Questions tagged [engines]
An engine is any machine or computer program that plays chess.
596
questions
-3
votes
3answers
215 views
What are unsolved problems in chess? [closed]
What I want to know is: are there any problems in chess that remain unsolved?
1
vote
3answers
1k views
The games AlphaZero lost
AlphaZero lost 6 games to Stockfish in a 1000-game match from the starting position, at least one of which was with the white pieces: A game A0 lost with white. For some reason, these games haven't ...
1
vote
1answer
378 views
How is MultiPV enabled in general?
I looked at the "Description of the universal chess interface (UCI)" dated April 2006, and did not find a command or option that seemed to address how a GUI might enable MultiPV (I assume that PV ...
3
votes
2answers
353 views
Is AlphaZero deterministic?
AlphaZero searches for moves using Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS). As I understand MCTS, it takes the root position, goes to a child node, and then plays random moves until one side wins. Since the ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
Alpha Zero vs Lc0 - time for self-play
Alpha Zero defeated Stockfish after only 9 hours of self-play. On the other hand, Lc0, has been training for several months and while attaining impressive strength (to say the least...) it's still not ...
9
votes
6answers
414 views
Is it possible for a move to be recomended by engines but rejected by professional human players?
Am wondering if it is possible for a move to be considered "good" by engines but is rejected by professional human players. One possible reason that I can think of is that the in order for this move ...
4
votes
2answers
731 views
Looking for a Python chess engine
I am looking for a Python chess engine package. It must be fully contained in Python, I don't want to download separate files for the engine itself and link them up somehow.
All I want it to be able ...
2
votes
1answer
159 views
Python Engines to Beat to Take the Crown
Since Python is extremely slow, chess engines are almost never written using it. I've been building a Python engine to avoid this issue (through JIT compilation), and want to compare my engine ...
1
vote
2answers
152 views
Testing an engine (UCI) against an older version of itself
I am making modifications to a chess engine.
I want to get quick feedback on whether the modified version seems stronger than an unmodified version or not, by fighting the older version multiple ...
1
vote
1answer
70 views
Open source engine that doesn't lose on time
I'm looking for an open source engine (doesn't have to be very strong) that can be loaded with python chess uci module and can play at very fast time controls (few seconds plus tens of milliseconds of ...
4
votes
1answer
227 views
Am I actually playing against a 1425 rated player?
I am using Deep Shredder 13 and somewhat struggled with the engine at 1400. I then managed to defeat 1425 with great ease. The game went as follows
[FEN ""]
1. d4 e6
2. Bf4 Nf6
...
3
votes
1answer
78 views
Are there any engines that present evaluations based on probability of finding moves?
All engines I'm aware of focus on finding the best moves to win the position. I'm curious whether there are any that exist that attempt to present an honest evaluation of a position, with human ...
5
votes
1answer
882 views
Oscillating Stockfish Evaluation on Laptop
I'm using stockfish-9-bmi2 on my laptop to provide me move by move evaluation of games. I've set Stockfish to evaluate to depth = 25 plys. I find that the evaluation provided oscillates move-on-move ...
1
vote
3answers
172 views
Can you improve a supercomputer evaluation on your own move?
While watching the Chess World Championship, a few news outlets provide updates on how supercomputers are evaluating the board position. The example I'm looking at is using the Sesse Supercomputer, ...
2
votes
2answers
600 views
Website that decode chess moves?
I am a complete beginner and have started learning chess one month ago. I play online on lichess.com. I lose a lot of games which is understandable too.
Many people advised me that I should analyze ...
0
votes
1answer
106 views
Decent Playing Strength Chess Engine
I'd like to make a chess program to play decent strength chess (say around 2100 ELO). What are the factors in Eval & techniques in Search that one would consider to achieve that rating?
0
votes
1answer
232 views
How to use crafty chess engine in the gui chess64.exe link provided
Given below is the crafty chess engine of xboard or winboard version free version.
https://github.com/MichaelB7/Crafty/releases/download/25.2/Crafty-25.2-Win64.zip
Given below is the book
https://...
2
votes
1answer
102 views
How to debug Move Generation function?
