Brutal Chess is an open source chess engine and interface for multiple operating systems. It began development in May of 2005. It is currently in the alpha stage of development.

Features

Brutal Chess is a fully-featured chess program, featuring an adjustably difficult computer opponent, a fully 3D user interface, and in-development features for game recording, playback, and scenario games. The program is actively developed for Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. There is community support for compilation and use in other operating environments. Brutal Chess runs in multiple resolutions with a plethora of options to customize play and appearance.

Engine

The Brutal Chess engine is, as of May 2006, still in development. Internally the game runs on libraries from SDL and FreeType. Brutal Chess in its entirety is written in C

Development

First Revision

The first revision of Brutal Chess was started in May of 2005 as a side project for Max Lazaroff and Mike Cook, two University of Michigan students, as a side project to keep up on their programming skills over the summer break from school. Since this humble start, the project has exploded in scope and membership, reaching 10,000 downloads within a year of its release.

Nimble Knight

The second iteration of Brutal Chess, and also the final revision to be developed before a beta will be released, has been codenamed Nimble Knight and is still in devlopment. Additions in this revision included a complete code overhaul, realization of fully animated 3-d models, a more intelligent and speedy artificial intelligence, and an advanced menuing system.

Authors/Contact

Brutal Chess' development crew consists of a handful of students from the University of Michigan. The students are all in the engineering college, from various disciplines of computer science. The current dev team includes students Maxwell Lazaroff, Joe Flint, Neil Pankey, and Mike Cook.

External links

BrutalChess Development Blog on SourceForge

BrutalChess Development Page