play-ch0 1.1.0

Blindfold chess CLI with built-in engines

ch0 - Blindfold Chess CLI

A minimal terminal game for playing blindfold chess against built-in engines.

• Install it as a standalone CLI tool
• Play by entering SAN moves (e4, Nf3, exd5, a8=Q) plus a handful of helpful commands (show, fen, pgn, …)
• Includes bundled engines (Sunfish, Andoma) and a “bring your own UCI engine” mode

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Install

With uv (recommended)

uv tool install play-ch0

With pip

python -m pip install --upgrade play-ch0

Requires Python 3.13+.

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Run

After installing, you can launch the game with either entrypoint:

ch0
# or
play-ch0

You’ll start in a lobby where you pick an engine + color, then start.

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Quick start gameplay

• Enter SAN moves: e4, Nf3, exd5, a8=Q, …

• Or enter commands like:

  • show - show the board (useful if you “peek”)
  • moves - list moves
  • fen - print current FEN
  • pgn - print current PGN (also printed at game end)
  • resign - resign
  • help - show available commands
  • quit - exit

Commands can also be prefixed with : (e.g. :show).

The engine moves automatically on its turn.

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Opening book (optional)

If you place a Polyglot opening book file named book.bin in the current working directory when you run ch0, the game will use it for opening-book moves.

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Engines

Available options:

• random - plays random legal moves
• andoma - bundled engine
• sunfish - bundled engine
• uci - use any external UCI engine (e.g., Stockfish) by providing a command/path; played via python-chess

Notes:

• Sunfish and Andoma are third-party projects vendored under src/ch0/engines/. I don’t create or maintain them.
• On Windows, ANSI colors work better if colorama is installed (it’s auto-used when present).

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Development (from source)

If you want to hack on the repo instead of installing from PyPI:

git clone https://github.com/menisadi/ch0
cd ch0
uv sync
uv run ch0

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Licenses / third-party

• This project is licensed under GPLv3 (see LICENSE).
• Sunfish is distributed under the GNU General Public License; see src/ch0/engines/sunfish/LICENSE.md.
• Andoma is distributed under the MIT License; see src/ch0/engines/andoma/LICENSE.

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TODO

• Fix turn bookkeeping - remove game.turn and rely on board.turn
• Update move numbering / PGN formatting using board.turn before pushing moves
• Sunfish: validate emitted UCI move is legal
• Make Polyglot book usage optional
• Show a subtle “(book)” indicator when a book move is used
• Add undo (at least one ply)
• Add status / check command that reports check-like info
• Decide and implement draw policy: claimable vs automatic handling of draws
• Add optional PGN autosave to a file (date/engine/color in file-name)
• Add "illegal moves" count (printed at the end)
• Add Stockfish bundling or automatic UCI discovery