Questions tagged [engines]
Questions relating to chess engines: any computer program that is able to play/analyze chess positions.
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How do chess engines "think"?
What I want to know is how engines are programmed to find moves. I'm sure they first calculate the most forcing lines such as captures and checks. But what about subtle, deep positional moves? They ...
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A purely self-trained chess AI
Insofar as I understand, it appears that, before moving, all strong chess software
examines thousands or millions of possible, future positions;
evaluates each future position according to some ...
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What is the status for seven man end game table bases?
There are complete (or nearly complete) six man end game table bases available for download, and even online.
What is the status of seven man table bases? Is there still active development in this ...
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Free online analysis engine?
Is there an online analysis engine that allows you to enter a PGN and get a game analysis, showing where suboptimal moves were made?
I know there are programs for download/purchase that do this, but ...
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Computers in correspondence chess
In competitive correspondence chess, can humans win at all against computers? Do humans contribute at all to the game?
Provided that it is allowed by the rules, I fail to see how it is not just ...
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Randomness in engine play
If I get two engines to play against each other with the same colours, will the same game result every time? If not, where does the randomness in engine play come from? (Neglecting the opening book, ...
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Returning scores for all possible moves from a chess engine
I am looking for a way to return scores for all possible moves from a chess engine (preferably, Stockfish).
The UCI protocol does not seem to require it, but is seems like a useful feature to include....
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Kasparov said human+computer beats just computer. What does human bring to the table in such teams?
Its seems to me nowadays computers simply play better, i.e. they consistently choose better moves. Where does human factor come into play, how can a human help engine to beat another engine?
Or was ...
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Why does NN + MCTS & AB + handwritten eval dominate engine chess?
As I understand it engines can be divided into four groups right now: those that use Alpha-beta (AB) + those that use Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) for search, and those that use handwritten ...
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Computer evaluations: How trustworthy are they?
Fritz 12 with Rybka gave a friend of mine an evaluation of +3 for white in this endgame position,
[Title "White to move"]
[FEN "8/8/8/3k3p/3P3K/2P3R1/8/7r w - - 0 1"]
which turned out to be a draw. ...
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Big changes in engine's evaluation after considerable time
I hope this question hasn't been asked before.
I am looking for some examples where, say, the latest Stockfish or Komodo engine (or possibly some of the top NN engines) evaluates a position as plus or ...
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How many moves ahead does Anand calculate in his mind?
I always wondered about this! How many moves ahead can strong players like Anand actually 'see' during the game? How does the calculation of a supercomputer like Deep Blue differ from that of strong ...
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Is Houdini 6 a Stockfish clone?
I've been hearing this claim being bandied about quite a lot and I'm wondering if there's any substance to it. Apparently the details are in a certain thread on Talkchess, but it's not viewable to non-...
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Bishop vs Knight
I read in a book written by Fischer about piece values, and he said that a knight is worth 3 pawns, and a bishop is worth 3,25 pawns. I know that in closed positions knights are better, and I have ...
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Is there a chess engine that does NOT use brute-force search?
Every chess engine I've ever heard of (including all I found listed on Wikipedia) uses brute-force search with an evaluation function (minmax algorithm) to decide on its move.
This is not how most ...
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Could a top ranked GM draw against Stockfish using drawish opening lines in classical chess?
We know that are many lines which White can choose which are very drawish at 2700+ level. Drawing is easy to a very good chess player such as Carlsen, who knows dozens of forced draw lines. When I say ...
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How to get position evaluation with UCI?
I am trying to get score about current position directly with UCI (I am using latest stockfish). After reading the protocol I see that these commands ask engine to analyse the position:
uci
...
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Understanding AlphaZero
Very recently, the news came out that Alphabet's DeepMind research team have extended their machine learning engine to play both Shogi and chess. Apparently, after only a few hours of self-learning, ...
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Is computer chess exhibiting the predicted "draw death"?
At various times, even going back 100 years or more, people have been predicting the "draw death" of chess meaning that top players will get so good that every game will be a draw.
In the 1984 World ...
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How to determine the value of a piece from scratch?
Assume we have a standard chess set setup, but we make a slight change so that (for example) pawns can now move two squares forward on any move rather than just on their initial move. Even assuming ...
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What prevents chess engines from being undetectable?
I see accounts of people getting banned from sites like chess.com for using engines like Stockfish and Komodo (I admit I have used these engines before, but never in an actual match). Now, I believe ...
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Why do chess engines sometimes miss good moves (or take forever to spot)?
It is not the first time that I found a greatly superior move than the chess engine did, it even takes them a while to understand these moves after you make them.
For example, the move 15 ... Bf2 in ...
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Has AI changed opening theory, and if so, how?
Pre-AI, it's hard to imagine that opening moves had changed much. Following the birth of computer engines, has AI changed opening theory, and if so, how?
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How can I know the Elo rating of my chess engine?
I built an uci compatible chess engine, and I would like to know its Elo rating. What is the easiest way to get it?
I would like something that works both on Linux and Windows.
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Are the best engines better than the best humans?
I think the title asks it all.
Under match conditions, would the best chess engines routinely beat the best grandmasters?
If you say yes, have there been enough matches played under tournament ...
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Can you really learn from playing against computers just like when playing against humans?
