WA

Case Study

Chess Engine - C++ / Bitboards / Alpha-Beta / NNUE

C++ chess engine work focused on systems-level C++ design, performance profiling, search optimization, and engine architecture.

Problem

A chess engine is a dense systems project: every layer has consequences for search speed, memory use, move generation, evaluation quality, and maintainability.

Architecture

The engine uses a bitboard board representation, alpha-beta search, transposition tables, and NNUE-style neural evaluation work to support search optimization and performance profiling.

Constraints

  • Represent board state efficiently with bitboards.
  • Use alpha-beta search to reduce the move tree.
  • Use transposition tables to avoid repeated search work.
  • Explore NNUE-style evaluation while keeping the engine architecture understandable.
  • Profile and optimize performance-critical paths.

Technologies

C++ Algorithms Bitboards Alpha-Beta Search Transposition Tables NNUE-Style Evaluation Performance Profiling

Outcome

The project shows applied algorithmic C++ work, search optimization, and engine architecture.