MAmackeye·Feb 15, 2026
a readable version seems to have just been added! https://github.com/datavorous/sameshi/tree/master/readable
In Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KBdatavorous
sameshi
C2026–2026
datavorous / sameshi
sameshi
a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB
2Distinct people
3Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
202GitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
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Also in these discussions
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by hour3 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2026-02-14 13:47:44 UTC to 2026-02-15 03:29:25 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 14, 13:00 | 2026-02-14 13:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-14 14:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Feb 14, 14:00 | 2026-02-14 14:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-14 15:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 14, 15:00 | 2026-02-14 15:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-14 16:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Feb 14, 16:00 | 2026-02-14 16:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-14 17:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 14, 17:00 | 2026-02-14 17:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-14 18:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 14, 18:00 | 2026-02-14 18:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-14 19:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 14, 19:00 | 2026-02-14 19:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-14 20:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 14, 20:00 | 2026-02-14 20:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-14 21:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 14, 21:00 | 2026-02-14 21:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-14 22:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 14, 22:00 | 2026-02-14 22:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-14 23:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 14, 23:00 | 2026-02-14 23:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-15 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 15, 00:00 | 2026-02-15 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-15 01:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 15, 01:00 | 2026-02-15 01:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-15 02:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 15, 02:00 | 2026-02-15 02:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-15 03:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 15, 03:00 | 2026-02-15 03:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-15 04:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
3 sourcesOh well, the file initially looked like https://github.com/datavorous/sameshi/blob/7ab4e47144f96becd...
It is hideous now!
In Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KBShow HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB
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.
230 points · Open discussion