Questions tagged [stockfish]
Stockfish is a strong open-source chess engine.
316
questions
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. ...
- 7,985
37
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 ...
- 868
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, ...
- 3,386
33
votes
7
answers
20k
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 ...
- 20.7k
33
votes
6
answers
44k
views
How to install stockfish on ubuntu?
Is there an easy guide how to install stockfish on ubuntu?
From the main site I can not find any information and github repository does not provide many details.
I would really appreciate if someone ...
- 4,728
31
votes
4
answers
6k
views
Why does Stockfish undervalue pawns when compared to the classical "a piece is worth three pawns" approach?
I was taking a look at values engines give to pawns and piece and was quite shocked by Stockfish values for middlegame (Mg):
PawnValueMg = 128
KnightValueMg = 721 ~ 5.6 pawns
BishopValueMg = 825 ~ ...
- 2,080
28
votes
8
answers
6k
views
Would an ensemble of chess engines beat the best one?
In many areas such as prediction and classification, ensemble methods tend to outperform individual methods. This made me wonder if it would make sense to pick a few of the top chess engines and work ...
- 1,075
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 ...
- 603
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 ...
- 25.6k
22
votes
2
answers
4k
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 ...
- 325
19
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Is this a draw despite the Stockfish evaluation of −5?
I reached this position as Black:
[Title "Black to move"]
[FEN "8/8/8/3q4/6kp/7R/6P1/6K1 b - - 3 46"]
And I felt that I cannot make any progress and so it feels like a draw. ...
- 2,763
18
votes
8
answers
8k
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 ...
- 608
18
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Stockfish is considering a move in a book by GM Mihail Marin as a blunder
In the book English opening volume 1 by Mihail Marin at this position
[fen "3nrrk1/bppq2p1/p4p1p/2Pp4/1P1P3N/P1BQ2P1/5PKP/4RR2 w - - 2 21"]
1. Qg6 (1. Ng6)
He suggests Qg6 whereas ...
- 459
17
votes
3
answers
8k
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 ...
- 347
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-...
- 25.6k
15
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Is there a way to use Stockfish to see tactics that aren't necessarily great?
Basically - I want to utilize an engine to see tactics through the whole game, regardless of whether they're a good move or not. Sometimes, Stockfish may say a position is absolutely winning, but the ...
- 261
14
votes
4
answers
4k
views
What does it mean when stockfish evaluates a move as an inaccuracy after previously thinking it was the best move?
I stumbled onto this position from a game posted on reddit. Stockfish gives the best move as cxd4, which it evaluates as +2.
If you play cxd4, it then says cxd4 was an inaccuracy (only being +1), and ...
- 243
14
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Why does Stockfish suggest h4 here?
Analyzing my latest game on chess.com, Stockfish says that h4 is the best move here:
I followed the line, but I failed to understand the reasoning of this move. Is it for some long-term advantage? ...
- 381
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 ...
- 4,716
13
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Did Stockfish regress from October to December 2020? If so, why?
NCM data
If the NCM data is to be believed, somewhere around October 2020, Stockfish dev hit +370 elo vs. Stockfish 7, but has since regressed to only +360. What's going on?
Only thing I can think of ...
- 25.6k
13
votes
1
answer
11k
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?
- 241
13
votes
6
answers
2k
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;...
- 25.6k
13
votes
3
answers
7k
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?
- 233
13
votes
1
answer
7k
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?
...
- 233
10
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Why is White considered so much better in this position?
I'm not sure I understand why Stockfish considers White so much better here. A look at the two strongest lines for White by Stockfish doesn't really give me much intuition about what White is playing ...
- 271
10
votes
3
answers
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 ...
- 1,078
10
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Three way fork-Why take the rook instead of the queen?
I just finished off a game and decided to do some analysis because I had a position that I was thinking about for a little bit.
I ran the game through Stockfish and the move I was thinking about was ...
- 2,288
10
votes
1
answer
4k
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 ...
- 3,022
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....
