x86-64, pop, popcnt, win-32bit, Intel, x86-32, arm64, amd64, modern, vnni, old, bmi2, m1, apple silicon, sse4, pgo, pext, ... ?, .... ?!, .....?? What is this all about ? Why all these symbols ? What are the markings needed for ? I just want to use the right chess engine for my computer, and it should work ! And you're right, that's how it should be. But it usually isn't. How-To is intended for inexperienced users. The chess engine should run without any fuss on your computer. You use Windows, download the engine for that operating system, install it in your favorite GUI, and it should work. And you shouldn't care if your Windows is 32 or 64 bit, or if your processor is Intel, AMD or another eg. from the ARM family. The engine should work. But... this is usually not the case! When you use friendly chess software that automatically selects the right chess engine for your computer, then it is as it should be. Technology should help, make it easier, make it convenient to use the capabilities of the software and the chess engine. When you wish to use, for example, the offer of a well-known commercial engine manufacturer or the benefits of open source, download a free chess engine and use it, you should often know which version to choose. Otherwise, you will be left with the trial-and-error method or searching for answers on the Internet. From the perspective of the last few decades, although chess engines are at an increasingly high level, their manufacturers and developers still force ordinary users into undesirable choices. You buy or download a free chess engine, it should run on your computer without any compilation. That's how it should be... Why is this important ? Because if you choose wrongly, at worst the chess engine will not work, and at best the chess engine will work and play at a lower level and with less power than it could. This How to is intended to give you the knowledge that will enable you to choose the most suitable chess engine for your Windows. We will use the official version of the Stockfish chess engine to show all the nuances of the selection. Always download chess engines from safe places on the web with a good and established reputation. Before I start this How to for good, I will write that if you have obtained a chess engine from a safe source, you are an inexperienced user, and you want to have a working chess engine quickly and easily, then: first choose the version with avx2 in the name, because it's giving significant extra speed and power for most 64-bit computers made since 2013 (AMD or Intel CPU's). or... just run one by one and see if it works :) Contrary to what you might think, this is a relatively safe way to check the acquired chess engine(s), but not the least effective one, since even if any of them will allow you to run and work, it will not be optimally selected for your computer. Nevertheless, it is a way. It is worth knowing that the chess engine: Designed for a specific operating system, such as Windows, by default will not work under any other, such as Linux or Mac. Designed for a specific architecture usually will not work on another architecture, e.g. Linux x86-64 will not work on Linux arm64 and vice versa. There are some exceptions here, e.g., the ability to run Windows 32-bit engines on Windows 64-bit, the ability to run Mac engines compiled for older Intel processors in a Mac environment with an Apple Silicon processor, and so on. Let's move on to the substance. #1 The choice starts with a simple thing - choosing a chess engine for Windows. From the dedicated page you can download Stockfish 15. 1 or directly - below. If you are using Windows, choose the engine for Windows. If you are using Windows, do not get the engine for Mac. If you are using Windows, do not get the engine for Linux. etc. #2 Now you should choose the version suitable for your Windows. If the version of Windows on your computer is 32 bit, then choose Stockfish-15.1_Windows_x32.7z If Windows on your computer is a 64 bit version, then choose Stockfish-15.1_Windows_x64.7z If you don't know how to check which Windows you are using, go to Microsoft's website. What happens if you choose wrong ? If you choose the x64 version having Windows 32 bit, Stockfish will not start. If you choose the x32 version having Windows 64 bit, Stockfish will run but will be much weaker than the 64 bit version. #2.1 If you are using Windows 32 bit, then when you open the Stockfish-15.1_Windows_x32.7z archive, you will see the following: Choose Stockfish-15.1_general-32 if you are using a very old computer. A very old computer, I mean a machine that is from 1999 or older. Choose Stockfish-15.1_x86-32 if you are using 2000 or newer computer. That's the end of How to. Congratulations! You've chosen the right version for your computer running 32-bit Windows. #2.2. If you are using Windows 64bit, then when you open the Stockfish-15.1_Windows_x64.7z archive, you will see the following: Open and choose the stockfish_15.1_win_x64 folder if you are using an old computer. By old computer I mean a machine from 2007 or older. In this folder is stockfish-windows-2022-x86-64 which, although the slowest and weakest, is designed to run on all computers equipped with 64-bit Windows. Now, I offer you a little experiment. Please check the other versions of Stockfish to see if they will run on your computer and to see which one is the fastest. Stockfish, which has bmi2 in its name, will probably be the fastest and strongest version for your computer. Stockfish, which has avx2 in its name, will probably be of very similar speed and strength to the bmi2 version. Stockfish that has popcnt or modern in its name will probably be a slower than the bmi2 and avx2 