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:

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)