For engine authors
Chess Programming Tools
A growing collection of tools, formats and resources for chess-engine authors — the practical building blocks gathered over four decades of writing chess software. From the UCI protocol and Polyglot opening-book format to EPD test suites for PERFT and engine analysis, these are the bits and pieces that make developing and testing a chess engine that much easier. More to come.
EPD Test Suites
Various EPD test suites — position sets for testing and analysing chess engines. 59 files (PERFT, standard suites and chess-odds positions), subdirectories preserved.
📥 — downloads to date
Browse on GitHub →UCI Protocol
The Universal Chess Interface — the command-line protocol between chess engines and GUIs (original specification by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen).
📥 — downloads to date
View on GitHub →Polyglot Opening Book
Polyglot book binary files for chess engines that support the Polyglot book format — a selection of opening books to choose from.
Browse on GitHub →Polyglot & Zobrist docs for engine authors →
📥 — book downloads to date