solo-chess-solver

Solve chess.com's Solo-Chess puzzles using a new recursive-backtracking algorithm.

Introduction

This script uses basic backtracking to test combinations of moves and solve the puzzle.

Solo-Chess

Solo-Chess is a variation on chess puzzles with simple rules. The goal is to end up with a single piece on the board using moves with the following rules:

Each move made must be a capture
No piece can capture more than two pieces
If there is a king on the board, it must be the final piece

The puzzles can become extremely complex quickly, which is why this program exists!

Basic Example

Here, the solution is

Kxf2
Kxe2

Complex Example

The solution isn't as easy this time.

Usage

(Windows) Run the following in cmd

python -m pip install chess

(Unix/Mac) Run the following in Terminal

python3 -m pip install chess

Ensure main.py and utils.py are within the same directory. Then run python main.py on Windows, and python3 main.py on Unix/Mac systems.

Then, input the number of pieces (n) on the board.

For the next n lines, you will have to input the pieces in this format.

[Piece] [Square]

where [Piece] is the symbol for the piece:

K => king
Q => queen
R => rook
B => bishop
N => knight
P => pawn

Example:

Enter number of pieces: 3
Input the 3 pieces on the following lines using this format: [Piece] [Square]
Example: K g2
K g1
R f2
B e2

Hit Enter after the last piece and wait for the sequence of moves to be outputted.

The output is in the format

[Piece] [FromSquare] [ToSquare]

For example, a King move from g3 to g4 would be indicated by K g3 g4

Longer example:

---
Enter number of pieces: 10
Input the 3 pieces on the following lines using this format: [Piece] [Square]
Example: K g2
R b8 b3
R b3 a3
R a7 a3
R a3 d3
Q a1 g1
Q g1 d4
Q h7 d3
Q d3 d4
Q d7 d4
Q d4 f4
---

Contact

For questions or suggestions, contact me here or on Discord at lionrocker#3960.

Contributions

@RyanDefender - Clearer prompts and error in README example.

License

This program is released under the GNU GPL v3 License. More information can be found in the LICENSE file.

leonrode/solo-chess-solver