libscid Documentation Hub
Chess applications made easy.
A high-performance C ABI chess engine and database backend extracted from Scid/ScidUp. Select your language portal below to explore the reference documentation, tutorials, and APIs.
Documentation Portals
C API Reference
Native C ABI consumer contract declared in scid/scid.h. Struct definitions, legal move generators, position evaluators, and Scid database manipulation APIs.
Python API Reference
Modern, type-annotated Python bindings. High-level object model for Game, Position, Database, PGN import/export, and ECO opening classification.
Key Architectural Highlights
Stable C ABI
Engineered around an explicit C ABI boundary to guarantee foreign-function compatibility across any host runtime.
Zero GUI Dependencies
Decoupled entirely from desktop Tcl/Tk UI layers, suitable for microservices, command-line utilities, and web servers.
Scid Database Engine
Comprehensive support for in-memory and on-disk Scid database manipulation, header search, and fast indexing.
ECO Opening Book
Built-in classification and lookup for ECO codes and opening nomenclature.