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Wikipedia / Universal Chess Interface

The Universal Chess Interface (UCI) is an open communication protocol designed by Rudolf Huber and Stefan Meyer-Kahlen that enables chess engines to communicate with user interfaces.

History

The UCI protocol was released in November 2000. Designed by Rudolf Huber and Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, the author of Shredder. UCI rivals the older communication protocol XBoard/WinBoard.

In 2002, the chess software company Chessbase that markets Fritz, began to support UCI.

Design

By design, UCI assigns some tasks to the user interface (i.e., presentation layer) which have traditionally been handled by the engine itself.

Stefan-Meyer Kahlen's UCI protocol in Shredder uses a variation of long algebraic notation for moves. A "nullmove" from an engine to a GUI should be sent as 0000.

Examples

  • e2e4 (white pawn push)

  • e7e5 (black pawn push)

  • e1g1 (white short castling)

  • e7e8q (for promotion)

In the case of Chess 960, castling moves are represented by the King capturing their own corresponding rook.

Commands

There are many commands used to communicate with an engine. Additional commands can be implemented per engine, the below commands are implemented by the Stockfish chess engine.

Features

The uci_limitstrength parameter tells engines with this feature to play at a lower level. The uci_elo parameter specifies the Elo rating at which the engine will aim to play. Engines that have implemented uci_elo include Delfi, Fritz, Hiarcs, Houdini, Junior, Rybka, Shredder, Sjeng and Stockfish.

Variants

The UCI has been modified to play some other games, and chess variants. Some of these are:

  • Universal Shogi Interface (USI), a dialect for shogi;

  • Universal Chinese Chess Interface (UCCI), a dialect for xiangqi.

Each of these protocols may also define variants of Portable Game Notation (PGN) and Forsyth–Edwards Notation (FEN).

See also

References