About RDChess

Update: I have stopped the development of RDChess. The RDChess.exe file still runs under Windows 10, but I have not updated the installation process. This blog is kept online for historical reasons only!

One of my main interests in leisure time has been programming chess. Beside my job and my family I have written the chess program RDChess, spending many evening and weekend hours for this hobby. In the mean time I have stepped down development of RDChess. Anyway the current last version V3.23 works still under Windows 7 and is still freeware :-). You may try RDChess yourself and download a free copy. Or look at the RDChess User Manual (english) oder in die RDChess Bedienungsanleitung (deutsch).

Read a Technical Description of the RDChess program, describing shortly the architecture, data structures, search and evaluation routines of the program. Mostly the program follows the "main stream" architecture of brute force programs of the Northwestern University program CHESS 4.5 type, but has a few "proprietary" program technical features. RDChess is comparably in strength to other freeware programs like "GNUCHESS for Windows". I am not a good chess player and lose practically every time against my own program. Anyway RDChess loses regulary against commercially sold chess programs like Fritz. Read further about the strength of the program and how to test it.

If you are a chess programmer, interested in how RDChess works in detail, look into the source code. Remark: The source code (Borland Delphi, x86 assembler) is well commented but contains comments in a mixture of German and English language, so be aware you may not understand the source not knowing the German language.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Features of RDChess

  • Medium strength state of the art chess engine
  • Graphical User Interface in English and German (Main window with chess board and other info and dialog windows)
  • Play gainst the RDChess program, choose the strength of RDChess
  • Watch playing  RDChess as it plays against itself
  • Load and save chess games in the Portable Game Notation Format (.pgn)
  • Setup board positions, get a hint move for a position
  • Replay or navigate back and forward through the moves of a chess game
  • Display and edit game and move annotations 
  • Opening book with learning mode and navigation
  • Display of technical data for computer chess experts (search statistics, hash table usage, evaluation data, move sort order, ...)
  • RDChess runs also under WinBoard , allowing to play with RDChess against other WinBoard compatible chess engines or on ICS chess servers
  • Delphi Source code available