Universal Chess Interface

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The Universal Chess Interface (UCI) is a free, open-source communication protocol that enables a chess program’s engine to communicate with its graphical user interface.

It was designed and released by Rudolf Huber and Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, the author of Shredder, in November 2000, and can be seen as a rival to the older and more established XBoard/WinBoard Communication protocol. Like the latter, it is free to use without license fees.

Only a few interfaces and engines supported this protocol, until Chessbase, the chess software company which markets Fritz, began to support UCI in 2002. As of 2007, there are well over a 100 engines that support UCI including Shredder, Rybka, Loop, HIARCS, Toga II, Fruit, Spike and Glaurung.

[edit] External references

• http://www.shredderchess.com/download.html - UCI technical specification
• http://www.chessbase.com/download/index.asp?cat=UCI-Engines - UCI technical specification
• http://www.playwitharena.com/ - A popular GUI that supports UCI engines
• http://jose-chess.sourceforge.net/ - an open source interface for both main protocols