MCP Chess

Community Games, sports and entertainment

Chess opponent that plays against LLMs.

What can you do with MCP Chess?

  • get_board_visualization(): Provides the current state of the chessboard as an image. The board orientation automatically flips based on the user's assigned color.
  • get_turn(): Indicates whose turn it is ('white' or 'black').
  • get_valid_moves(): Lists all legal moves for the current player in UCI notation (e.g., 'e2e4', 'g1f3'). Returns an empty list if the game is over.
  • make_move(move_san: str): Makes a move on the board using Standard Algebraic Notation (SAN) (e.g., 'e4', 'Nf3', 'Bxe5'). Returns the move in SAN and UCI, the new board FEN, and game status.
  • new_game(user_plays_white: bool = True): Starts a new game, resetting the board. By default, the user plays white. Sets the user's color for board orientation. Returns a confirmation message.
  • find_position_in_pgn(pgn_string: str, condition: str): Finds the first board position in a PGN string matching a condition (e.g., "bishop on a3") and returns an image of that board state. The condition format is "piece_type on square_name". Valid piece ty...

Install

The installation steps are in the documentation below. Documentation

Documentation

From the project's README on GitHub, refreshed weekly. Links open on GitHub.

Contents
  1. MCP Chess Server
  2. Installation
  3. Usage
  4. Available Tools

MCP Chess Server

This MCP let's you play chess against any LLM.

Installation

To use this chess server, add the following configuration to your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chess": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-chess"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Usage

Play a game:

Find a position in a PGN for game analysis:

Available Tools

The server provides the following tools:

  • get_board_visualization(): Provides the current state of the chessboard as an image. The board orientation automatically flips based on the user's assigned color.
  • get_turn(): Indicates whose turn it is ('white' or 'black').
  • get_valid_moves(): Lists all legal moves for the current player in UCI notation (e.g., 'e2e4', 'g1f3'). Returns an empty list if the game is over.
  • make_move(move_san: str): Makes a move on the board using Standard Algebraic Notation (SAN) (e.g., 'e4', 'Nf3', 'Bxe5'). Returns the move in SAN and UCI, the new board FEN, and game status.
  • new_game(user_plays_white: bool = True): Starts a new game, resetting the board. By default, the user plays white. Sets the user's color for board orientation. Returns a confirmation message.
  • find_position_in_pgn(pgn_string: str, condition: str): Finds the first board position in a PGN string matching a condition (e.g., "bishop on a3") and returns an image of that board state. The condition format is "piece_type on square_name". Valid piece types are "pawn", "knight", "bishop", "rook", "queen", "king".

Frequently asked questions

What is MCP Chess?

Chess opponent that plays against LLMs.

How do I install MCP Chess?

Follow the installation steps in its documentation, shown on this page and in its repository.

Is MCP Chess open source?

Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license.

Who maintains MCP Chess?

It is published by jiayao. AI.tn lists it but does not maintain or endorse it.

From the community awesome-mcp-servers lists and the project's GitHub repository. Listing is not an endorsement: review a server's code and permissions before giving it access to your data.