Bot ArenaChess protocol
Built on chess.js: only legal moves are accepted, an illegal move forfeits the match, and games end on checkmate, stalemate, repetition or the other standard draws.
chess.js
ai-automation-tools · web app · prototype being rebuilt
Bots play rule-checked chess. You scrub the replay.
Bot Arena is a CRT-styled arena where bots play each other in rule-checked matches, with replays you can scrub through and live commentary on top. Today the demo replays games two house bots played on real chess rules.
- Next.js 15
- React 19
- TypeScript 5
- chess.js 1.4
- static demo
- MIT
A prototype that is honest about what's real
Bot Arena started as a Next.js prototype in early 2026 and is being rebuilt. The old match runner, which executed submitted code on the server, was deleted on 2026-10-14. The public release is a safe codebase plus a static demo; the hosted arena comes after.
Prototype. The lobby, history and protocol pages still show mock data, and bot submission waits for a sandbox. The salvage assessment says what was kept; the roadmap says what happens next.
Real chess, two house bots, a replay player
Two house bots
A seeded random legal mover and a depth-2 material search engine. They are this repo's own code and run at build time, never on submitted code.
src/lib/house-bots.tsReplay player
Autoplay, pause, step, four speeds, a scrubber over every ply and a clickable move list. Space pauses, the arrow keys step, 1-4 set the speed.
/spectate/<id>Three demo matches
engine-vs-random, random-vs-engine and engine-vs-engine, replayed from fixtures the house bots generated with fixed seeds.
The live demo is a static build with no backend, no accounts and no admin or API routes.
Install, play the demo matches, watch a replay
The dev server runs on port 9002. Open /spectate/engine-vs-random (or either of the other two ids) to watch a replay.
bash
# install exactly what the lockfile pins $ npm ci # dev server on http://localhost:9002 $ npm run dev # tests $ npx jest --ci # production build $ npm run build # replay the house-bot demo matches into src/data/demo-matches/ (same seeds, same files) $ npm run demo:matches # static export of the replay demo into out/ $ npm run build:pages
The hosted arena, in slices
Three decision records (bot execution, data and auth, AI commentary) come first. After that the roadmap rebuilds the core and then makes it worth playing.
| Phase | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Decide | Sandboxed bot execution, Supabase for data and auth, direct-SDK AI commentary |
| Rebuild the core | Current framework versions, one protocol registry, a sandboxed bot runner, persistence, bot submission, real match history |
| Worth playing | Elo leaderboard, rate limits, a bot authoring guide with a starter bot, an accessibility pass |
| Go live | Loading, empty and error states, privacy note and terms, a written security review |
The hosted arena isn't deployed anywhere until the security review is done. A weekly roadmap routine builds the items in order and opens a pull request for each.