I'm writing a chess engine, and I'm testing that the move generator is working correctly using a perft() function. In perft position 2 my engine appears to be 90 moves short at ply 2. How do authors ...
3
votes
2answers
189 views
Analyzing using Chess Engines - Giuoco Piano/Steinitz Variation
[FEN ""]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 Nxe4 8. O-O Bxc3 9. bxc3 d5 10. Ba3 dxc4 11. Re1 Be6 12. Rxe4 Qd5 13. Re3 O-O-O 14. Ne5 Nxe5 15. Rxe5 Qxe5 16. dxe5 ...
4
votes
2answers
227 views
What's the rationale behind chess engines conditionally allowing threefold repetitions when assigning a draw score?
When a chess engine sees a position p repeated once (i.e. position p occurred twice) it immediately assigns the second occurrence of position p a draw score. This makes sense because position p doesn'...
3
votes
1answer
138 views
Guidance on a new idea for an engine design?
for my A-level computing project I was going to do an investigation into a type of engine design which incorporates Neural Networks that I haven't seen elsewhere; as part of this project I need to ...
0
votes
0answers
78 views
If two perfect chess AI's played each other, would it always be a stalemate or would white win for an inherent first-move advantage? [duplicate]
In the circumstances of two perfect AI's playing each other, will white have an inherent advantage? Or can black always play for a stalemate by countering every white strategy?
2
votes
1answer
200 views
Is this the correct flow of a chess game?
I am trying to program a chess game as a challenge to myself, however, I am unsure if I have all the moves correct to play a legal game (not any advanced moves, that would be a challenge for another ...
1
vote
2answers
206 views
Android Stockfish communication works differently than on PC? [closed]
How is number of threads to use written on Android versions of Stockfish? Whole communication works but somehow I still can't change number of threads. I even have working code for PC version of ...
1
vote
0answers
47 views
Chess engine used to point out common tactical blunders [duplicate]
Does anyone know of chess engines that have been programmed to point out a tactical blunder in plain English? I.e. “you missed a skewer”, or something to that effect. Not simply “this move -3”.
...
0
votes
1answer
51 views
Are there any free chess engines that can be used to analyze online or in a mobile phone? [duplicate]
I want to analyze chess games. Is there any reliable chess engine that is free
1
vote
2answers
130 views
Why do engines run faster if you only have one line of analysis open?
When I load up an engine (like Stockfish), it reaches a higher depth quicker if I only leave one line of analysis open. If I leave multiple lines open, it runs slower. Why is this?
3
votes
1answer
439 views
How would top grandmasters fare against engines in correspondence chess?
If Magnus Carlsen, for example, faced Stockfish with the time control 1move/day, how well would Magnus do against Stockfish? It seems with so much time per move, tactical oversight disappears.
3
votes
1answer
897 views
What are the strategies of Alphazero? [closed]
Alphazero is an amazing chess engine, one of the best in the world. It also has a more "human" playing style than other engines. Furthermore, understanding this engine might be vital to improving the ...
1
vote
2answers
100 views
Can an Optimal Stopping strategy be applied to search functions?
Can the solution to the famous Secretary Problem be applied to the search function of a chess engine? Rejecting the first 37% moves and choosing the best one after that,or maybe even just checking the ...
10
votes
1answer
686 views
How does Syzygy store its information?
From reading everything I've found so far, I know that Syzygy uses both win/draw/loss files and distance-to-zero files, but I haven't found any information on the internal file format that these files ...
4
votes
2answers
937 views
In chess engines (A.I) how are the values for Piece-Square Tables for simplified evlaution function determined?
I wanted to know how are the values for piece square table are determined for simplified evaluation function in chess A.I engines
For example
Source :
https://medium.freecodecamp.org/simple-chess-...
4
votes
5answers
696 views
Reasonable engines to test against (Not StockFish)
I've built a chess engine in Python which I've been testing against StockFish through the use of the Python-Chess package.
Testing against StockFish seems/is problematic, and as a result I'm ...
-7
votes
1answer
1k views
LICHESS analysis, why did it propose this outrageous move? [closed]
I was playing a game on lichess, and afterwards asked for a computer analysis, where instead of my perfectly fine move XX the computer insisted on another better move YY, why is that, how can I ...
