Mind Chess Data Service

LAN chess data service in pure Mind. Opening book + TB8 + NNUE via HTTP.

Quick Start

One-Command Deploy (All Distros)

git clone <repo>
cd mind-chess-data-service
sudo ./deploy/full_deploy.sh
curl http://localhost:8787/health

Deployment by Distribution

Ubuntu / Debian / Linux Mint

# Prerequisites
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y git curl zstd build-essential

# Install Mind runtime
curl -fsSL https://mind-lang.org/install.sh | bash
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.mind/bin"

# Clone and build
git clone <repo>
cd mind-chess-data-service
./build.sh

# Deploy
sudo ./deploy/install.sh
sudo systemctl start chess-data-service
sudo systemctl enable chess-data-service

# Test
curl http://localhost:8787/health

AlmaLinux / RHEL / CentOS / Rocky Linux

# Prerequisites
sudo dnf install -y git curl zstd gcc

# Install Mind runtime
curl -fsSL https://mind-lang.org/install.sh | bash
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.mind/bin"

# Clone and build
git clone <repo>
cd mind-chess-data-service
./build.sh

# Deploy
sudo ./deploy/install.sh
sudo systemctl start chess-data-service
sudo systemctl enable chess-data-service

# Open firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8787/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Test
curl http://localhost:8787/health

Fedora

# Prerequisites
sudo dnf install -y git curl zstd gcc

# Install Mind runtime
curl -fsSL https://mind-lang.org/install.sh | bash
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.mind/bin"

# Clone and build
git clone <repo>
cd mind-chess-data-service
./build.sh

# Deploy
sudo ./deploy/install.sh
sudo systemctl start chess-data-service
sudo systemctl enable chess-data-service

# Test
curl http://localhost:8787/health

Arch Linux / Manjaro

# Prerequisites
sudo pacman -Sy git curl zstd base-devel

# Install Mind runtime
curl -fsSL https://mind-lang.org/install.sh | bash
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.mind/bin"

# Clone and build
git clone <repo>
cd mind-chess-data-service
./build.sh

# Deploy
sudo ./deploy/install.sh
sudo systemctl start chess-data-service
sudo systemctl enable chess-data-service

# Test
curl http://localhost:8787/health

openSUSE

# Prerequisites
sudo zypper install -y git curl zstd gcc

# Install Mind runtime
curl -fsSL https://mind-lang.org/install.sh | bash
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.mind/bin"

# Clone and build
git clone <repo>
cd mind-chess-data-service
./build.sh

# Deploy
sudo ./deploy/install.sh
sudo systemctl start chess-data-service
sudo systemctl enable chess-data-service

# Test
curl http://localhost:8787/health

Build

./build.sh          # Build all
./build.sh server   # Server only
./build.sh tools    # Tools only
./build.sh test     # Run tests
./build.sh clean    # Clean build

Produces binaries in ./bin/

API

GET /health

{"ok":true,"book":true,"tb8":false,"nnue":true}

POST /book/query

Request:  {"fen":"rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1","max_moves":10}
Response: {"key":5060803636482931868,"moves":[{"uci":"e2e4","weight":100,"learn":0}]}

POST /tb8/query

Request:  {"fen":"8/8/8/4k3/8/4K3/4P3/8 w - - 0 1"}
Response: {"wdl":2,"dtz":15,"source":"syzygy"}

Returns {"wdl":null,"source":"disabled"} if TB8 not loaded.

POST /nnue/query

Request:  {"fen":"..."}
Response: {"key":123,"score":50,"stm":"w"}

POST /admin/reload

Response: {"status":"ok"}

Binary Formats

Book (Polyglot compatible)

• book.idx: sorted (key:u64, offset:u64, count:u16) for binary search
• book.dat: packed (key:u64, move:u16, weight:u16, learn:u32) records

NNUE Training

• nnue.bin: packed (key:u64, score:i16, result:i8, stm:u8) records

Data Import

Opening Book

# From Lichess PGN (streaming)
curl -s https://database.lichess.org/standard/lichess_db_standard_rated_2024-01.pgn.zst | \
  zstdcat | import_pgn_to_book --stdin --output /var/lib/chess-data/book/v1/

activate_version book v1
curl -X POST http://localhost:8787/admin/reload

NNUE Data

generate_nnue_from_pgn \
  --url https://database.lichess.org/standard/lichess_db_standard_rated_2024-01.pgn.zst \
  --output /var/lib/chess-data/nnue/v1/ \
  --target 10000000

activate_version nnue v1
curl -X POST http://localhost:8787/admin/reload

Storage Layout

/var/lib/chess-data/
├── book/
│   ├── current -> v1/
│   └── v1/
│       ├── book.idx
│       └── book.dat
├── tb8/
│   └── current -> v1/
└── nnue/
    ├── current -> v1/
    └── v1/
        └── nnue.bin

Configuration

/etc/chess-data-service/config.toml:

[server]
bind = "0.0.0.0:8787"
threads = 4

[data]
root = "/var/lib/chess-data"

[book]
enabled = true
max_moves = 20

[tb8]
enabled = false

[nnue]
enabled = true

Service Management

# Status
sudo systemctl status chess-data-service

# Logs
sudo journalctl -u chess-data-service -f
cat /var/log/chess-data-service/service.log

# Reload config (hot reload)
curl -X POST http://localhost:8787/admin/reload
# or
sudo systemctl reload chess-data-service

# Restart
sudo systemctl restart chess-data-service

Nikola Integration

Configure in Nikola engine:

setoption name BookUrl value http://192.168.1.100:8787
setoption name UseRemoteBook value true

Client is fail-open: returns empty on timeout/error.

Nikola Client Code

The src/client/nikola_client.mind module provides a fail-open HTTP client:

import client.nikola_client

// Initialize from UCI option
nikola_client.init_from_option("http://192.168.1.100:8787")

// Query book (returns empty array on error)
let moves = client.query_book(fen, 10)
for moves |mv| {
    // mv.uci, mv.weight
}

// Query TB8 (returns null wdl on error)
let tb = client.query_tb8(fen)
if tb.wdl != null {
    // Use tablebase result
}

Troubleshooting

Service won't start

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u chess-data-service -n 100
cat /var/log/chess-data-service/error.log

# Check config syntax
cat /etc/chess-data-service/config.toml

# Check permissions
ls -la /var/lib/chess-data/

Port already in use

# Find process on port 8787
sudo lsof -i :8787
# or
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 8787

# Change port in config
sudo vim /etc/chess-data-service/config.toml
# Edit: bind = "0.0.0.0:8788"
sudo systemctl restart chess-data-service

Firewall blocking connections

# Ubuntu/Debian (ufw)
sudo ufw allow 8787/tcp

# RHEL/AlmaLinux/Fedora (firewalld)
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8787/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Check from client
curl -v http://server-ip:8787/health

Empty book responses

# Check book files exist
ls -la /var/lib/chess-data/book/current/

# Re-import book
curl -s https://database.lichess.org/standard/lichess_db_standard_rated_2024-01.pgn.zst | \
  zstdcat | import_pgn_to_book --stdin --output /var/lib/chess-data/book/v2/
activate_version book v2
curl -X POST http://localhost:8787/admin/reload

License

MIT