NIKOLA Documentation

Welcome to the official NIKOLA Chess Engine documentation. NIKOLA is a supercomputer-class chess engine featuring SPTT hybrid search (alpha-beta + GPU MCTS), GPU-batched NNUE evaluation (500M+ positions/sec), and CNN-based fortress detection. Written 100% in MIND Language—scales from RTX 5090 to GB300 and Vera Rubin HPC clusters.

Getting Started

Install NIKOLA and run your first analysis in minutes.

UCI Configuration

Fine-tune engine parameters for optimal performance.

Building from Source

Compile NIKOLA with the MIND toolchain.

Neural Network

Understand the NNUE architecture and GPU acceleration.

MIND Language

Learn about the language powering NIKOLA.

Quick Install

Get NIKOLA running on your system with a single command:

Linux / macOS

curl -fsSL https://nikolachess.com/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://nikolachess.com/install.ps1 | iex