TermiChess ♟️

A terminal-based chess application written in Go, featuring a simple TUI interface and Stockfish engine integration.

Features

• ♟️ Interactive TUI: Hacky user interface with keyboard navigation
• 🤖 Stockfish Engine: Play against Stockfish with adjustable ELO levels
• 📊 Game Display: Visual chess board with piece representation
• ⌨️ Move Input: Enter moves in standard algebraic notation (e.g., e2e4, Nf3)
• 🎯 ELO Selection: Choose your opponent's strength
• 💾 Auto-save: Game state is automatically saved

Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24.0 or later
• Stockfish installed on your system

Installing Stockfish

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install stockfish

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt-get install stockfish

Linux (Fedora):

sudo dnf install stockfish

Windows: Download from Stockfish website and add to PATH

Build from Source

git clone <repository-url>
cd termichess
go mod tidy
go build -o termichess cmd/termichess/main.go
./termichess

Or use the Makefile:

make build
make run

Usage

Controls

• Arrow Keys: Navigate menus
• Enter: Select option
• Ctrl+H: Help - Show help page
• Ctrl+N: New Game - Start a new game
• Ctrl+E: ELO Settings - Change Stockfish ELO
• Ctrl+C: Quit - Exit the application

Playing a Game

1. Start the application
2. Select your ELO level (default: 1500)
3. Enter moves in algebraic notation (e.g., e2e4, Nf3, O-O)
4. Stockfish will respond automatically
5. The game ends when checkmate, stalemate, or draw occurs

Move Notation

• Standard moves: e2e4 (from e2 to e4)
• Knight moves: Ng1f3 or Nf3 (knight from g1 to f3)
• Castling: O-O (kingside) or O-O-O (queenside)
• Promotion: e7e8Q (pawn promotes to queen)

Configuration

The game automatically saves your settings to:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/termichess/config.yml
• Linux: ~/.config/termichess/config.yml
• Windows: %APPDATA%\termichess\config.yml

ELO Levels

• Beginner: 800-1200
• Intermediate: 1200-1800
• Advanced: 1800-2400
• Expert: 2400+

Screenshots

Game

ELO setting

Ongoing games

Events

Development

Dependencies

• github.com/gdamore/tcell/v2: Terminal UI framework
• github.com/rivo/tview: TUI components
• github.com/notnil/chess: Chess game logic
• gopkg.in/yaml.v3: Configuration file handling

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Acknowledgments

• Built with the amazing tview TUI framework
• Uses notnil/chess for game logic
• Powered by Stockfish chess engine