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Questions tagged [stockfish]

Stockfish is a strong open-source chess engine.

Stockfish is a strong open-source chess engine, in the same league as commercial engines such as Houdini and Rybka.

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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. Kasparov, and many others, have claimed that a…
Philip Roe
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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 it. I tried to play it once; I barely played 25…
Slobo Janjić
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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, meaning by only playing against itself given the…
user929304
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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 who already installed and started to run it would…
Salvador Dali
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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 have been any attempts made to provide comparable…
user1583209
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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 ~ 6.4 pawns RookValueMg = 1276 ~ 9.9…
emdio
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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 with them together to make a stronger one. Let us…
Dennis Jaheruddin
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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 the idea that in case he accepts the sacrifice, my…
Aloizio Macedo
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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 explain what Stockfish is doing wrong? Link to this…
Allure
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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 does not make this weird move in the Tarrasch program.…
Larry
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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. However, Stockfish evaluates it as −5.1, though it also seems to be unable…
user21820
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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 stockfish suggests Ng6 and evaluation drops from +4.3 to +1.1 after…
Shreyash Talpade
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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 the reason behind the difference (in stockfish…
Laschet Jain
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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-logged in readers, and it won't let me register.…
Allure
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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 yourself c4+ is a losing move, while Ba4+ is the…
William Kinaan
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