Questions tagged [stockfish]
Stockfish is a strong open-source chess engine.
32
questions
10
votes
1answer
3k 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....
22
votes
4answers
4k 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 ...
5
votes
3answers
754 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 ...
33
votes
3answers
8k 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, ...
14
votes
1answer
65k 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 ...
9
votes
2answers
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 ...
8
votes
4answers
6k 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 ...
5
votes
6answers
2k 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 ...
7
votes
3answers
2k 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, ...
6
votes
2answers
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 ...
4
votes
1answer
961 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 ...
2
votes
2answers
499 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 ...
40
votes
11answers
22k 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
7answers
15k 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 ...
33
votes
4answers
29k 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 ...
13
votes
1answer
5k 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?
...
21
votes
3answers
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 ...
9
votes
3answers
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 ...
7
votes
2answers
6k 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
votes
2answers
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
522 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 ...
15
votes
4answers
4k 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-...
8
votes
1answer
7k 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? Also is there a new Stockfish level?
6
votes
1answer
2k views
What does Stockfish NNUE mean for Stockfish?
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 ...
6
votes
2answers
509 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
1answer
390 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, ...
4
votes
1answer
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.
3
votes
2answers
218 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 ...
3
votes
3answers
639 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
3answers
1k 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?...
2
votes
1answer
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 ...
2
votes
2answers
421 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
...
