MagicTree
A free, UCI-compliant chess engine written in C++
MagicTree plays chess at a grandmaster level
Built to Compete
Every component of MagicTree is engineered for strength and efficiency — without a neural network.
PEXT-Based Attack Generation
Uses the BMI2 PEXT instruction for O(1) sliding-piece attack lookups. Pre-computed rook and bishop attack tables are indexed by a hardware-accelerated occupancy hash — no magic multipliers needed. Requires a BMI2/PEXT-capable 64-bit CPU.
Tapered Handcrafted Evaluation
A classical handcrafted evaluator (HCE) — no neural network and no NNUE file. Midgame and endgame scores are interpolated by material phase, now sharpened by a blend of pawn, non-pawn, and continuation correction histories.
Deep Alpha-Beta Search
PVS with aspiration windows, null-move pruning, LMR, late move pruning (now extended to depth 8), singular extensions, reverse futility, and reworked, history-aware SEE pruning with an optional endgame guard.
Transposition Table & Prefetch
A Zobrist-keyed transposition table sized via the UCI Hash option. Child TT buckets are prefetched after each move to hide memory latency, and a maintained non-pawn Zobrist key feeds the correction-history blend.
Rich Move Ordering & History
Move ordering layers TT/PV moves, SEE-split captures, MVV-LVA, granular capture history (attacker / to-square / victim piece type), killers, counter moves, and both 2-ply and 4-ply continuation history for early cutoffs.
UCI Compatible
Implements the Universal Chess Interface (UCI). Load it into Arena, Cute Chess, BanksiaGUI, Shredder, or Fritz/ChessBase. Configurable Hash and Move Overhead, plus new SEE and correction-history tuning options in 3.2.
What is MagicTree?
MagicTree 3.2 is a 64-bit Windows UCI chess engine written in C++. It loads into any UCI-compatible GUI — such as Arena, Cute Chess, BanksiaGUI, Shredder, or Fritz/ChessBase — and plays chess at a grandmaster level. It is an engine only: it does not ship its own graphical board, opening-book manager, or analysis GUI.
Its strength comes from a tapered handcrafted evaluation (no neural network) and a deep alpha-beta search, accelerated by BMI2 PEXT sliding-attack lookups. Created and maintained by Vikrant Malvankar (India). MagicTree is distributed as free, binary-only software — it is freeware, not open source, and the source code is not included.
Engineered for Strength
MagicTree plays at a grandmaster level on a hardware-accelerated, classical search core — built for 64-bit Windows with a BMI2/PEXT-capable CPU.
Estimated Rating vs. Competitors
Blitz · 2+1Approximate playing strength at a Blitz time control of 2+1 (two minutes plus a one-second increment).
| # | Engine | Elo | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spike 1.4 | 2950 | CCRL Blitz |
| 2 | Fridolin | 2746 | CCRL Blitz |
| 3 | Fatali | 2735 | CCRL Blitz |
| 4 | MagicTree 3.2This engine | 2725 | Private testing (estimate) |
| 5 | RedQueen | 2694 | CCRL Blitz |
MagicTree's Elo is an estimate based on private testing and is not an official rating.
All other ratings are taken from CCRL Blitz.
What's New in 3.2
Latest Release- ▸Late Move Pruning maximum depth raised from 5 to 8.
- ▸More aggressive null-move pruning (depth divisor changed from 6 to 5).
- ▸Internal Iterative Reduction replaces the older internal iterative deepening block.
- ▸Reworked, history-aware SEE pruning with an optional low-material endgame guard.
- ▸Granular capture history (attacker / to-square / victim) plus new 4-ply continuation history.
- ▸Static-eval correction history extended to a pawn, non-pawn, and continuation blend.
- ▸New UCI tuning options: SeeCaptureMargin, SeeQuietMargin, CorrPawnWeight, and more.