Integrate AI Chess Machine

[bfentiman]

Currently the chess machine only works by having both players input their moves. The goal is to have a computer play against a player, thus aiming to make the game more exciting.

I've played with a few chess engines and can't get them to integrate well with my movement system so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[esunder]

@bfentiman

This sounds pretty cool! I have some game development background and lots of python experience so maybe I could help. However, I do not have a chess machine to test with.

Does your project have a way to be run from the command-line, in a "machine-less" mode? Perhaps that could be another feature/issue to be able to run your game without the PI/machine.

[coreylowman]

@bfentiman

Have you heard of the python-chess package? It does everything you would want from a chess library, and additionally provides a way to interface with UCI chess engines (e.g. stockfish/sunfish).

I have experience using python-chess, so I could refactor all your code to use that if you want. I totally understand if you would prefer the code you've written though. :)

[bfentiman]

@esunder

You can comment out all the motor moving code as that is the least of my worries at the moment. This will allow you to run the program without a chess machine as the only one which works with this code is currently in my bedroom.

[bfentiman]

@coreylowman

I looked at the python-chess package and was struggling to get a decent output to use with the motors, you are more than welcome to refactor all the code and interface it with one of the UCI chess engines as that's what I was hoping to do further down the line.

I can look at the motor integration after the refactoring to see how I can reintergrate it back into the system.