10
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Why doesn't Stockfish announce when it solved a position as a book draw similar to how it announces a forced mate?
I notice that when Stockfish has solved a position to mate it announces that checkmate is unavoidable in some number of moves so it's impossible to mistaken a position Stockfish has solved as a win ...
- 537
10
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Highest depth ever achieved
I saw a guy that went into depth 70 with no search moves at 41, 192, 897, 168, and 184 nodes from the starting position on Stockfish a few years ago.
I would like to know if this is still a record or ...
- 193
9
votes
3
answers
5k
views
How does Stockfish know if the king is in check?
I am writing a chess engine. I need to know how to tell if the king is in check. I was thinking that maybe I can use the approach that Stockfish uses. Where and how in Stockfish's code is check ...
- 605
9
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why is an early e5 against a Yugoslav setup evaluated at +2.6 according to Stockfish?
I was looking at analysis on one of my games and found this variation against a Yugoslav attempt against the Sicilian Dragon which Stockfish 12 instantly says is +2.6 for white:
[FEN ""]
[...
- 992
9
votes
2
answers
10k
views
Which binary of Stockfish 7 should I use?
Stockfish 7 for Windows comes with 3 64-bit binaries:
stockfish 7 x64 bmi2.exe
stockfish 7 x64 popcnt.exe
stockfish 7 x64.exe
All 3 of them work on my system. Which one gives the best performance?
- 749
9
votes
5
answers
2k
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 ...
- 249
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, ...
- 3,545
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 ...
- 32.4k
8
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Why does Stockfish suggest this move (25. Qxa6?)
In this position, why does Stockfish suggest the move 1. Qxa6?
Also, after 25. ...bxa6, Stockfish also suggests 26. Rd7+, which is followed by 26. ...Bxd7 and 27. Rxd7+.
White would just have traded a ...
- 193
8
votes
3
answers
4k
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 ...
- 199
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, ...
- 83
8
votes
5
answers
3k
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, ...
- 4,716
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why does Stockfish recommend this queen sacrifice in this puzzle?
[Variant "From Position"]
[FEN "r1b1r1k1/pp3ppp/2p5/2Ppn1q1/1P1Q2B1/4P1N1/P4PPP/R4RK1 w - - 9 18"]
[Title ""]
1. Bxc8 Raxc8 2. f4
https://lichess.org/training/fRzq3
The ...
- 3,545
8
votes
1
answer
807
views
Why do Engines show a fraction for the "Depth" and "Current Node" values?
Forgive me if this has been asked elsewhere, but I've both Googled and searched here at CSE and cannot find an answer.
When I'm using an Engine for analysis (in this case, Stockfish 15), I've noticed ...
- 83
8
votes
2
answers
16k
views
Playing chess on a Mac with Stockfish and some GUI
I have a Macbook OS X 10.6 and want to play chess against a challenging program. I'm not very computationally inclined but it seems that I need to download Stockfish and some UCI-compatible GUI. I ...
- 89
8
votes
5
answers
738
views
How strong is Stockfish's positional understanding without AB search?
At zero depth/search, i.e. only using its neural net, Stockfish's tactics would, of course, be abysmal, but how strong is its positional evaluation? Can it be compared to grandmasters or to club ...
- 194
8
votes
2
answers
331
views
Weakening g4 move
I would like to know the reason behind the very weakening move g4 recommended by Stockfish in this position:
- 2,227
8
votes
3
answers
36k
views
Is there a list of approximate Elo ratings for each Stockfish level?
I want to create something that will select an appropriate Stockfish difficulty setting automatically given the player's rating. The straight Stockfish v11 that I've downloaded has 20 difficulty ...
- 91
8
votes
2
answers
9k
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 ...
- 511
8
votes
1
answer
280
views
Why does stockfish move quality increase non-monotonically with increasing depth? -- selected moves at depth 3 are worse than depth 1
I have been working on a project looking at how stockfish moves change with increasing computation time (here search depth), and have found something peculiar - namely that the quality of moves that ...
- 117
8
votes
5
answers
8k
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