Design Chess Game

Difficulty: Hard Source: awesome-low-level-design

Requirements

  1. Standard chess rules
  2. Two players with own pieces
  3. 8x8 grid, alternating colors
  4. 16 pieces per player (king, queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, 8 pawns)
  5. Validate legal moves, prevent illegal ones
  6. Detect checkmate and stalemate
  7. Handle player turns
  8. User interface

Class Diagram

Class Diagram

Classes, Interfaces and Enumerations

Class/Interface Description
Piece Abstract class; color, row, column; abstract canMove method
King Subclass of Piece; moves one square in any direction
Queen Subclass of Piece; moves any number of squares along rank, file, or diagonal
Rook Subclass of Piece; moves any number of squares along rank or file
Bishop Subclass of Piece; moves any number of squares diagonally
Knight Subclass of Piece; moves in an L-shape (2+1 squares)
Pawn Subclass of Piece; moves forward one square (or two from starting position), captures diagonally
Board 8x8 grid; piece placement, move validation, checkmate/stalemate detection
Player Name; make move method
Move Piece, destination coordinates
Game Game flow, turns, result

Design Patterns Used

Pattern Application
Strategy/Polymorphism Each piece type implements its own movement logic via the abstract canMove method, allowing uniform move validation

Code Implementations

Language Source Code
Java View on GitHub
Python View on GitHub
C++ View on GitHub
C# View on GitHub
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