Stockfish is a strong open-source chess engine.
2
votes
3answers
94 views
How many moves out do the static board evaluations use?
These days many online chess websites offer a board evaluation rating, often a bar, sometimes a number, sometimes both, as is the case here (see two red circles):
Black will take a pawn soon, so the ...
3
votes
5answers
287 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 ...
-4
votes
1answer
162 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
108 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
53 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 (...
3
votes
1answer
126 views
Why does Stockfish give a negative score in a theoretical win for white?
8/3k4/8/3K4/3P4/8/8/8 b - - 0 1
(Black to move)
This is a theoretical win since White has the opposition and the king is in front of the pawn.
I have downloaded the Windows version for Stockfish 9 ...
0
votes
2answers
111 views
Why Qd1 is the best move?
As per subject, why Qd1 is the best move and all other moves for queen like Qd2 and Qd3 are not? I understand that it’s important to cover d column but why 1 and not 2 or 3?
Also why Rd1 is not a ...
15
votes
8answers
7k views
Why is exchanging the queens bad in this position?
Stockfish gives +6.6 to the following position.
The recommended move by stockfish is Rc1 which maintains +6.6 advantage but if I exchange the queens right away (Qxd6), stockfish gives me +5. What's ...
3
votes
1answer
86 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
104 views
analyse and store a annotated game by stockfish in scid
Salut
I installed scid and set all necessities in order to make an analysis by stockfish, but I could not find the option to save the done analysis.
My question is just silly but I cannot find ...
7
votes
3answers
834 views
Why does Stockfish prefer White here?
My analysis of the position:
Materially, black is a pawn up.
White's rooks and bishop are active.
White has potential counterplay on Black's Kingside but I think it can be defended by the move Ng6.
...
4
votes
1answer
153 views
Output whether the best move is “much better” or only “slightly better” than the other moves
On Oct 31, 2014, Tord Romstad wrote:
The moves are not searched in descending order from best to worst. Stockfish has no idea which move is the second, third best, etc., and it doesn't have any ...
2
votes
1answer
520 views
What is the Elo rating of Stockfish version that played AlphaZero?
AlphaZero has defeated Stockfish with all novelties and brilliant strategic sacrifices. But some people were disputing its win, because Stockfish was running on weak hardware (1 GB RAM), not access to ...
1
vote
5answers
209 views
Custom Chess (game) engine
Is there a chess engine which you can use regardless of the game's rules? For example I wanna create my own chess version in which queen will also be able to move as knight or just a 10x10-square ...
5
votes
4answers
836 views
Is it really possible to beat a stockfish level 8 computer in any time that is between 3+0 and 15+0?
I've watched a couple of games where people play against stockfish level 8 on lichess, and they pretty much lose all the time. Is it possible for someone to beat a level 8 computer in any time between ...
19
votes
1answer
3k views
Stockfish blunders away a piece
Using stockfish_8_x64 with Arena 3.5.1, I see a weird pick by Stockfish. Start here:
White, Stockfish, to move. It plays bb6-g1,losing the bishop and the win.
Also strange: the same engine ...
0
votes
1answer
135 views
how to play against somebody using the book [closed]
i’ve not been playing chess that long but i do not understand why chess.com and lichess have this thing called the book. this allows people to cheat in my ‘book”.
i used it for a while on lichess ...
1
vote
1answer
193 views
is there a list of stockfish hidden/deleted commands
I have downloaded the latest stockfish and I am running it on the command line.
There is a hidden command 'd' which displays the current board.
Also, the "debug on" command is not implemented, even ...
0
votes
1answer
124 views
Stockfish crashes on fen string
I have created a GUI that communicates with a Stockfish 8 engine by passing it a FEN string. Everything works nice but on some specific FEN strings, Stockfish crashes. I don't have any clue why...
...
2
votes
2answers
190 views
Is it possible for stockfish to tell that mate is in X moves, when mate is in X + Y moves?
I know that it is possible for a chess engine to evaluate a position as mate in X moves, when in fact there exist a mate in smaller number of moves. But can the reverse situation happen?
For example ...
20
votes
7answers
8k views
Hardware used in AlphaZero vs Stockfish match
I understand that AlphaZero has to use a different kind of hardware than regular Stockfish. I would expect that the hardware has a large effect on engine strength. That's why I wonder whether there ...
36
votes
11answers
18k views
How is Alpha Zero “more human”?
I have a possibly naive question about AlphaZero. I have seen it described as playing in a "more human" style than other computers, but whatever it does, it gains about 100 ELO points by doing it. ...
24
votes
2answers
4k views
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, ...
3
votes
1answer
409 views
Stockfish is cheating?
I am using the Arena GUI to run Stockfish. I set up the following position.
[FEN "r2q1rk1/2p1bppp/p1n5/1p1pP3/3Pn3/1P3N1P/1P3PP1/RNBQR1K1 w - - 0 11"]
[SetUp "1"]
At a search depth of 16 half moves ...
8
votes
1answer
1k views
Do Stockfish and the tablebase work together or independently?
I use Arena GUI together with stockfish in engine games. I want to download a 6-piece tablebase but that is just a lot of work (and perhaps unnecessary). If I download the tablebase (syzygy), does ...
0
votes
1answer
180 views
Meaning of ! and ? in Stockfish output?
I've just installed Stockfish 8 and in the engine output, I see it has started to put ! and ? in various places (after certain moves and scores). Example output:
mover viewpoint fewer / ...
1
vote
2answers
183 views
Stockfish perft displays reversed game notation?
I'm debugging my engine using Stockfish, and I suddenly notice a massive difference between mine and Stockfish.
Board and fen string
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| r | n | b | q | | k | | ...
