Questions tagged [stockfish]

Stockfish is a strong open-source chess engine.

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23 votes
4 answers
5k views

Why doesn't Lichess' Stockfish suggest this bishop sacrifice?

I arrived at the following position in an online game after the opponent left a queen hanging. [FEN "r1b2r2/pp1p1ppk/2n1p3/6B1/2P5/5N2/PQ3PPP/R4RK1 w - - 0 16"] In the game, I played 16. Bf6 with ...
10 votes
1 answer
4k 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....
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

How do Stockfish levels work?

I read on some Lichess forum that Stockfish levels use limited computation time and search depth for lower levels. However, it seems like Stockfish also every so often inputs mistakes and blunders, ...
  • 3,256
6 votes
3 answers
941 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 ...
  • 3,358
17 votes
5 answers
5k views

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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36 votes
2 answers
9k 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, ...
  • 3,358
14 votes
1 answer
67k views

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 ...
  • 4,521
13 votes
1 answer
10k views

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?
9 votes
2 answers
8k views

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 ...
  • 521
8 votes
4 answers
3k views

Piping Stockfish input

I'm trying to write a Linux command line UCI interface for Stockfish. My program writes a bunch of commands to a text file and then tries to pipe them to Stockfish via the command line. My problem is, ...
8 votes
5 answers
7k views

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 ...
  • 183
8 votes
5 answers
2k views

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, ...
  • 4,521
6 votes
2 answers
6k views

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 ...
5 votes
1 answer
1k 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 ...
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4 votes
6 answers
3k views

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 ...
  • 4,521
3 votes
1 answer
1k 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 ...
2 votes
2 answers
566 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 ...
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43 votes
11 answers
23k 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. ...
  • 7,741
35 votes
4 answers
32k 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 ...
31 votes
7 answers
19k 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 ...
  • 20.6k
22 votes
3 answers
5k views

Why is Leela so good at beating Stockfish in the French/Slav?

I notice Lc0 is especially good against Stockfish in French / Slav pawn structures. However, I don't understand why. Here're a couple of games where Leela smoothly outplays Stockfish. Can anyone ...
  • 24.3k
13 votes
1 answer
6k 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? ...
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9 votes
3 answers
2k 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 ...
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7 votes
2 answers
7k views

Since each engine has its own style of play… which engines are more positional/strategic and which engines are more sharp/tactical?

I’ve heard that each engine has its own style of play. Some are more positional and strategic, while others are more sharp and tactical. And so my question is: could you roughly sort the following ...
  • 4,521
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

What does Stockfish NNUE mean for Stockfish? [closed]

Apparently there was a major update to Stockfish recently such that it gained +50 elo (per regression tests). I'm told that the difference is coming from the new NNUE (efficiently updatable neural ...
  • 24.3k
6 votes
2 answers
559 views

Reasoning for Rook sacrifice

[fen "rn1qk1nr/pp4p1/2p2p2/4P2p/1bp5/2NbPPP1/PP2N1BP/R1BQ1RK1 w kq - 1 11"] Komodo 8 and Stockfish agree on Nf4 here for white ( sacrificing the rook for development). It does not however show Bxf1 ...
5 votes
2 answers
3k views

C++ vs Java Engine move generation performance

I've just finished translating my Java Engine to C++11, expecting great speed improvements in move generation. The code is very straightforward and uses a pre-generate bitboards approach. I also ...
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5 votes
1 answer
3k views

How do I change Stockfish's Engine Parameters?

I have no clue how to do this, I want to change its Contempt to -100.
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4 votes
2 answers
373 views

Why doesn't SimpleEval's eval change in multiples of 1?

SimpleEval is Stockfish with simple eval - it only counts the material in the position and ignores all other evaluation factors like king safety or mobility. It is currently playing at TCEC. If ...
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4 votes
3 answers
1k 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 ...
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to read score from stockfish - inconsistent response every call?

I was setup stockfish with: uci setoption name hash value 128 setoption name threads value 4 That I try to evaluate my first moves to learn how it works (I am programmer) but I received random ...
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3 votes
3 answers
2k views

Stockfish Evaluations

I've been getting Stockfish to analyse lines of the KID, and the evaluation gives a score of around +1.5: White has a big advantage. How come this is true, when the KID is a playable(and good) opening?...
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2 votes
2 answers
437 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 ...
  • 3,505
2 votes
1 answer
196 views

Is there a way to get blunders, mistakes and inaccuracies using Stockfish?

Stockfish provides the best moves/lines but is there a command or technique to get inaccuracies, mistakes and blunders? How is this done by lichess or chess.com? They also have the ability to show an ...
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2 votes
1 answer
578 views

Stop SF MultiPV from returning an upperbound

For a given position, I'd like to compute an evaluation of the 3 best moves. I send this to Stockfish: setoption name MultiPV value 3 position startpos go movetime 500.0 // search for 0.5 seconds I ...
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0 votes
1 answer
2k views

When evaluating score of new position with UCI chess engine is the Hash used at all?

I am using a UCI chess engine (stockfish 6) to evaluate the score of specific positions from different games. On this stockfish help forum thread it states: Hash size is the amount of memory you want ...