versions but faster (from a few to several percent) and stronger than the stockfish_15.1_win_x64 version. How exactly to check which of the above-mentioned versions is the fastest ? Run Stockfish, type the bench command and press Enter key. By doing so, you will launch the Stockfish internal benchmark, which will present the result on the screen after a while. If Stockfish does not start, it means that this version is not supported by your computer and you should choose another one. Here is the result of the stockfish-windows-2022-x86-64 benchmark: 810514 Nodes/second. Here is the result of the stockfish-windows-2022-x86-64-modern benchmark: 865330 Nodes/second. Depending on the speed of your computer, the benchmark results you will see may differ from those I presented. The most suitable version of Stockfish will be the one that will allow to run, work without problems and will be the fastest. To get Stockfish compiler information, after launching it, type the compiler command and confirm with Enter. If you are in the process of choosing another Windows chess engine that does not offer the bench command, then the gradation of engine speed is this: vnni512, vnni256, avx512, avxvnni Are the fastest and strongest versions. bmi2 and avx2 Very fast and strong versions. popcnt, popc, pop, modern, sse41, sse4.1, sse4.2, ... Are the versions that provide good speed and strength. ssse3, sse3 Are the versions that provide average speed and strength. x86-64, x64, amd64, sse2, sse, legacy Are the slower and weakest versions, but provide maximum compatibility allowing the engine to run even on the oldest 64-bit Windows. I have described the most important of these, which are the most commonly used and have the biggest impact on the best choice of chess engine. That's the end of How to. Congratulations! You've chosen the right version for your computer running 64-bit Windows. Always download chess engines from safe places on the web with a good and established reputation. In the Files area you will find free chess engines for download.

x86-64, pop, popcnt, win-32bit, Intel, x86-32, arm64, amd64, modern, vnni, old, bmi2, m1, apple silicon, sse4, pgo, pext, ... ?, .... ?!, .....?? What is this all about ? Why all these symbols ? What are the markings needed for ? I just want to use the right chess engine for my computer, and it should work ! And you're right, that's how it should be. But it usually isn't. How-To is intended for inexperienced users. The chess engine should run without any fuss on your computer. You use a Mac, download the engine for that operating system, install it in your favorite GUI, and it should work. And you shouldn't care if your Mac is 32 or 64 bit, or if your processor is Intel or Apple Silicon M1. The engine should work. But... this is usually not the case! When you use friendly chess software that automatically selects the right chess engine for your computer, then it is as it should be. Technology should help, make it easier, make it convenient to use the capabilities of the software and the chess engine. When you wish to use, for example, the offer of a well-known commercial engine manufacturer or the benefits of open source, download a free chess engine and use it, you should often know which version to choose. Otherwise, you will be left with the trial-and-error method or searching for answers on the Internet. From the perspective of the last few decades, although chess engines are at an increasingly high level, their manufacturers and developers still force ordinary users into undesirable choices. You buy or download a free chess engine, it should run on your computer without any compilation. That's how it should be... Why is this important ? Because if you choose wrongly, at worst the chess engine will not work, and at best the chess engine will work and play at a lower level and with less power than it could. This How to is intended to give you the knowledge that will enable you to choose the most suitable chess engine for your computer. We will use the official version of the Stockfish chess engine to show all the nuances of the selection. Always download chess engines from safe places on the web with a good and established reputation. Before I start this How to for good, I will write that if you have obtained a chess engine from a safe source, you are an inexperienced user, and you want to have a working chess engine quickly and easily, then: first choose the version with avx2 in the name, because it's giving significant extra speed and power for most 64-bit computers made since 2013 (AMD or Intel CPU's). or... just run one by one and see if it works :) Contrary to what you might think, this is a relatively safe way to check the acquired chess engine(s), but not the least effective one, since even if any of them will allow you to run and work, it will not be optimally selected for your Mac. Nevertheless, it is a way. It is worth knowing that the chess engine: Designed for a specific operating system, such as Mac, by default will not work under any other, such as Linux or Windows. Designed for a specific architecture usually will not work on another architecture, e.g. Linux x86-64 will not work on Linux arm64 and vice versa. There are some exceptions here, e.g., the ability to run Windows 32-bit engines on Windows 64-bit, the ability to run Mac engines compiled for older Intel processors in a Mac environment with an Apple Silicon processor, and so on. Let's move on to the substance. #1 The choice starts with a simple thing - choosing a chess engine for the operating system your computer uses. From the dedicated page you can download Stockfish 15. 