Simple but fast engine for code study

[SimplySpeed]

Hi all!

I've long dabbled in the concepts used in programming chess engines, and have tried to keep up with the conceptual innovations over the past decade (tough work!), but now I'm looking to "get my hands dirty", so to speak. I'm wanting to find an open-source engine that meets a few criteria, but I haven't come up with much from searching, so I thought I'd inquire here. The criteria are as follows:

1. Only uses basic alpha-beta pruning and its theoretically sound modifications, with a quiescence search. I realize that such an engine will not be nearly as strong as modern engines that use more aggressive, theoretically risky techniques, but playing strength is not a primary goal.

2. The code is written for speed, not for clearness in a didactic sense (so no TSCP or other such engines). I don't have a problem with (and actually want!) to have some code that may take quite a bit of work to understand, but is not code that I would have to completely restructure if I wanted to make a chess engine fast (as would be the case with TSCP, or other "didactic" chess engines, which are excellent for their purposes, I might add).

Do any of you know of some engines that meet those criteria? If you do, or have any suggestions about engines which come close, I would greatly appreciate your input.

Thanks!

[HumbleProgrammer]

You might want to look into Huo Chess (http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/207 ... -Huo-Chess) which appears to meet your criteria. It also has the advantage of having both native code (c++) and managed code (C#) versions.

Cheers!
Humble Programmer
,,,^..^,,,

[simonhue]

I have somewhat unrelated question, is there open source engine (like TSCP, i.e. good for learning and easy to start with), but in Java?

[HumbleProgrammer]

Take a look at Cuckoo Chess (http://web.comhem.se/petero2home/javachess/) by Peter Österlund. (His DroidFish program for Android rocks!)

Cheers!
Humble Programmer
,,,^..^,,,