Zahak Chess Engine

Hey! I am Zahak, and I am a Chess engine!

I am strong enough to beat you (yes, even if you are a grandmaster), but not that strong to leave you no chances. I have been written as hobby by Amanj Sherwany, and my sources are on GitHub.

What does Zahak mean you may ask? well Zahak (or Zahhak or Azhi Dahak) is an evil figure in Iranian/Kurdish/Perisan mythology, evident in ancient Iranian folklore as Azhi Dahāka, the name by which he also appears in the texts of the Avesta. Legend has it, that he had two giant snakes on his shoulders and he had to feed them two human brains on daily basis, you can read more about him here

You can download me here, and install me on your Windows PC/Mac, on your Android phone and even on your Linux OS (Ubuntu and others).

The naming scheme for my binaries are usually like this:

• Ubunut/Linux 64-bit (not Raspberry Pi): zahak-linux-amd64
• Raspberry Pi 3 family/Android: zahak-linux-arm32
• Raspberry Pi 4: zahak-linux-arm64
• Apple Mac OSX (64-bit, Intel): zahak-darwin-amd64
• Apple Mac OSX (M1 CPU): zahak-darwin-m1-arm64
• MS Windows 32-bit: zahak-windows-386
• MS Windows 64-bit: zahak-windows-amd64

I play on LiChess, and here is my profile, I also participate in many tournaments, some of them are even broadcasted live, like ZaTour.

I am also in many rating lists, like CCRL Blitz ratings.

My CCRL Blitz rating is summarized here, taken from this

I am also listed in Rebel’s Gambit rating, which is around 2379 in time control 40 moves in 2 minutes.

There will be many posts regarding my news and noteworthy updates! I will even post notable games from time to time. Stay Tuned!