Ferz Chess
Chess application with a built-in aggressive, human-style engine (~2250 ELO), 3D board, tournament mode & more
2D Board View
Classic 2D board with side panels — engine output, move list, and evaluation bar
What is Ferz?
The built-in Ferz engine is designed to play in an aggressive, human-like style at approximately 2250 ELO. It doesn't just find the strongest move — it fights for the initiative, launches kingside attacks, sacrifices material for activity, and creates the kind of tactical complications that make chess exciting.
Supports classical chess, computer tournaments, game analysis, opening books, and more — all in one self-contained program with a clean dark-themed interface.
Features
Built-in Ferz Engine
Aggressive human-style engine (~2250 ELO) that plays for initiative and attacks. Handcrafted Evaluation, UCI protocol, adjustable time controls, parallel games.
2D & 3D Board Views
Switch between classic 2D and immersive 3D perspective view. Smooth animated transitions and full dark theme in both modes.
Dark Mode
Clean dark theme throughout the entire application — board, panels, menus, and dialogs.
PGN Database & Explorer
Built-in PGN database with game explorer, move-by-move statistics, and database management. Import and export PGN files.
Computer Tournaments
Run round-robin or knockout tournaments between engines. Parallel game execution with real-time statistics, win/draw/loss tracking, and detailed summaries.
Game Analysis
Analyze games with evaluation graphs, per-move eval bars, and detailed move commentary. Step through positions with full navigation controls.
Chess960 (Fischer Random)
Play Chess960/Fischer Random chess for more variety. Randomized starting positions keep your openings fresh.
Opening Books & Tablebases
Support for opening books and Syzygy endgame tablebases (local files + online lookup) for optimal endgame play.
Menus & Controls
Intuitive menu system with access to all features — games, tournaments, settings, and analysis
Console Control
Ferz includes a full built-in console (Ctrl+`) for advanced game control.
Type commands directly — TAB autocomplete, command history, and a console log saved to local_games/console.log.
Game Control
go [depth] · stop · move e2e4 · setfen <FEN> · newgame · undo · redo · flip
Engine & Analysis
eval · threats · status · history · analysis on|off · engine [path] · uci · isready
Books & Database
book load|on|off|bias · db list|pick|next|prev|<n> · pgn open · syzygy <path>
UI & View
board 3d on|off · zoom in|out|reset · tilt3d <0-100> · light|dark · language bg|en · screenshot
3D Board View
Immersive pseudo-3D perspective view with the same full-featured interface
System Requirements
- OS: Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit)
- RAM: 2 GB minimum
- Disk Space: ~150 MB after extraction
- Processor: x86-64 compatible
How to Install
- Download
Ferz_SFX.exeusing the button above - Run the self-extracting archive
- Choose an extraction folder (e.g.
C:\Ferz) - After extraction, launch
Ferz.exe— no installation required
Playing a full game in 3D view — engine analyzing in real time
2D board during gameplay — engine evaluation and move history visible in the side panels
Changelog
- New: Tournament engine log — `tournament/<name>/engine.log` now logs every `go wtime/btime` with `fen` for high-concurrency time debugging (reported issue where one engine shows much less time after a few moves).
- Fix: Tournament preview board piece colors — small board in Tournament Manager showed white pieces as black and vice versa (inverted fill in
BoardWidget::buildUnicodeCachefor fallback Unicode pieces).
- Fix: Pondering scope — now only for local games (Human vs Engine, local Engine vs Engine). Disabled for tournaments and parallel games to avoid high-concurrency crash (`illegal move` after 2-3 moves).
- Fix: Pondering (thinking on opponent's time) now actually works —
startPonder/ponderHitwere wired but never called, theponderfrombestmovewas discarded and the Pondering checkbox was never read. - Now: after an engine's move the GUI starts its
startPonderon the predicted reply while the opponent thinks; on the opponent's actual move it doesponderHiton a hit (keeps the search tree, continues from depth) orstopon a miss. No more idle time.
