Quack-Mate SQL Chess Engine

What is Quack-Mate?

Quack-Mate is an experimental chess engine that performs move generation and evaluation directly within DuckDB using SQL. It explores the feasibility of using analytical databases for game-tree search.

• Technical Writeup: https://swingbit.github.io/quackmate/
• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/swingbit/quack-mate

Have you seen Quack-Mate play a move that suggests a reasoning bug?
Please click on the Move History / Copy Debug Log button and paste the content in a new bug report in GitHub.

⚠ Restricted Mode

You are currently playing using a WASM DuckDB engine in Restricted Mode. Because memory is limited to 4GB, search depth is capped at 5 (3 for Recursive CTE) and threads at 1.

To experience Quack-Mate with higher depths and the high-performance Native DuckDB backend, please visit the GitHub Repository and run it locally.

Engine Options

• Max Depth: How many plies ahead the AI calculates.
• Max Depth QS: Quiescence Search depth: how many plies on top of Max Depth the AI calculates to stabilize non-quiet positions involving captures.
• Strategy: Different SQL approaches to search (Recursive CTE is impractical above Max Depth 3).
• Optimisations: Toggleable Move Ordering Heuristics and Pruning Techniques that help the engine search faster.