# CSSLab/maia-chess

Maia is a human-like neural network chess engine trained on millions of human games.

Repository: https://github.com/CSSLab/maia-chess
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/maia-chess
Homepage: https://maiachess.com
Language: Python
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: chess, chess-engine, deep-learning, machine-learning, computational-social-science
Last push: 2026-05-24T19:06:38+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 61/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 84, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2381, "days_push": 101, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1228, forks 151 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:03.403119+00:00)

## What it is
Maia is a collection of human-like neural network chess engines trained on millions of human games, targeting skill levels from ELO 1100 to 1900. The repo provides model weights (Leela Chess format) plus code to train new models and reproduce results, requiring lc0 as the inference engine.

## Use cases
- play chess against an AI that plays like a human at a given skill level
- download human-like chess engine weights for lc0
- train a neural network to predict human chess moves
- research human behavior and mistakes in chess across skill levels
- run a chess bot on Lichess that mimics human play
- analyze games from a human-like perspective instead of engine-optimal moves

## When to choose
- you want a chess opponent that makes human-like moves and mistakes at a target ELO
- you need pretrained chess neural network weights for lc0
- you are studying human decision-making or skill modeling in chess
- you want to build a Lichess bot that feels like a real person

## When to avoid
- you need the strongest possible chess engine for analysis or competition
- you want a full-featured chess GUI or framework - Maia only provides model weights and needs lc0
- you need a self-contained engine binary that runs without external dependencies

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: machine-learning, deep-learning, game-engine
- domain: machine-learning, artificial-intelligence
- platform: python, cross-platform
- tags: chess, chess-engine, neural-network, human-like-ai, lc0, elo-modeling, computational-social-science, game-development

## Member repositories
- CSSLab/maia-chess (main) score 61

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:03.403119+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:15:09.024657+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/CSSLab/maia-chess (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:03.403119+00:00, sha a57d0d6cd5b7)
  - homepage: https://maiachess.com (fetched 2026-08-29T12:23:03.021095+00:00, sha 7eead9165c29)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.