1 or directly - below. If you are using Mac, choose the chess engine for Mac. If you are using Mac, do not get chess engine for Linux. If you are using Mac, do not get chess engine for Windows. Sometimes in the name of the chess engine instead of the name Mac, you can find names: darwin macOS osx They mean the same thing - a chess engine dedicated to Mac computer. #2. Now you should choose the version suitable for your Mac. If you are using an Apple Silicon-based Mac, then choose Stockfish-15.1_Mac_Apple_Silicon.7z If you are using an Intel-based Mac, then choose Stockfish-15.1_Mac_Intel.7z If you don't know how to check which Mac you are using, then go to Apple's website. What happens if you choose wrong ? If you choose the Apple Silicon version having Intel-based Mac Stockfish will not start. If you choose the Intel version having Apple Silicon-based Mac, there is a chance that Stockfish will start up, but will be weaker than the Apple Silicon version. #2.1. Apple Silicon-based Mac. After opening the Stockfish-15.1_Mac_Apple_Silicon.7z archive, you will see: Given the specifications of your Mac, the choice is easy: Stockfish-15.1_Mac_Apple_Silicon. Chess engines for Macs with Apple's Silicon processor may also have additions in the name: apple_silicon, as, m1, m1pro, m1max, m1ultra, m2, m2pro, m2max, ... You've probably noticed a pattern in the naming. Today's chess engine compilations for Apple Silicon-based Mac should work on all Macs equipped with Apple Silicon processors, i.e. M1, M1 Pro, M2, etc. To get Stockfish compiler information, after launching it, type the compiler command and confirm with Enter. The file command can also be helpful. Apple Silicon-based Mac can also use some chess engines designed for Intel-based Macs. This is possible because they are much more powerful and equipped with appropriate translate layer. For example, if you see an engine called: Stockfish-15.1_Mac_Intel_x86-64 or Stockfish-15.1_Mac_Intel_popcnt it will also work on your Mac with an Apple Silicon processor, although it will be marginally slower and not as strong. The most suitable version of Stockfish will be the one that will allow to run, work without problems and will be the fastest. That's the end of How to. Congratulations! You've chosen the right version for your Apple Silicon-based Mac. #2.2. Apple Intel-based Mac. After opening the Stockfish-15.1_Mac_Intel.7z archive, you will see: Choose the Stockfish_15.1_Mac_Intel_Old if you are using an old Mac. By old Mac I mean a machine from 2007 or older. Stockfish_15.1_Mac_Intel_Old which, although the slowest and weakest, is designed to run on all Mac equipped with 64-bit Intel CPU. Choose the Stockfish_15.1_Mac_Intel_Modern if you are using modern Mac. By modern Mac I mean a machine from 2008 or newer. Stockfish_15.1_Mac_Intel_Modern which, is designed to run on all Macs equipped with modern 64-bit Intel CPU. Some versions of Stockfish, or other chess engines, have various additions in their names. Now, I offer you a little experiment. You can download the following archive containing development versions of Stockfish (newer than Stockfish 15.1), Here's what you'll see when you open it: Please check the other versions of Stockfish to see if they will run on your computer and to see which one is the fastest. Stockfish with Apple_Silicon in the name will not allow to run. Stockfish, which has avx512 in its name, if it starts, will probably be the fastest and strongest version for your computer. Stockfish, which has avx2 in its name, will probably be of slower speed and weaker to the avx512 version. Stockfish that has modern in its name will probably be a slower than the avx2 versions but faster (from a few to several percent) and stronger than the Stockfish_15.1_Mac_Intel_x86-64 version. How exactly to check which of the above-mentioned versions is the fastest ? Run Stockfish, type the bench command and press Enter key. By doing so, you will launch the Stockfish internal benchmark, which will present the result on the screen after a while. If Stockfish does not start, it means that this version is not supported by your computer and you should choose another one. Here is the result of the Stockfish-dev-20230123-596a528c_Mac_Intel_x86-64 benchmark: 679511 Nodes/second. Here is the result of the Stockfish-dev-20230123-596a528c_Mac_Intel_x86-64-modern benchmark: 794087 Nodes/second. Depending on the speed of your computer, the benchmark results you will see may differ from those I presented. The most suitable version of Stockfish will be the one that will allow to run, work without problems and will be the fastest. To get Stockfish compiler information, after launching it, type the compiler command and confirm with Enter. The file command can also be helpful. If you are in the process of choosing another chess engine that does not offer the bench command, then the gradation of engine speed is this: vnni512, vnni256, avx512, avxvnni Are the fastest and strongest versions. bmi2, avx2 Very fast and strong versions. popcnt, popc, pop, modern, sse41, sse4.1, sse4.2, ... Are the versions that provide good speed and strength. ssse3, sse3 Are the versions that provide average speed and strength. x86-64, x64, amd64, sse2, sse, legacy Are the slower and weakest versions, but provide maximum compatibility allowing the engine to run even on the oldest 64-bit Mac. I have described the most important of these, which are the most commonly used and have the biggest impact on the best choice of chess engine. That's the end of How to. Congratulations! You've chosen the right version for your Apple Intel-based Mac. Always download chess engines from safe places on the web with a good and established reputation. In the Files area you will find free chess engines for download.

