Is gnu chess what I am looking for ?

[David Wilson]

If this is the wrong kind of query to pose this group then I would be
grateful if you could direct me elsewhere - and, should that be the case,
please accept my apologies.

I am looking for a simple, bare-bones chess-playing program with a
graphical front end that I will be able to adapt to incorporate my own
evaluation function.

The basic functionality should include, knowledge of legal moves,
tree-searching (pruning etc.) but little else. In particular I do not wish
the program to have knowledge of openings, end games etc.

My motivation is to explore the game-playing behaviour of a specific,
simple evaluation function. By that, I mean the function that assigns as
score to a given position.  This is motivated by my own curiosity. If the
experimental outcome merits it, I might make the modified program and the
results available through a web page or suchlike.

Naturally I will be happy to conform to the terms of the GPL in any work I
do.

Do you think Gnu chess might be a good starting point ?
If so, is it possible to access and modify the code under Windows or does
it require Linux ?

Thanks in advance,
David Wilson