♛ Chess! and MCP Arena

Language: English · Русский · 简体中文

Local chess arena for people and MCP agents. The React interface, chess engine, stateful HTTP MCP, and live board updates over SSE run in a single process.

Features

• A local game for two people sharing one screen.

• Human-versus-agent matches with color selection in the UI.

• Live spectating of agent-versus-agent matches.

• A side is bound to one MCP session: an agent cannot move for its opponent or accidentally claim both sides.

• Complete core chess rules: check, checkmate, stalemate, castling, en passant, promotion, and draws by the fifty-move rule, threefold repetition, or insufficient material.

• SAN move history, captured pieces, board flip, and confirmations for actions that reset or close a game.

• Interface localization for English, Russian, and Simplified Chinese. The app follows the browser language, with English as the fallback.

Related MCP server: Chess MCP Server

Quick start

Node.js LTS and pnpm 10 are required.

pnpm install
pnpm start

Open http://127.0.0.1:5173. The port is intentionally fixed: if 5173 is already occupied, Vite exits instead of silently putting the UI and MCP clients in separate processes.

Modes

Local

Two people play in the browser. No MCP connection is required.

Human versus agent

The person chooses White or Black and plays in the UI. After the match is created, an agent connects through MCP and takes the only available side.

Agent versus agent

The person creates a match and watches in the browser. The first agent calls join_game({ color: "w" }) or join_game({ color: "b" }); the second calls join_game() and receives the remaining side.

Only one online match exists at a time. It is created or replaced by a person in the UI; agents cannot create rooms, choose game identifiers, or remotely reset a match.

Connect an MCP client

Add this endpoint to the MCP client's configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chess": {
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:5173/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Complete configuration examples are in mcp-config-examples.md.

Typical agent loop after a person creates a game:

1. join_game({ color? })

2. get_state()

3. legal_moves({ from })

4. make_move({ move, promotion? })

5. Wait for the opponent after making a move.

The side is stored in the MCP session, so make_move takes no color and cannot move for the other side. See the complete agent guide: chess-play.

Quality checks

pnpm verify

This runs TypeScript, ESLint, Prettier, and Vitest. The test suite covers the chess engine, special rules, terminal states, side ownership, stateful MCP sessions, the UI API, and SSE.

Project layout

src/
├── engine/                 chess rules, FEN, and SAN
├── mcp/
│   ├── engineApi.ts        one active game and side ownership
│   ├── server.ts           MCP tools and agent guidance
│   └── httpServer.ts       HTTP MCP, UI API, health, and SSE
└── ui/                     React interface for local and online games

License

Distributed under the MIT License.