Coco’s original turquoise and gold witch-hat logo

Coco Chess Engine

A little wonder.
A deeper game.

Coco is a free, open-source C++20 chess engine with NNUE evaluation. Play against it or analyse positions through the Universal Chess Interface (UCI).

Windows, Linux & macOS GPL-3.0

Requires a UCI-compatible chess GUI. Setup guide

Other systems & builds
View all downloads

Desktop releases for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

What goes into
a move.

Coco combines a neural evaluation of the board with a search through possible continuations.

Neural evaluation
A 512-unit NNUE evaluates positions and updates as pieces move. It is embedded in every release, so no separate network download is needed.
Parallel search
Lazy SMP lets multiple workers explore the game tree while sharing search results. Move ordering helps Coco examine promising continuations first.
Analysis & endgames
MultiPV lets your chess GUI display several candidate lines. With optional Syzygy tablebases, Coco can probe supported endgame positions.

Inside version 1.5.

Coco 1.5.0 improves search, board-state handling, time allocation, and compatibility while retaining the existing 512-unit NNUE. The release notes document the changes and testing conditions.

Coco 1.5.0 release notes

Gauntlet results & rating methodology

A little about Coco.

Coco Chess Engine is an open-source C++20 UCI engine maintained by NotKaede-11. Its source is available to study, build, and contribute to under the GPL-3.0 license.

Named after Coco from Witch Hat Atelier, and built with the same spirit of curiosity. Coco Chess Engine and CuckooChess are different projects.