Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB
A chess engine smaller than a tweet is beating human beginners...
Deep Dive
Sameshi is a viral minimal chess engine that fits within just 2KB of code but achieves a ~1200 Elo rating. It uses a negamax search with alpha-beta pruning and material-only evaluation, competing in 240 games against Stockfish at lower levels. While it doesn't implement castling, en passant, or promotion, its tiny size and surprising strength demonstrate extreme code optimization, packing complex game logic into an astonishingly small footprint that challenges conventional software design.
Why It Matters
It proves AI logic can be radically miniaturized, opening doors for embedded systems and resource-constrained applications.