as an educational exercise to strengthen understanding of:

• Python programming
• Object-oriented programming
• Algorithms
• Modular software design
• Chess engine architecture
• Testing and debugging
• Git workflow

Rather than relying on external chess libraries, every rule is implemented from scratch to better understand both the game of chess and software development.

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Author

William Hall