x86-64, pop, popcnt, win-32bit, Intel, x86-32, arm64, amd64, modern, vnni, old, bmi2, m1, apple silicon, sse4, pgo, pext, ... ?, .... ?!, .....?? What is this all about ? Why all these symbols ? What are the markings needed for ? I just want to use the right chess engine for my computer, and it should work ! And you're right, that's how it should be. But it usually isn't. How-To is intended for inexperienced users. The chess engine should run without any fuss on your computer. You use Linux, download the engine for that operating system, install it in your favorite GUI, and it should work. And you shouldn't care if your Linux is 32 or 64 bit, or if your processor is Intel, AMD or another eg. from the ARM family. The engine should work. But... this is usually not the case! When you use friendly chess software that automatically selects the right chess engine for your computer, then it is as it should be. Technology should help, make it easier, make it convenient to use the capabilities of the software and the chess engine. When you wish to use, for example, the offer of a well-known commercial engine manufacturer or the benefits of open source, download a free chess engine and use it, you should often know which version to choose. Otherwise, you will be left with the trial-and-error method or searching for answers on the Internet. From the perspective of the last few decades, although chess engines are at an increasingly high level, their manufacturers and developers still force ordinary users into undesirable choices. You buy or download a free chess engine, it should run on your computer without any compilation. That's how it should be... Why is this important ? Because if you choose wrongly, at worst the chess engine will not work, and at best the chess engine will work and play at a lower level and with less power than it could. This How to is intended to give you the knowledge that will enable you to choose the most suitable chess engine for your Linux. We will use the official version of the Stockfish chess engine to show all the nuances of the selection. Always download chess engines from safe places on the web with a good and established reputation. Before I start this How to for good, I will write that if you have obtained a chess engine from a safe source, you are an inexperienced user, and you want to have a working chess engine quickly and easily, then: first choose the version with avx2 in the name, because it's giving significant extra speed and power for most 64-bit computers made since 2013 (AMD or Intel CPU's). or... just run one by one and see if it works :) Contrary to what you might think, this is a relatively safe way to check the acquired chess engine(s), but not the least effective one, since even if any of them will allow you to run and work, it will not be optimally selected for your computer. Nevertheless, it is a way. It is worth knowing that the chess engine: Designed for a specific operating system, such as Linux, by default will not work under any other, such as Mac or Windows. Designed for a specific architecture usually will not work on another architecture, e.g. Linux x86-64 will not work on Linux arm64 and vice versa. There are some exceptions here, e.g., the ability to run Windows 32-bit engines on Windows 64-bit, the ability to run Mac engines compiled for older Intel processors in a Mac environment with an Apple Silicon processor, and so on. Let's move on to the substance. #1 The choice starts with a simple thing - choosing a chess engine for Linux. From the dedicated page you can download Stockfish 15. 1 or directly - below. If you are using Linux, choose the engine for Linux. If you are using Linux, do not get the engine for Mac. If you are using Linux, do not get the engine for Windows. etc. #2 Now you should choose the version suitable for your Linux. If the version of your Linux distribution is based on ARM architecture, then choose Stockfish-15.1_Linux_ARM.7z If the version of your Linux distribution is based on x64 architecture (64 bit), then choose Stockfish-15.1_Linux_x64.7z If you don't know what Linux distribution you're using, go to the Linux Handbook page. What happens if you choose wrong ? Stockfish will not start. #2.1 If you are using ARM-based Linux, then when you open the Stockfish-15.1_Linux_ARM.7z archive, you will see the following: Given the specifications of your ARM-based Linux, the choice is easy: Stockfish-15.1_Linux_ARM. Chess engines for Linux with ARM processor may also have additions in the name: arm32, arm64 armv7, armv7-neon, armv8 arrch32, arrch64 Today's chess engine compilations for ARM-based Linux are mostly in 64-bit architecture. To get Stockfish compiler information, after launching it, type the compiler command and confirm with Enter. The file command can also be helpful. Stockfish armv8 will be better than the armv7 version. Stockfish arm64 will be better than the arm32 version. etc. The most suitable version of Stockfish will be the one that will allow to run, work without problems and will be the fastest. That's the end of How to. Congratulations! You've chosen the right version for your ARM-based Linux. #2.2. If you are using x64-based Linux, then when you open the Stockfish-15.1_Linux_x64.7z archive, you will see the following: