Checkora

Chess platform with an AI opponent powered by minimax search with alpha-beta pruning, built on Django and a C++ engine.

Setup

git clone https://github.com/Checkora/checkora.git
cd checkora
python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate        # Windows
source venv/bin/activate     # macOS / Linux
pip install -r requirements.txt
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py runserver

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/.

Compile the Engine

The compiled binary is not committed. Each contributor compiles for their own platform.

# Windows
g++ -O2 game/engine/main.cpp -o game/engine/main.exe

# macOS / Linux
g++ -O2 game/engine/main.cpp -o game/engine/main

Architecture

Frontend (JS) -> Django -> C++ Engine -> Django -> Frontend

Layer	Tech	Path
Frontend	HTML, CSS, JS	game/templates/game/board.html
Backend	Django 6.0	game/views.py, game/engine.py
Engine	C++	game/engine/main.cpp

API

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/	Board UI
POST	/api/move/	Execute a move
GET	/api/valid-moves/	Legal moves for a piece
POST	/api/new-game/	Start a new game
GET	/api/check-promotion/	Check if a move triggers promotion
GET	/api/state/	Current game state
POST	/api/pause/	Pause or resume the game
POST	/api/ai-move/	Get AI move

Tests

python manage.py test game

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT