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Stockfish is a strong open-source chess engine.

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10
votes
3answers
3k views

Why does Stockfish suggest capturing a bishop in this position when my opponent can fork my king and rook?

The position in question is: [FEN ""] [StartPly "13"] 1. d4 c5 2. Nf3 cxd4 3. Nxd4 Nc6 4. Nc3 e5 5. Ndb5 Bb4 6. Bg5 Bxc3+ 7. bxc3 Qa5 8. Qd5 Nge7 9. Nd6+ Kf8 10. Qxf7# 1-0 It's black turn and the ...
4
votes
5answers
176 views

How can I use stockfish to find good moves, instead of just bad moves?

After playing on lichess.org I have been reviewing my games as follows: Ask for a computer evaluation (Stockfish) Look at the graph and investigate any wild swings in computer analysis Try to ...
2
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1answer
82 views

Communication with Stockfish engine via Python

I try to access the Stockfish engine via Python, but only get bestmove = a2a3. If I enter the same commands into the MAC-terminal, the engine calculates the correct move. Can anyone help me, please ?...
10
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5answers
1k views

Level the field when letting computers play against each other

I just read this question and it made me wonder: when setting up such a game/comparison - shouldn't you try to level the computing capacity field? Or at least limit how much energy each "player" is ...
9
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3answers
1k views

Knowing that AlphaZero beat Stockfish 8 (28 wins, 0 losses, and 72 draws), what would AlphaZero's rating be?

I found three different questions here on SEC that asked what Stockfish 8's rating was for the match against AlphaZero, but none that asked what AlphaZero's rating should have been after (if it had ...
1
vote
1answer
77 views

How does Stockfish calculate advantage? [duplicate]

Recently when I was on Lichess, somebody pointed out in chat that Stockfish calculated advantage based on what it considered as the best move for both sides. However, when we play the best moves (...
30
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4answers
11k views

Is Stockfish 11 (level 20) beatable?

I have heard many people saying, “Hah! I beat Stockfish,” and one saying, “I am the best chess player ever! I beat Stockfish.” So I wonder if it is possible, just to know whether I should try to beat ...
8
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4answers
982 views

How do I understand White's +6 advantage here?

[White "White (to move)"] [Black "Black"] [FEN "rnq1kb1r/ppp3pp/4pn2/4N3/2QP4/2N2P2/PPP3PP/R1B1K2R w KQ - 0 13"] In this position, White can still castle, but Black cannot (having moved the king ...
2
votes
1answer
97 views

How to get stockfish to play a selfmatch without clearing the hash table between games

A while ago I asked a question about how to let Stockfish play 10 games with itself for a limited number of moves: Python script to let stockfish selfplay 10 games from a given position This ...
3
votes
1answer
110 views

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 ...
8
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3answers
2k views

Stockfish: What is the maximum (minimum) centipawn score that a position might be evaluated at?

With the exception of checkmate and mate-in-x positions, what is the highest centipawn score that a chess position might obtain upon Stockfish evaluation? This is a practical question because there ...
2
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1answer
68 views

Compile StockFish optimized for arm64-v8a

I cloned StockFish from GitHub and did a make inside the src folder and found that supported archs are: x86-64-bmi2 > x86 64-bit with pext support (also enables SSE4) x86-64-modern ...
5
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2answers
497 views

Stockfish 10 working on only 1 core at a time

I am a lichess user who would like to be able to use my 8C/16T processor to the best of my ability, and yet when I start up a chess engine only one of my cores is working on stockfish the rest are ...
4
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2answers
86 views

Early line in english opening not in the chessbase powerbook 2019 but seen by stockfish 10 64bits under latest fritz

I am looking at 1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 dxc4 4.Nf3 and Chessbase's Powerbook 2019 only proposes 4...c6, 4...g6, 4...a6, 4...Nbd7, 4...Qd6 or 4...Be6 whereas Fritz 17 64bits latest update using ...
-2
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1answer
102 views

How to force Stockfish to make mistake [closed]

I developed a bot. It had a 100% win rate and my account was banned. I need to get it to make mistakes but can't force Stockfish to do it. How can I modify Stockfish to make mistakes?
19
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3answers
4k views

Why is Leela so good at beating Stockfish in the French/Caro-Kann?

I notice Lc0 is especially good against Stockfish in French / Caro-Kann pawn structures. However, I don't understand why. Here're a couple of games where Leela smoothly outplays Stockfish. Can anyone ...
2
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2answers
3k views

Why doesn't Stockfish (DroidFish) try to flag me?

Imagine the following position: [FEN "3k4/7p/7K/3B4/8/8/8/8 w - - 0 1"] White is played by Stockfish in DroidFish and black by human (me). We both have 15 seconds. After a few moves, white bishop ...
9
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2answers
316 views

Weakening g4 move

I would like to know the reason behind the very weakening move g4 recommended by Stockfish in this position:
5
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2answers
171 views

Is it possible to combine CPU and GPU engines to use the other's principal variation?

This is a speculative question since I don't know if such an engine is even plausible. The idea: we'll start Stockfish and Leela at the same time using both my CPU and GPU. Within a fraction of a ...
0
votes
1answer
89 views

What's the difference between movetime and the Slow Mover option?

When I tell the engine to find the best move with go movetime 1 depth 1 I expect it allows itself to take up to about 1 ms to make it's move. But what's the difference between that and the Slow ...
3
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1answer
278 views

What is the best way to interface with Stockfish in a C++ program?

I am looking for a way to have my C++ program communicate with Stockfish. An ideal solution would use the compiled version and my program would send commands to the .exe which would return the results....
1
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2answers
174 views

When to use Clear Hash

I am developing a program that analyzes games sequentially, i.e. one game after another. Below are the parameters. Engine: Stockfish 10 Threads: 2 Hash Table: 4000 Depth: 30 My question is about ...
1
vote
1answer
152 views

Is there any game where AlphaZero wins against Stockfish thanks to a knight pair?

I have seen some of the games that were published in the match between AlphaZero and Stockfish. In many games, as when it beats Stockfish as black playing the Berlin Defense, AlphaZero appears to ...
2
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1answer
169 views

How to tweak a chess engine like SF to return a variation which is only slightly better than your moves?

By default, engines return the strongest variation(s) they calculate. I was wondering if there is a way to tweak an open source chess engine to show a move from their MultiPV which is slightly better ...
1
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1answer
92 views

Convert Stockfish analysis output to pgn

It seems that there is no way to direct see Stockfish’s analysis in pgn when it evaluates a position. I am looking for a way to convert the SAN or LAN format into a PGN. Maybe it will work in Python. ...
2
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3answers
189 views

How to use Arena GUI outputs in a python program

I'm currently developing a self-playing chessboard on which I'd like to implement an Artificial Intelligence (AI) (currently it's Stockfish. I would like to know how I could, if I can, export Arena ...
2
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1answer
97 views

Is it possible to play multiple games with Stockfish simultaneously?

I am asking this because Stockfish was accepting different FEN strings through the terminal inbetween a game, of which it is giving best moves. I have compiled Stockfish in the Ubuntu 19.04 terminal.
3
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1answer
288 views

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 ...
1
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2answers
168 views

Weakening the kingside with g5

I am having trouble deciding whether a move such like g5 (g4 in case it is White) is worth it or not. I am looking for advice on my particular position and if possible, a general explanation for any ...
4
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1answer
168 views

Leaving the score aside, what are the criteria allowing Stockfish to choose its “best move”?

I'm trying to understand how a chess engine like Stockfish works. I use Stockfish 10 directly, without an UI. For example, for this position (white to move)... r3n1k1/1bpp2pp/pp2p3/2P1P3/R2P4/3B1rPq/...
3
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1answer
206 views

Stockfish on Android Question

I recently downloaded Stockfish 10 on my android phone and after unzipping the rar file, there were three separate engine binaries and I am wondering which one would be the strongest one to use. The ...
15
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3answers
6k views

Bad Stockfish evaluation

This is the study [fen "3B4/1r2p3/r2p1p2/bkp1P1p1/1p1P1PPp/p1P4P/PPBK4/8 w - - 0 1 "] As you can see, Stockfish gives an absolute decisive win for black, though it is clearly a draw!! Check it out ...
1
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1answer
91 views

How to stop Stockfish analysis?