Open and choose the stockfish_15.1_linux_x64 folder if you are using an old computer. By old computer I mean a machine from 2007 or older. In this folder is stockfish-ubuntu-20.04-x86-64 which, although the slowest and weakest, is designed to run on x64-based Linux. Now, I offer you a little experiment. Please check the other versions of Stockfish to see if they will run on your computer and to see which one is the fastest. Stockfish, which has bmi2 in its name, will probably be the fastest and strongest version for your computer. Stockfish, which has avx2 in its name, will probably be of very similar speed and strength to the bmi2 version. Stockfish that has popcnt or modern in its name will probably be a slower than the bmi2 and avx2 versions but faster (from a few to several percent) and stronger than the stockfish-ubuntu-20.04-x86-64 version. How exactly to check which of the above-mentioned versions is the fastest ? Run Stockfish, type the bench command and press Enter key. By doing so, you will launch the Stockfish internal benchmark, which will present the result on the screen after a while. If Stockfish does not start, it means that this version is not supported by your computer and you should choose another one. Here is the result of the stockfish-ubuntu-20.04-x86-64 benchmark: 432827 Nodes/second. Here is the result of the stockfish-ubuntu-20.04-x86-64-modern benchmark: 511564 Nodes/second. Depending on the speed of your x64-based Linux, the benchmark results you will see may differ from those I presented. The most suitable version of Stockfish will be the one that will allow to run, work without problems and will be the fastest. To get Stockfish compiler information, after launching it, type the compiler command and confirm with Enter. The file command can also be helpful. If you are in the process of choosing another Linux chess engine that does not offer the bench command, then the gradation of engine speed is this: vnni512, vnni256, avx512, avxvnni Are the fastest and strongest versions. bmi2, avx2 Very fast and strong versions. popcnt, popc, pop, modern, sse41, sse4.1, sse4.2, ... Are the versions that provide good speed and strength. ssse3, sse3 Are the versions that provide average speed and strength. x86-64, x64, amd64, sse2, sse, legacy Are the slower and weakest versions, but provide maximum compatibility allowing the engine to run even on the oldest 64-bit Linux. I have described the most important of these, which are the most commonly used and have the biggest impact on the best choice of chess engine. That's the end of How to. Congratulations! You've chosen the right version for your x64-based Linux. Always download chess engines from safe places on the web with a good and established reputation. In the Files area you will find free chess engines for download.

I am pleased to welcome another strong chess engine that has arrived for Linux and Mac platforms. Source: GitHub Viridithas is a free and open source chess engine written in the Rust language. It is the successor to the original Viridithas. Also available for Windows. Published under the MIT License. The author is Cosmo Bobak, who, as he wrote on the project's website, is obsessed with treesearch. And this can be seen in a positive sense. Viridithas is an increasingly stronger and systematically developed chess engine. Source: CCRL Viridithas 7.0.0 made a successful MCERL debut reaching 3272 Elo after playing 700 games. Source: MCERL (ongoing) My sincere thanks to the Cosmo Bobak for preparing and sharing the source code in such a way that Viridithas can be compiled for various operating systems :) I encourage you to download Viridithas 7.0.0. Linux arm64 – Compiled by Darius Linux Intel – Compiled by Darius Mac Apple Silicon & Intel – Compiled by Darius Windows – Compiled by Darius

A great treat for sympathizers and users of the excellent Scid program. Scid 5.0 has been released! Source: SOURCEFORGE And in what style... author Fluvio has released a version for Linux, Mac and Windows :) It is a free under the GNU General Public License version 2.0 (GPLv2). Scid is a very good program in its class and besides the commercial Chess Assistant and ChessBase it has no real competition. It is worth mentioning that alongside Scid there is also a separately developed Scid vs. PC (Scid vs. Mac); both come from the same source. In this course: Linux for Chess Part 3 - Installing chess software in Debian 11 I wrote a few sentences about the Scid program: " (...) Scid is a program - the "older brother" of Scid vs. PC. More or less since 2009 Scid vs. PC has gone its own way introducing new features. Scid is also develop and mainly focused on working with large chess databases and using chess engines. " On the blog chessengeria.eu, you will find content related to the Scid / Scid vs. PC program. Due to the fact that the ways of using both Scid programs are similar, you will get the most information from the free courses consisting of five parts describing the following topics: Efficient work with a chess database Preparing for an opponent Annotating games Using chess engines Search Masterfully Here are some screenshots of the Scid 5.0 program taken on Linux Ubuntu 22-04-lts-arm64. You can download for free Scid 5.0 from the project website.

