Google Summer of Code 2026 — list of ideas #190
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🚀 Draft Preview: https://pr190-draft.lc0.org/ |
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🚀 Draft Preview: https://pr190-draft.lc0.org/ |
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🚀 Draft Preview: https://pr190-draft.lc0.org/ |
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🚀 Draft Preview: https://pr190-draft.lc0.org/ |
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🚀 Draft Preview: https://pr190-draft.lc0.org/ |
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🚀 Draft Preview: https://pr190-draft.lc0.org/ |
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🚀 Draft Preview: https://pr190-draft.lc0.org/ |
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Pull request overview
This PR adds a comprehensive list of project ideas for the Leela Chess Zero team's application to Google Summer of Code 2026. The document outlines 15 concrete project proposals plus several less defined areas for contribution, covering various aspects of the Lc0 project including backend development, training infrastructure, web services, and tooling improvements.
Changes:
- Created a new GSoC 2026 ideas page with project proposals spanning different difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, Hard) and time commitments (90-175 hours)
- Included detailed descriptions for each project with required skills, difficulty ratings, and implementation suggestions
- Added references to existing PRs and external resources to provide context for several proposals
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content/contribute/gsoc/2026.md
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| * **Difficulty:** Medium / 175 hours | ||
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| The lc0 backends for Apple devices have not received the same level of attention | ||
| (pun intended) as other backends. Curently we have the metal backend using Metal |
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Spelling error: "Curently" should be "Currently".
| (pun intended) as other backends. Curently we have the metal backend using Metal | |
| (pun intended) as other backends. Currently we have the metal backend using Metal |
content/contribute/gsoc/2026.md
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| (pun intended) as other backends. Curently we have the metal backend using Metal | ||
| Performance Shaders and (real soon now) the onnx-coreml backend using the CoreML | ||
| onnxruntime execution provider. There are several potential improvements we have | ||
| identified, with potentially more available to someone with deeper undertanding |
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| identified, with potentially more available to someone with deeper undertanding | |
| identified, with potentially more available to someone with deeper understanding |
content/contribute/gsoc/2026.md
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| Having the ability to run Lc0 directly in the browser would allow many use | ||
| cases, potentially including integrating Lc0 into lichess. | ||
| We had several almost working prototypes of WebAssembly backends for Lc0, but | ||
| none of them was ever productionazed. |
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Spelling error: "productionazed" should be "productionized".
| none of them was ever productionazed. | |
| none of them was ever productionized. |
content/contribute/gsoc/2026.md
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| Most of the kernels for the cuda backend haven't been touched since the Volta | ||
| architecture, so there is potential for a decent performance improvement with | ||
| code tuned for newer GPUs. Additionally, build system updates since the original | ||
| kernels were written make it easy to include architecure specific kernels in |
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Spelling error: "architecure" should be "architecture".
| kernels were written make it easy to include architecure specific kernels in | |
| kernels were written make it easy to include architecture specific kernels in |
content/contribute/gsoc/2026.md
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| architecture, so there is potential for a decent performance improvement with | ||
| code tuned for newer GPUs. Additionally, build system updates since the original | ||
| kernels were written make it easy to include architecure specific kernels in | ||
| the code in a clean way so that there is no performace penalty for older GPUs. |
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Spelling error: "performace" should be "performance".
| the code in a clean way so that there is no performace penalty for older GPUs. | |
| the code in a clean way so that there is no performance penalty for older GPUs. |
content/contribute/gsoc/2026.md
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| * You would also need to have a modern GPU available. | ||
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| We have recently switched our training pipeline to use JAX. Current potential | ||
| tasks include supporting to settings change without restarting the training, |
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Grammar error: "supporting to settings change" should be "supporting settings changes" or "supporting changing settings".
| tasks include supporting to settings change without restarting the training, | |
| tasks include supporting settings changes without restarting the training, |
content/contribute/gsoc/2026.md
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| The large part of it will be a selfplay coordination system, but there many | ||
| other small feature are planned: |
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Grammar error: "there many other small feature are planned" should be "there are many other small features planned" or "many other small features are planned".
| The large part of it will be a selfplay coordination system, but there many | |
| other small feature are planned: | |
| A large part of it will be a selfplay coordination system, but there are many | |
| other small features planned: |
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🚀 Draft Preview: https://pr190-draft.lc0.org/ |
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Pull request overview
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| * **Difficulty:** Medium / 175 hours | ||
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| Having the ability to run Lc0 directly in the browser would allow many use | ||
| cases, potentially including integrating Lc0 into lichess. |
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There are two trailing spaces at the end of this line. Remove the trailing whitespace for consistency.
| cases, potentially including integrating Lc0 into lichess. | |
| cases, potentially including integrating Lc0 into lichess. |
| ## Extend UCI protocol with JSON-based input and output information | ||
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| * **Skills needed:** C++ | ||
| * **Difficulty:** Easy / 175 hours |
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The difficulty label mismatch is inconsistent. This project is labeled as "Easy" difficulty but requires 175 hours, which is typically associated with "Medium" difficulty projects in this document. Either change the difficulty to "Medium" or reduce the hours to 90 to match other "Easy" projects.
| * **Difficulty:** Easy / 175 hours | |
| * **Difficulty:** Medium / 175 hours |
2 participants
That is the part of our application to the GSoC 2026