Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB

Name: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB
Availability: InStock
Author: datavorous_

by datavorous_·Feb 14, 2026·230 points·69 comments

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AI Analysis

●●●●GemWizardryZero to OneNiche Gem

Full chess engine in 2KB — demoscene-grade constraint coding transcends gaming.

Strengths

•Genuinely impressive constraint: legit engine, legal moves, checkmate detection packed into 2KB.
•Rigorous methodology: 240-game empirical Elo measurement with 95% CI against Stockfish levels.
•Demoscene ritual done right: transcends 'golf code' novelty—this is real craft with depth.

Weaknesses

•Deliberately incomplete: no castling, en passant, or promotion limits its depth as a complete engine.
•Niche appeal: impressive to programmers but lacks staying power outside constraint-coding community.

Post Description

I made a chess engine today, and made it fit within 2KB. I used a variant of MinMax called Negamax, with alpha beta pruning. For the board representation I have used a 120-cell "mailbox". I managed to squeeze in checkmate/stalemate in there, after trimming out some edge cases.

I am a great fan of demoscene (computer art subculture) since middle school, and hence it was a ritual i had to perform.

For estimating the Elo, I measured 240 automated games against Stockfish Elo levels (1320 to 1600) under fixed depth-5 and some constrained rules, using equal color distribution.

Then converted pooled win/draw/loss scores to Elo through some standard logistic formula with binomial 95% confidence interval.