Winter is an UCI compliant open source chess engine by Jonathan Rosenthal, written in C++, released under the terms of GPL Version 3. Source: GitHub It is an actively developed chess engine that is more powerful with each successive version. Within the MCERL, we have two versions of the Winter. Source: MCERL (ongoing) And they will soon be joined by the latest Winter 2.0. Here is what the author wrote about the new major release: " The primary change in this major release is due to more self play data to train a better network. Holes in elementary endgames have been closed, so play in many of those positions should be noticeably better. Windows binaries will be released soon! Self play results in DFRC bullet testing: Winter v2.0 vs Winter v1.0 ELO | 100.40 +- 7.99 (95%) CONF | 40.0+0.40s Threads=1 Hash=64MB GAMES | N: 5000 W: 2344 L: 938 D: 1718 " Source: GitHub According to the author, Winter 2.0 will be significantly stronger than version 1.0. Feel free to download Winter-2.0 Linux Intel – Compiled by Darius Mac Apple Silicon & Intel – Compiled by Darius Windows – Compiled by Darius

I'm not a Crafty fan... I have been out of the way with it for more than 20 years. There is always something that makes me sigh deeply when chess engine Crafty and I have something to do together. I cannot use the latest Crafty via UCI, a convenient protocol used by the vast majority of chess engines. As a result, I can't easily use Crafty in my favorite chess GUI to take advantage of its capabilities. Compiling Crafty for modern computers is not easy, fast or fun. On the contrary. And once you manage to compile or obtain a working version, Crafty having winning positions can lose few games in a row to weaker opponents. Crafty has always gone its own way... I fell in love with computer chess about 25 years ago. I follow the struggles of chess engines on the website of Mr. Valentin Albillo with blazing eyes. Those were technologically very different times; it didn't bother me that connecting to the Internet sometimes takes several minutes, and when it did, it took even longer to load one page :) It was then, a quarter of a century ago, when I didn't have access to commercial chess programs such as Chess Genius, Chess Master, Fritz, Rebel, Chess Tiger, Nimzo and many others - that I had at my disposal free Crafty chess engine... In those days, Crafty, in its peculiar and crafty way, showed commercial competitors how to play chess effectively and solve chess puzzles by finding apt solutions in ever-shorter times. Crafty was under intense development at the time; it was better and stronger from version to version, allowing it to deal more and more with studies and competitors. And it had many of them, and the best of the best. Crafty has always gone its own way.... and often achieved excellent results. As a free chess engine, he repeatedly left such chess champions as Junior, Hiarcs, Zappa, Rebel, Thinker, Ruffian or even multiple World Champion Shredder defeated. It won important tournaments (CCT1, CCT5, CCT6) and took top spots in the World Computer Chess Championship. Source: CPW As if that wasn't enough, Crafty was an open-source chess engine. Of course, there were readily available versions of Crafty in the form of binaries for every popular and also niche operating system. Any interested person could download the source code for free and be inspired by ideas from one of the best chess engines at the time! And the inspirers were many... I would like to emphasize, 25 or 20 years ago - it was a different reality of computer chess. The vast majority of chess software was commercial, for which you had to pay heavily. Most chess engines, especially the best ones, were sewn into commercial programs - and only through those programs could you access them. Source: Chess page of Valentin Albillo on web.archive.org Crafty went its own way and forged new ones; it pioneered the use of new programming techniques. That increased the speed of that chess engine and had the effect of significantly increasing its power. In 2010, in an interview with Frank Quisinsky, Tord Romstad author of the Glaurung chess engine, on the basis of which Stockfish was later developed, described Crafty as "arguably the most important and influential chess program ever". As a lover of computer chess, decades after my first time with Crafty, I would venture to say that... Without Crafty the world of computer chess would not be the same as it is today. Crafty was the only one that had such a great impact that it inspired the creation and development of hundreds of chess engines. And this is still the case today, as can be seen by reading, for example, the thanks of programmers paid to the author of Crafty, an engine that even today inspires the best. Who is behind this, who is the author of the Crafty chess engine ? Professor Dr. Robert Hyatt. Source: Crafty Computer Chess program web page It is thanks to him that Crafty was and is free; reached so many programmers who had the opportunity to get acquainted with its source code for free. That is the power of Open Source !! The power that comes from openness, from the willingness to share with others; can make people unite around a specific goal. This is the force that took Stockfish so high, to a skyrocketing level no longer attainable by other commercial chess engines. At the beginning of this post, I jokingly "complained" about good old and gold Crafty... Crafty is what it is. And it doesn't need to be different, it doesn't need to change. It is a unique chess engine that has forever left its mark on computer chess. Do you know... That Crafty run from the command line (terminal, cmd, etc.) gives you an extended help system ? After typing help and pressing the return key, dozens of commands will appear with a description. When you type help and the name of the command, such as help analyze, Crafty displays a more detailed description of use and operation. In the early days when Crafty was developed, graphical interfaces (GUIs) were seen by some as a colorful fad that hindered the use of a chess engine. If I had to choose one chess engine having only an old and slow computer that cannot handle even the simplest graphical environment, I would choose Crafty. Only this chess engine would provide me with comfortable use via a text terminal. How strong is Crafty today ? Source: CCRL More than 3000 Elo for an engine that hasn't been