Download the latest version of my Maverick Chess engine here:
October 28th 2015: Maverick 1.5 (includes Windows 64 bit and Linux 64 / 32 bit) and source code (estimated ~2550 ELO)
April 23rd 2015: Maverick 1.0 – source code and binaries for Windows 64 / 32 bit, Linux and Android Arm 7 (estimated ~2500 ELO)
March 20th 2015: Maverick 0.60 (estimated ~2360 ELO)
October 10th 2013: Maverick 0.51 and source code (estimated ~2320 ELO)
September 15th 2013: Maverick 0.5 and source code (estimated ~2320 ELO)
August 16th 2013: Maverick 0.2 and source code – now includes a x64 version for older machines which do not have popcount (estimated ~2150 ELO)
August 13th 2013: Maverick 0.11 and source code (estimated ~2050 ELO)
August 1st 2013: Maverick 0.05 and source code (estimated ~1800 ELO)
Opening Book:
Maverick’s customized Polyglot Opening Book
You can also download my earlier chess program Monarch Chess
Graphical User Interface:
Maverick doesn’t have it’s own GUI. It can work with any chess GUI which supports the UCI protocol.
Free UCI GUIs:
- Arena – a popular free chess GUI
- SCID – great free PGN database tool
- SCID vs. PC – a fork from SCID
Commercial UCI GUIs:
- Shredder – the home of the UCI protocol (and my personal favorite)
- ChessBase Fritz (et al.)- all of the ChessBase engines have good UCI support
- Fritz 12 by Viva Media (only $6 on Amazon) – a slightly older version of Fritz (a bargain!)
- Chess Explorer – quite new but looks promising
Version History:
Version 1.5 – October 28th 2015
- Tweaks to the piece square tables (especially pawns)
- Added endgame knowledge
- Less selectivity
- Fixed a quiescent search bug which unnecessarily research some moves
Version 1.0 – April 23rd 2015
- Added Late Move Reduction
- Added more endgame knowledge
- Added binaries for Android ARM7 and Linux 32 (Thanks to Jim Ablett)
- Added refutation moves to the move ordering
- Added beta pruning (inspired by Senpai)
Version 0.60 – March 20th 2015
- Added Chess960 support
- Added basic king safety
- Fixed a problem with using the opening book with Arena
- Fixed an obscure bug which could crash the engine after a stop command
Version 0.51 – October 10th 2013
- Fixed a nasty bug which can cause a crash if it encounters a discovered check and an opponents knight next to the king (a bizarre bug)!
- Added a “Smart Book” option – still in testing
Version 0.5 – September 15th 2013
- Added more basic endgame knowledge
- Added passed pawn evaluation (I think this added a lot of strength)
- Beefed up the evaluation routine to include basic terms such as mobility
- Fixed a nasty hash bug to do with mating positions
- Added one-reply to check extensions in the first ply of the quiescent search (help with some tactics – little impact on playing strength)
- Enabled hash cutoffs at PV nodes
- Nodes per second have dropped considerably due to the slower evaluation (now between 3 million and 5 million on my 2.8 GHz i7 notebook)
- A bazillion tweaks
Version 0.2 – August 16th 2013
- Fixed – hash routine bug
- Fixed – General search bug
- Added – Known endgame knowledge
Version 0.11 – August 13th 2013
- Fixed – time management bug when playing game in “x” plus increment of “y”
Version 0.1 – August 13th 2013
- Added hash tables
- Added basic endgame knowledge (QK vs. K, RK vs. K, BBK vs. K and BNK vs. K)
- Added checks in first ply of quiescent
- Better move ordering (SEE negative captures after quiet moves)
- Added Null move (R=2)
- Fixed nasty time management bug for “x” moves in “y” minutes
Version 0.05 – August 1st 2013
First public version which plays chess!
- UCI compatible
- Magic bitboard and move dictionary architecture
- Basic PVS search
- Complies to all chess rules (e.g. three position repetition and 50 move rule)
- Can use any Polyglot opening book (configurable from the engine options)