-1
votes
1answer
262 views
Difference in chess engine strength for ''high end 64 bit multicore PCs'' vs. ''low end multicore 64 bit PCs''
I use Arena for tournaments between chess engines.
The interesting thing is that in different 64 bit multi processor computers ranking is slightly different. I was expecting that they should be the ...
1
vote
2answers
182 views
How do I get Stockfish to show notes like it does on Lichess?
I want to write a program to stop a chess game if Stockfish decides that checkmate is unavoidable for a player as a learning exercise. I downloaded Stockfish for Mac and it gives what it thinks is the ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
Stockfish evaluation of a position from PGN
I am trying to get Stockfish's evaluation of a board position(which is in PGN format) using command line.I know it accepts board position in FEN format, but is there any way i can provide PGN format?
...
1
vote
1answer
299 views
Stockfish - Function that predicts checkmate
I'm working on a function that can forecast whether, for a given position, I can be checkmated by the opponent. I have this function, already in Stockfish:
bool Position::is_mate() const {
...
1
vote
1answer
119 views
Stockfish: Engine suddenly changed the side?
I asked this question in stockfishchess.org support but didn't get any response. So I'm trying to get some answers from you all.
My question:
Please find the output of communication with the engine ...
4
votes
3answers
949 views
How to send uci messages from c# app to stockfish on android?
I downloaded the binary of Android Stockfish arm64-v8a and looked in the CPP source files. In main() there is all initialization, and then there is UCI::loop(), which catches standard input with ...
4
votes
0answers
124 views
how to use ending evaluation in UCI interaction with Stockfish
Playing with the Stockfish 8 UCI from the terminal, I've managed to make it compute move, set the position and load SYZYGY tables.
But how can know if an endgame, that corresponds to a kind of ...
5
votes
1answer
363 views
Using Stockfish in c# android (xamarin) app
I looked at this question
Implement a chess app for Android with Stockfish
but it doesn't seem to be answering what I want to ask. Maybe part of my question is topic for stack overflow forum, but ...
2
votes
2answers
172 views
Engine output: FEN string when blundering
What is the best way to go through a database of my games and have the computer generate a FEN string as well as the next move any time I make an error greater than, say, a minor piece loss?
I've ...
0
votes
1answer
141 views
What if Stockfish had infinite computing power? [closed]
If Stockfish had infinite computing power, or perhaps connected to all Google servers, etc. would it be able to solve the perfect chess moves after 10 moves? Or be able to create the perfect game ...
2
votes
3answers
152 views
Why does the engine suggest Be7 after Qe4+?
[FEN "r3kb2/pp3pp1/8/2P5/1qN3p1/3Qp2r/P4P1P/5RK1 w KQkq - 0 1"]
1. Qe4+ Be7
In this position why is Be7 the best move for black after Qe4+, given that black will instantly lose its queen afterwards (...
2
votes
1answer
178 views
Can white really not win this rook endgame?
When playing against a player rated ~2500 Stockfish 8 managed merely to draw when playing white. This was the endgame before the draw (the draw occurred because it was king vs. king in the end).
...
3
votes
2answers
282 views
Bug in Stockfish/Suggesting bad move
Why does Stockfish suggest this move in this position for white? It is a clear losing position if the king moves that way, as supposed to a draw if the king chooses f7 instead...
This is a real game ...
-2
votes
1answer
47 views
Opening saved game Stockfish
I have saved PGN file from a file in Stockfish on mac, but when I open it the position of the pieces does not move. Why?
-2
votes
1answer
74 views
Get percentage amount of Stockfish usage
Is it a way to paste FEN from a game and see how many of those moves Stockfish would recommend doing? If the percentage is high, the person has most likely been using it. Is there a way of doing this? ...
0
votes
1answer
71 views
Stockfish: How to do so it only gives hints to one color
When using Stockfish it gives options/hints for both white and black. How do I make it so it only shows hints of moves for black? I am using mac.
0
votes
1answer
292 views
What exactly means centipawns field in stockfish/uci output?
According to this page:
cp
the score from the engine's point of view in centipawns.
but is it a score for the current (start) position of the game that I feed to engine, or it is a ...
2
votes
1answer
1k views
Connecting Chess Engine with a Java program
I wanted to make a 1 player chess game.
The idea is:
The move made by the player would be displayed on the GUI.
It is sent to the Chess Engine in its own specific understood form.
Then the result of ...
3
votes
1answer
193 views
Why is Kf8 the recommended move here?
in this position:
[FEN "rnbqk2r/pp2bppp/5n2/1Bpp4/8/3P1N2/PPP1QPPP/RNB1K2R b KQkq - 3 7"]
Stockfish 8 gives the move of Kf8, and claims my move of Bd7 is an inaccuracy. I don't quite understand why....
3
votes
2answers
158 views
Why does black not move Queen here?
in this board, after Nf5 as indicated, why does stockfish suggest the best move is king-knight e7? Surely it would be better to save the Q to h7 towards the check-mate on h2 (white knight blocks the ...
0
votes
1answer
200 views
Stockfish crashing on checkmate positions, and erroneous evaluation
I asked the same question on Stockfish's forum.
Black to move in the classic scholar's mate position. mate in 1. Engine produce erroneous results?
position fen rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/4p3/6P1/5P2/...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Playing stockfish level 3000 on Arena 3.5.1
I downloaded Arena 3.5.1, and then downloaded stockfish from https://stockfishchess.org/ it had 4 files:
stockfish_8_x32.exe
stockfish_8_x64.exe
stockfish_8_x64_bmi2.exe
stockfish_8_x64_popcnt.exe
...
4
votes
1answer
828 views
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....