actively developed for years, a good result. Crafty was developed at a time when computers were even much slower than their modern counterparts. Significantly, that is, not 2, 5 or 20 times. Today's home computers have computing power hundreds of times greater than the server rooms of the time. Crafty was equipped with a great deal of chess knowledge backed by algorithms that were innovative for the time. That's where Crafty's strength came from. Even today, Crafty has an amazing ability to create very good and often winning positions for itself. No matter who its opponent is. Over the years of using Crafty, I formed the habit of verifying entire games and positions by Crafty, which suggested, for example, interesting ideas in openings, plans for further forcing the game of strategically complex positions. Ok, so let's see Crafty play its computer chess :) I will present three examples that I hope will reflect the style and ways in which the Crafty chess engine plays. Example #1 The following position is from a game between Crafty 25.3 vs EXchess 7.97b. I covered it in detail in an article on the EXchess engine. * Fen: 4r1rk/2qb1ppn/3p1b2/1p1P3P/2p1P3/PpP1B1R1/1P4QN/1B4RK w - - 5 34 Crafty having white, developed a big advantage and lost the game.... in a few moves. The game is worth watching, as up to Crafty's 33rd move in a model way shows how piece by piece he gains an advantage over its opponent, who de facto did not make any fat mistake! Example #2 A game between Crafty 25.3 (white) and Avalanche 1.2.0 (black). This time something to get the gray cells going. Yes, your gray cells dear reader. Please look at the chessboard for a moment and don't scroll down this article :) White's move, mate in three moves. * Fen: 5r1k/2q2pR1/r1bp1n2/n3pNN1/1p2P3/2PP3P/B4P1K/R2Q4 w - - 1 43 Avalanche is an engine well over 2900 Elo. Winning against it in such a style was no accident. Leading up to the black King's mat begins the elegant Queen's maneuver 43. Qh5+!! The next forcing moves are 43... Nxh5 44.Rh7+ Kg8 and 45.Nh6#. When everything goes according to Crafty's plan, it can play very impressively. Example #3 In this skirmish, in which Crafty commands the black, its opponent is an engine from another era of computer chess - Lc0 - a result of modern thought and technology involving the gigantic computing power of the community centered around this engine. This battle Crafty wins in a style that the best would not be ashamed of. Lc0's last move was 29. Bb4. An equal but very dynamic position, created after playing the opening - the French defense. Abounding in a huge number of possibilities for both sides, and interestingly enough, a pair of Bishops versus a pair of Knights will face each other. * Fen: k1r4r/3b1p2/p3p3/1pqpP1P1/1B1n1P2/P2BNn2/KRP2Q1P/1R6 b - - 9 29 29...Qa7! Crafty responds with the best possible move, which gives black a chance to gain an advantage. And although still at this point both sides have equal chances, Crafty has created the so-called critical position. Lc0 should respond as good as possible, because if it doesn't then in such a dynamic situation its chances of a fine outcome of the game will start to decline. * Fen: k1r4r/q2b1p2/p3p3/1p1pP1P1/1B1n1P2/P2BNn2/KRP2Q1P/1R6 w - - 10 30 30. Rh1?! Lc0 did not choose the best move. It was necessary to move Bishop to a5 to block a possible move by black Pawn to that square. Although it is seemingly not apparent, Rook's move to defend the white Pawn was a fat strategic error. * Fen: k1r4r/q2b1p2/p3p3/1p1pP1P1/1B1n1P2/P2BNn2/KRP2Q1P/7R b - - 11 30 30...a5 Crafty gains wind in sails. * Fen: k1r4r/q2b1p2/4p3/pp1pP1P1/1B1n1P2/P2BNn2/KRP2Q1P/7R w - - 0 31 32...b3 After the exchange of Pawns, Crafty continues to open the position. * Fen: k1r4r/q2b1p2/3Bp3/3pP1P1/3n1P2/1p1BNn2/1RP2Q1P/1K5R w - - 0 34 34...Rc3! Position open, Crafty brings a heavy figure into the white King's zone. * Fen: k6r/q2b1p2/3Bp3/3pP1P1/3n1P2/1PrBNn2/1R3Q1P/1K5R w - - 1 35 38...Rxe3! Can Lc0 forces be taken away with impunity ? Yes, it is possible when you have Rook on a battle rampage and the support of such a great pair of Knights! * Fen: k6r/q4P2/3Bp3/3pP3/b2n1P2/4rn2/R4Q1P/K6R w - - 0 39 39...Ne1! Lc0 can't escape Knight's check on c2. To defend the white King material losses are inevitable. * Fen: k6r/q4P2/3Bp3/3pP3/b2n1P2/4r3/R4Q1P/KR2n3 w - - 2 40 44...Qxf2 Crafty seals its victory by triumphantly killing the white Queen. * Fen: k6r/5P2/3Bp3/3pP3/b4P2/8/RK2nq1P/8 w - - 0 45 51...Qa3# And although Lc0 made a new Queen, Crafty ended the game impressively - with even material on both sides. It was a nice game, wasn't it ? Here is Crafty, a crafty chess engine that can win against anyone. Possessor of the rare ability to create critical and winning positions. Sometimes a bit overconfident, which adds to the charm of its playing style. I'm not a Crafty fan... I'm a big Crafty fan. If by some miracle you haven't dealt with Crafty yet, I encourage you - get to know each other. This acquaintance can be for years :) I would like to take this opportunity to express my respect for Professor Dr. Robert Hyatt's work on the Crafty chess engine, for all that he has done for several decades for the chess community. Thank you! From where can I download Crafty ? Valters Baumanis has written his own Crafty Chess interface and it is available for free in a Windows version to download from here. This GUI, although having nice capabilities, is a 2015 version; it may cause compatibility problems on the latest Windows. Foremost, I suggest downloading the Crafty chess engine from the pages of its co-authors. There you will find binaries and source codes. Crafty Computer Chess program web page Michael Byrne GitHub page Unfortunately, the binaries hosted there are several years old, so not all of them may work on the latest operating systems. That's why for your convenience I've included compilations for modern operating systems below. Android – Compiled by Archimedes Linux Intel – Compiled by Darius Linux Arm64 – Compiled by Darius Mac Apple Silicon & Intel – Compiled by Darius Windows – Compiled by Darius Note for Windows users: If you will want to use Crafty 25.3 in a GUI that supports only the UCI protocol (e.g. Fritz), I suggest using an adapter by Odd Gunnar Malin called Wb2Uci (Winboard to UCI) for this purpose. You can download it via the Crafty Chess Interface Wiki. * Diagrams generated using ChessBase 17.