4
votes
1answer
230 views
How are chess engines able to rank a Mate in X above a Mate in X+Y?
According to an engine, a mate in X moves = +infinity, since it is a forced win for it.
Also according to an engine, a mate in X+Y moves = +infinity, since it's a forced win (just more moves, but an ...
0
votes
1answer
123 views
Is there a way to get MANY and FAST (but not deep) position evaluations in javascript?
I am working on a statistical chess project that needs to evaluate many (about 20-30) different positions per turn. They do not need to be deep but fast.
Is there a possibility to use engines (...
4
votes
1answer
221 views
Chess environments for reinforcement learning
I want to try some reinforcement learning techniques (borrowed from AlphaZero, etc.) and so I need a chess environment in order to run games.
I code in python, so I found python-chess but ...
3
votes
1answer
154 views
What is %eval syntax in PGN
I've seen two formats of [%eval] syntax in PGN:
[%eval 250,5] meaning white is +2.5 pawn up at depth 5
[%eval +0.25] means white is 0.25 pawn up
Is any of those mentioned by some PGN standard? Which ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
What is Alpha Zero's Play Style? (Including its Openings and its Middlegame) [closed]
If you want to read about its opening strategy, it is down below the link. If you want to read about its middlegame strategy or basic play style, it is at the top
I want to know how I can play more ...
4
votes
4answers
347 views
Minimax and alpha beta
I want to implement a simple chess bot so I have been reading about this algorithm a lot. I can say I understand the basic idea of the algorithm but I can't clearly see how am I supposed to apply it ...
3
votes
1answer
177 views
What kind of hand-crafted features do top performing family of engines use to evaluate a position?
AlphaZero paper which introduced the engine which allegidly outperformed stockfish mentioned the following:
These programs evaluate positions using features handcrafted by human
grandmasters and ...
0
votes
1answer
133 views
convert stockfish pv output to show piece names [duplicate]
What are suggested coding snippets to add pieces to pure algebraic notation (this would change g1f3 to Nf3) when using the chess.js and chessboard.js (javascript) interface. Stockfish uses this type ...
1
vote
2answers
208 views
Why continue to increase search depth after mate is found?
Playing with test sets, several times I come across a behavior of the chess engines which I can't understand: Let's say I have the endgame
[FEN "8/k7/3p4/p2P1p2/P2P1P2/8/8/K7 w - - 0 1"]
which after ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
Chess GUI that allows null-moves
Is there a GUI that allows null-moves as legal moves? Of course for engines the null-move heuristic already is an established technique.
5
votes
3answers
808 views
How can minimax chess engines do alpha-beta pruning without reaching the final positions?
In order to calculate far ahead, minimax chess engines must perform alpha-beta pruning, where they don't calculate positions that are obviously winning or obviously losing. Without doing pruning, ...
6
votes
6answers
582 views
Is it wise to resign a game if the win is only apparent too many moves ahead?
I will clarify my question with an example:
A grandmaster plays a game against stockfish, with a material handicap for stockfish, and the advantage is not clear for either of the players. Throughout ...
7
votes
2answers
526 views
How do chess engines evaluate a position if the position is in the middle of an exchange?
In the minimax algorithm, chess engines do a depth-first search as far as they can calculate ahead, and then evaluate all these final positions. Then, using these evaluations they work backwards one ...
4
votes
4answers
972 views
Do the new chess AIs play gambits?
Do the new chess AIs, such as Alpha Zero and Leela Zero, play gambits?
By gambit, I do not mean a merely nominal gambit like the mainline Queen's Gambit, but rather a genuinely speculative offer of ...
2
votes
1answer
662 views
How to make Lichess local analysis utilize more cpu and memory? [closed]
I get around x12 faster evaluation when I run Stockfish myself, so I checked my utilization when running local analysis (Chromium and Firefox) and saw that it just utilizes one thread and few ...
4
votes
1answer
200 views
alpha-beta algorithm returns a value between alpha and beta inclusive?
I am coding up a chess engine and using the alpha-beta algorithm for tree scanning. I ended up doing what they posted here:
int alphabeta(int depth, int alpha, int beta)
{
move bestmove;
if (...
