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Universal Chess Interface (UCI)
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.. contents::


Description
===========

This package provides a pure Python client-server `Universal Chess Interface`_ to a chess engine intended for analysing positions rather than playing games.


Installation Instructions
=========================

This package is available on PyPI so can be installed by typing

   python -m pip install --user uci-net

at the command prompt.

See `Python`_ and `pip`_ documentation for alternatives and platform-specific points.


Run
===

The command to run the server is:

   python -m uci_net.tcp_driver [port] [allowed callers] path [options]

A path to a UCI chess engine must be given.

See chess engine documentation for options.

By default anyone is allowed to use the server, subject to firewall restrictions.  A comma separated list of hostnames in <allowed callers> prevents hosts not in the list from using the server.

Conections to the server are made on port 'port'.  The default is 11111.

Assuming a hostname 'stockfishbox' with IP address 192.168.0.1 and the default port, suitable engine definition records in `ChessTab`_ are:

   '//stockfishbox:11111?name=Stockfish 12' or
   '//192.168.0.1:11111?name=Stockfish 12'.

The record says 'name=Stockfish 12' because 'Stockfish 12' is the 'id name' value returned by Stockfish 12 in response to the 'uci' command.

The client is run by applications such as `ChessTab`_ when required.


Notes
=====

Project name and package name changed from 'uci' to 'uci-net' prior to upload to PyPI.

The version numbers of uci-net continue on from uci.


.. _Python: https://python.org
.. _pip: https://packaging.python.org/installing
.. _Universal Chess Interface: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Chess_Interface
.. _ChessTab: http://www.solentware.co.uk/download.html