How Can I Avoid Becoming Too Dependent on AI While Building a Chess Engine?

That's a valid concern, and it’s great you're thinking about it. Use AI as a helpful tool, but focus on solving problems yourself first. You could also rebuild parts of your project from scratch without any help, and explain your logic in comments. This practice will help reinforce your learning.

You might want to start by creating a simpler game to build your skills, like tic-tac-toe. After you get the basics down, you can enhance it by adding features or changing the controls. This way, you'll grow your knowledge at a comfortable pace without needing AI all the time.

While AI can be a useful teacher, it's important to use it to clarify your understanding instead of just following its lead. For your chess engine, try to learn the theory behind algorithms like minimax before you implement them. That way, you won’t just be copying code—you'll have a deeper grasp of how it works.

Using AI as a guide can be helpful, but just make sure you're still doing the hard work yourself. Try to tackle the next step on your own first, even if it’s not perfect. Then, compare it to what AI suggests. For your chess engine, for example, write out your reasoning for your choices in simple terms. That can really help solidify your understanding.

It sounds like the project might be too advanced right now. I suggest breaking it down into smaller, more manageable tasks that you can tackle without relying on AI. Focus on smaller projects that you can fully handle on your own, learning step by step rather than jumping into complex ideas right away.