README

PHP wrapper classes for interfacing with UCI chess engines.

Getting started

From the root of your application

composer require chris-moreton/uci-chess

Unless using a framework where autoloading is already taken care of, you'll need to

include 'vendor/autoload.php';

Then, include the classes that you want to use, e.g.

use Netsensia\Uci\Engine;
use Netsensia\Uci\Match;
use Netsensia\Uci\Tournament\RoundRobin;

Search for a move

$engine = new Engine();

// Native application or Jar file?
$engine->setApplicationType(Engine::APPLICATION_TYPE_JAR);
    
// The location of the chess engine on the local file system
// You can download my engine, RivalChess from https://github.com/chris-moreton/rival-chess-android-engine/tree/master/dist
// If the engine requires any parameters, simply add them after the path
$engine->setEngineLocation('/path/to/engine.jar [params]');

// Set engine parameters
$engine->setMode(Engine::MODE_NODES);
$engine->setModeValue(100000);

// Set the starting position of the match (before any moves have been played)
$engine->setPosition(Engine::STARTPOS);

// Send the move history and get the move
$move = $engine->getMove('e2e4 d7d5');

// Important! - remove the process
$engine->unloadEngine();

Run a match

$whiteEngine = new Engine('/path/to/engine1.jar');

// No reason why you can't use the same engine if you want to test against different parameters
$blackEngine = new Engine('/path/to/engine2.jar');

$whiteEngine->setMode(Engine::MODE_NODES);
$whiteEngine->setModeValue(100);
$whiteEngine->setApplicationType(Engine::APPLICATION_TYPE_JAR);
$whiteEngine->setLogEngineOutput(false);

$blackEngine->setMode(Engine::MODE_NODES);
$blackEngine->setModeValue(10000);
$blackEngine->setApplicationType(Engine::APPLICATION_TYPE_JAR);
$blackEngine->setLogEngineOutput(false);

$match = new Match($whiteEngine, $blackEngine);

$result = $match->play();

echo $result['fen'] . PHP_EOL;

switch ($result['result']) {
    case Match::DRAW: echo 'Draw';
        break;
    case Match::WHITE_WIN: echo 'White win';
        break;
    case Match::BLACK_WIN: echo 'Black win';
        break;
}

$whiteEngine->unloadEngine();
$blackEngine->unloadEngine();

Run a tournament

$tournament = new RoundRobin();

// for each engine...   
$engine = new Engine('/path/to/engine1.jar');
$engine->setMode(Engine::MODE_NODES);
$engine->setModeValue(100);
$engine->setApplicationType(Engine::APPLICATION_TYPE_JAR);
$engine->setLogEngineOutput(false);
$engine->setName('Engine 1');
$tournament->addEngine($engine);

...

foreach ($tournament->matches() as $match) {
    echo $match->getWhite()->getName() . ' v ' . $match->getBlack()->getName() . PHP_EOL;
    $tournament->play($match);
    $echo $tournament->table();
}

$tournament->showTable();

$tournament->close();