Sameshi chess engine
Ranked 2 of 5 chess engines by recommenders
Tiny chess engine that fits in about 2KB of code and plays around 1200 Elo; people admire the compactness. Critics note missing castling, en passant and promotion.
Tiny chess engine that fits in about 2KB of code and plays around 1200 Elo; people admire the compactness. Critics note missing castling, en passant and promotion.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Impressively small code size
“while 4k is still very impressive for the code base”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB” “the size and capability is impressive nonetheless”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB” “Cool that you could keep it under 2k”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB” Enthusiastic, well-liked project
“Cool project. The pawn is not permitted to move two fields after it has already been moved once before”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB” “This is amazing! Thanks for sharing.”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Missing castling, en passant, promotion
“you do need castling, en pessant and promotion for pretty much any serious play.”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB” “Not implemented: castling, en passant, promotion, repetition, 50-move rule.”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB” Obfuscated code hard to contribute to
“I love how you obfuscated your code, really in a spirit of FOSS!”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB” “Your code is useless to anyone that wants to contribute”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB”
Other chess engines people recommend
The four most recommended other chess engines, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stockfish | 47 | 8 | 85% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Sameshi chess engineThis page | 10 | 3 | 77% | 1 | — | — |
| Chessmaster 3000 | 6 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Leela Chess Zero | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Regex Chess | 5 | 4 | 56% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Not implemented: castling, en passant, promotion, repetition, 50-move rule.”
“I was never able to beat it”
“Your code is useless to anyone that wants to contribute”
“the size and capability is impressive nonetheless”
“you do need castling, en pessant and promotion for pretty much any serious play.”
“Cool project. The pawn is not permitted to move two fields after it has already been moved once before”
“while 4k is still very impressive for the code base”
“I love how you obfuscated your code, really in a spirit of FOSS!”
“This is amazing! Thanks for sharing.”
“Cool that you could keep it under 2k”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.