I am using Chessbase 13. I would like Stockfish to stop analyzing until I make it start again. What happens now is that I make it stop, and as soon as I go on to the next move, it starts analyzing ...
2
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1answer
257 views

How to use the Ponder option in stockfish / UCI

I'm trying to understand stockfish Ponder functionality. I'm very interested to let stockfish think when the opponent is thinking. From what I understand you can do it as follows $> uci $> ...
11
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5answers
514 views

Why does Fishtesting test Stockfish against itself, not other engines?

As I understand the so-called Fishtesting, people write patches, then try the patches against the current version of Stockfish. If the new version performs better, it's promoted to be the main version;...
5
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1answer
528 views

Are there any attempts at writing Stockfish MCTS?

As of time of writing, there is one major traditional engine using Monte Carlo Tree Search for its search algorithm - Komodo. The MCTS version of Komodo started out weak but gained strength quickly, ...
1
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1answer
329 views

Why does NCM show no progress for Stockfish when each new version has to beat the previous version?

NCM plays each Stockfish dev build 20,000 times against Stockfish 7. This yields an approximate Elo difference and establishes confidence in the strength of the dev builds. As of time of writing, one ...
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2answers
123 views

Stockfish 9 giving erroneous reading

Sam Loyd, 1860 [fen "8/8/8/8/B6n/7p/6k1/4K3 w - - 0 1"] 1.Bd7!! h2 2.Bc6 Kg1 3.Bh1!! Kxh1 4.Kf2. (Ke1, Ba4; Kg2, Nh4, h3) says mate in 54 after 1.Bd7!! h2 2.Bc6 Kg1 3.Bh1!! Kxh1 4.Kf2. This is a ...
5
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1answer
165 views

Combining AlphaZero methods with Stockfish methods [closed]

NOTE: I asked a similar question at the ai stackexchange, but didn't get any satisfying answers, so I will post an updated version of the question here, to see if someone with more of a chess ...
0
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1answer
98 views

Standard for current position evaluation via UCIs

I am trying to interact with stockfish via UCI to get a current evaluation of the board. When you do a simple position startpos go depth 10 The board will helpfully return ...[previous depths] ...
3
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3answers
455 views

Solvable studies that computers fail to crack

Are there chess studies that require an outside of the box thinking that goes beyond the concrete calculation capabilities of today's engines (e.g. Stockfish)? I have sometimes seen certain endgames ...
4
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2answers
340 views

Not in stalemate, but why is this a draw?

I was practicing with stockfish level 8, having two rooks in the endgame whereas stockfish has only one. At the 78th move, it was declared as a draw. But, it was not a stalemate. Can anyone please ...
4
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1answer
210 views

How does Stockfish ensure an incremental change made is beneficial?

Does Stockfish's testing framework get the new engine to play the old engine many times in a match? Since Stockfish thinks on each move according to a time limit (and not a depth limit, which gives a ...
2
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2answers
176 views

Most complicated mode for chess engines

I have used many chess engines, especially Stockfish and I want to ask you, if it possible to change its mode to the most complicated one. What I mean: Now, most engines work as following: 1) Mate ...
9
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3answers
3k views

Why are Leela's fans so passionate? [closed]

The neural-network engine Leela is a relatively new one. It's also got some extremely passionate fans. For example they write things like this: Wait 5-6 months, and we will see SF8 on uber-duper ...
3
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2answers
378 views

AlphaZero and the revenge of the Artificial Intelligence

Answering this question, @SmallChess offered this answer: Before Google's chess journey, the chess engine community believed: AI chess will not beat classical programming because neural networks ...
3
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3answers
347 views

Why does AlphaZero evaluate on the order of 1000 times less moves than Stockfish?

According to Deep mind's article, Alpha Zero searches roughly 10,000 moves per decision, while Stockfish is around 10,000,000 moves. I'm aware that Alpha Zero uses Monte Carlo Tree Search while ...
0
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1answer
118 views

Importing and analysing games played on chess.com [closed]

How to import entire game from chess.com game to stockfish?
4
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2answers
678 views

What is 'Depth' in Lichess game analysis?

I have started analyzing my games in Lichess. I'm wondering what does Depth mean in the Stockfish analysis?
0
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1answer
166 views

Is any tool which allow analyse EPD file and add evaluation score per I want specify depth/multi PVL?

I tested some tools which allow analysis EPD files but they not work like I want: I can use Arena but it will not annotate back EPD - it create protocol file. I can use SCID vs PC but it will not ...

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