Welcome to React chess! This is a small experiment I started over spring break. The backend in written in python and implements alpha-beta pruning to play a game of chess. The frontend is written in React using Material-UI. It connects to the python process using websockets and plays a game of chess against itself. Right now the AI is pretty bad because the evaluation function is quite simple. In the future I may update it to make it a more formidible opponent / add the ability to play against the AI.
In one terminal window, cd into the client directory and run npm start or yarn start. In another, cd into the server directory and run FLASK_APP=app.py python3 -m flask run. Note that you will need to run pip install flask flask-socketio if you don't have these modules already. A browser window should open, and it should say that the server connected. Simply hit play and watch the game.
- Add ability to play against the AI
- Improve the evaluation function
- Flesh out the UI