- Fix: bottom Load button in Tournament Manager now correctly resumes the saved tournament (was only loading for viewing, then Start created a new tournament from scratch).
- Now both Load paths (bottom bar and Saved tournaments in Settings) correctly restore progress and continue from the saved point.
- REWORKED adaptive sparring partner — a smooth, human-like strength gradient across all six tiers (Beginner → Master)
- The opponent now weakens by choosing a weaker REAL engine move, never a random or time-cut move
- Per-tier cp-loss ceiling — strong tiers (Expert/Master) can never drop a piece for free; weaker tiers may blunder naturally
- Gaussian-weighted selection replaces the old fixed-rank pick, so strength changes gradually instead of in steps
- Bundled Ferz engine reports full-depth MultiPV candidate lines (no more shallow/deceptive alternatives)
- Works with ANY engine: native UCI_Elo, MultiPV weaker-move selection, or depth handicap — sparring never affects tournaments or parallel games
- Console:
sparring on/off/level <0-5|name>(beginner, casual, average, strong, expert, master)
- HOTFIX: Bundled Ferz 1.0 engine rebuilt with portable-safe flags — runs on all x86-64 CPUs (no AVX2 required)
- NEW: Adaptive sparring partner (Human vs Engine) — the engine matches its strength to YOUR level with a self-adjusting 0–10 ladder
- Works with ANY engine: native UCI_Elo, weaker-move selection from MultiPV lines, or time + depth handicap (no engine support needed)
- Sparring controls in the Engines menu and the console ("sparring on/off/level N") — never affects tournaments or parallel games
- Fixed: panel labels when reviewing finished tournament games now show that game's players
- Console: usage examples in help, missing autocomplete entries, and a hint when a typo is forwarded to the engine as raw UCI
- NEW: Named tournaments (Arena-style) — give each tournament a name; its autosave and every game PGN are kept in a separate folder, so events never overwrite each other
- Saved tournaments list — interrupted events can be resumed with one click, any number of them
- Fixed: resign adjudication now judges each side only by its OWN engine's evals (Arena-style) — engines with scaled evals (e.g. Sila Dampener) are no longer adjudicated asymmetrically
- NEW sounds: illegal move, low-time warning (≤10s), tournament game start — plus an always-visible 🔊/🔇 sound toggle in the status bar
- Tournament schedule now shows the winner's name for every finished game
- Fixed: with parallel tournament games the White/Black panel labels now always follow the game actually shown on the board (they used to stick to the last-started match)
- NEW: parallel games option "Swap colors every second game" — fair engine matches without the permanent white advantage
- NEW: Analysis Report window — per-move evals with inaccuracy/mistake/blunder detection, opens automatically after whole-game analysis
- Whole-game analysis now caches an eval for every move (regardless of engine color)
- Analysis reliably stops when it finishes — pending engine searches can no longer restart after stop
- Rich hover info on every analyzed move: White-perspective eval, depth and best line
- Fixed engine best-move arrows missing in every color-swapped Engine vs Engine game
- Premoves fixed: queue a move while the engine thinks and it plays automatically after the reply
- Legal-move dots & capture highlights now shown in the 2D view too
- 3D view now switches pieces to the 3D Staunton plastic set on first toggle
- Dedicated 2D/3D piece-set settings — pick a set in each view independently
- Improved stop responsiveness — UI no longer freezes when stopping parallel/tournament games
- Added "Stopping engines..." status message in the status bar
- Optimized SFX archive size (71 MB down from 146 MB)
- Improved tournament functionality
- UI improvements in TournamentDialog
- Game analysis improvements
- Stability fixes
- Added 3D board view
- Parallel games and tournaments
- Opening book improvements
- First public release
- Ferz v1.0 (Sila Engine v8.03) with HCE + Syzygy
- 2D board with dark mode
- PGN database and explorer
- UCI engine support
- Opening book + Syzygy Tablebases
- Chess960 (Fischer Random)
- Qt6 Fusion UI