I am wondering whether or not playing against chess against a computer will help you get better as quickly as playing against humans.
The motivation for this questions come from video gaming. I used ...
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How to download Stockfish and install it on the Fritz/ChessBase GUI?
I'm on Windows 8. I have the Fritz/ChessBase GUI since I bought both Fritz 12 and Houdini 3 Pro.
I would like to know how exactly can I download and install the free latest version (and most powerful ...
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Which is better-Stockfish 10 or AlphaZero?
I know AlphaZero (an AI) is one of the best top chess engines but Stockfish is also improving. Which one is better at chess?
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How accurate are chess engine ratings?
In light of the ongoing TCEC tournament, I was thinking, how do they come up with the ratings of these computers?
Presumably, a 2000 rated chess engine should expect a score of about .5 against a ...
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Why are world-class engines playing like this?
I was reading about the Lc0 engine and its evolution. Then took a glimpse at the games between Lc0 and the notorious Stockfish. I am not a professional or anything remotely close, but this particular ...
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Is there an online chess evaluation engine with a REST API?
Is there an online chess evaluation engine with a REST API? I'd like to be able to send a game or position (with castling ability presumably) to a simple REST API and get back the positional ...
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Positions that stump engines
Chess engines are so strong that it is becoming increasingly hard to find positions that they are demonstrably evaluating incorrectly. I'm interested in collecting examples—if there are any&...
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How to create your own opening book for your own chess engine?
I am currently working on a chess engine in Java. I am using the minimax algorithm with alpha-beta pruning to select the best move. However, it is inefficient to use the algorithm for selecting ...
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Engine not necessarily playing strong but "attractive"
Does anyone know a chess engine that is not programmed to be as strong as
possible, but to play "attractive" chess ?
The program should have an aggressive style and play for mate attacks, even
if ...
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How does a chess engine mimic an Elo rating
I am a fairly new chess player (say 1400) and I would like to play against Stockfish and win some of the time. If I change the strength to 1400 then what does the algorithm actually do ? Does it make ...
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What relative point values of pieces do engines use?
Humans use:
Pawn = 1
Knight = 3
Bishop = 3
Rook = 5
Queen = 9.5
Bishop pair = +0.5
But I would like to know what relative point values do engines use (preferably strong engines, like Stockfish, ...
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What is the optimal way to use Stockfish programmatically?
I have Stockfish compiled on my machine. Instead of just running the Stockfish program in the terminal, is it possible to interact with it in a separate program?
For example, some basic things I ...
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What free programs do exist to comment chess games? For Windows, Linux, and Mac
What free programs do exist to comment chess games? For Windows, Linux, and Mac.
I know that ChessBase and ChessOK Aquarium can do it. However, it is my understanding that they are not free.
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Will computer knowledge reach a perfect game, after expanding prepared openings/endgames?
If computers just check in an openings-DB what to do in the first 10, 15 or even 20 moves, and if they just check the endgames-DB at the endgame; wouldn't it reach a point where they have a DB of ...
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strongest chess engine
Can somebody tell me where can i find an updated list of the strongest chess engines. I want to find out a comparison (ordered list of engines)
Information on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
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What is the farthest away a game can be from a guaranteed checkmate?
What is the maximum number of moves away from checkmate that a player can be where checkmate is guaranteed? There are many positions that are a guaranteed win for a player if played perfectly, right? (...
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Make chess engine play a particular position
I want to be able to train my mating skills by making a chess engine play positions that others have resigned from. Is there a way to make a chess engine play a particular position? I am using ...
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Python script to let stockfish selfplay 10 games from a given position
I would like to have Stockfish to selfplay 10 games starting from a given position. Game should end after 10 moves. From the python-chess documentation there is an example of playing only one such ...
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Tips on how to beat a computer?
What strategy should I use to win a chess game against a chess computer?
The engine is able to make decisions on an about 3 moves deep search graph.
Please do not say check every move in the next 4 ...
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To what move depth should you analyze a chess position
I'm trying to learn a chess opening and using a chess engine (stockfish8) to analyze the position but I'm wondering what move depth should I set it to (e.g., 25, 30 35 half moves).
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Chess Engine API
I am writing a C# 3D chess game in Unity. I am looking for a chess engine that can
Take in an FEN string
Return the best move to make given this FEN
Check if the board given this FEN is in checkmate
...
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Programming three-fold repetition for my chess engine
I'm making a chess engine that has to implement a three-fold repetition as my AI vs AI engine repeats the same moves over and over again (Have a look at my post here - My chess AI makes the same ...
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Engine's 2nd best move
Especially for checking studies (maybe also for teaching), it would be helpful to have an engine finding the second best move and assess it (or even give refutations of all alternatives). For a ...
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Why can Stockfish give different evaluations at the same depth?
When I let Stockfish get to a certain depth (say depth 33), it gives some evaluation. Then I refresh the position (while leaving Stockfish on) and when it gets to the same depth it gives a different ...
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Can a human defeat an engine in a 10-game match if he is given the White pieces and draw odds in every game?
What would happen in a 10-game match between one of the strongest human player (Carlsen, Caruana, Aronian, Kramnik or Anand) and one of the strongest engine (Komodo, Stockfish or Houdini), but with ...
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