I invite you, to read the results and summary of MCERL - Mac Chess Engines Rating List, in the first month of this year. Without further ado: new engines, the most powerful ones, those under development, the visible work of the Creators and determination to develop. Feel welcome to read :)

Ethereal 14.00 is a chess engine whose source code can be downloaded for free, and chess engine with neural network can also be purchased. Source: GitHub The author, Mr. Andrew Grant at the time when chess engines using neural networks began to be released, quoted from CPW: "(...) initially announced his withdrawal from Ethereal development with the release of Ethereal V12.75 [4] and Ethereal 12.75 SF-NNUE" and "(...) Andrew Grant, however, opted for a different direction and announced the commercial release of Ethereal 13.00 (NNUE)". Ethereal 14.00 is an open source chess engine under the GNU GPL 3 license, the source code of which is downloadable from the GitHub page, and it does not contain a neural network. There is also Ethereal 14.00, which can be obtained by purchasing it from this page and it contains a neural network. The free Ethereal 14.00 without a neural network is noticeably weaker than the commercial Ethereal 14.00 that contains a neural network. I'm curious what you think about this approach. The comments section is at your disposal / I am also open to correspondence via email. I make no secret of the fact that I like Ethereal's style of play; and when it was still possible to use it seamlessly on Macs, it was a frequent visitor to my chess arenas. Unfortunately, recent commercial versions of Ethereal do not support other devices besides Windows and Linux. This is a pity, as there are many chess enthusiasts interested in the Ethereal chess engine on for eg. their Mac (about devices using ARM processors I won't even mention). In my opinion, if one is willing and able to afford it, then it is worth supporting good commercial chess engines and software. There are fewer and fewer of them and they are less and less real competition for open source software. I do it myself and enjoy every new release. I wish I could write the same about the Ethereal chess engine. Thank you very much to the author of the Ethereal chess engine for sharing the source code, and... Feel free to download Ethereal 14.00 (does not include neural network). Android – Compiled by Archimedes Linux arm64 & x64 – Compiled by Darius Windows x64 – Compiled by Darius In the Files area you will find free chess engines for download.

Analysis, compilation, testing of chess engines... How about something "lighter caliber" this time? Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate is the work of a small studio called PUNKCAKE Delicieux. Imagine chess, but the king of the black figures was such a bastard that all his subjects deserted him and only his shotgun remained. Here's Shotgun King, which is a chess, turn-based tactical game with a roguelike jam, in which we move the king with a double-barrelled shotgun and smash an army of white figures on successive boards. The game is stylized as games from the 80/90s displayed on a convex old TV, which undoubtedly adds to its charm. The intention of the Developers was to make the game humorous, which, in my opinion, they succeeded; and this can be seen even in the description of the system requirements: Source: GOG The game only needs Windows 7, of course it also works on newer versions. The King's shotgun has a spread that wounds groups of enemies, and the goal on each board is to slaughter the enemy monarch. When we "kill" a Bishop, Rook or other figure, we acquire its soul and can move in one turn as the "killed" figure moves. The game is a roguelike, in which we beat a succession of increasingly difficult boards, and between them, we choose modifiers offered to us in pairs of positive and negative, such as poisoning the queen, which shortens her range of movement, and a descendant pawn replacing the enemy king after his death. On each board the game will protect us from moves that would kill us twice, but imprudent moves end in death and starting the game all over again. The game has mini-campaigns and an infinite mode. Shotgun King has a cool old-school design, great music and a brilliant concept. Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate Trailer It is highly rated by players (gog & steam). I also liked the game and captured it with the fact that the sessions last on average a few minutes just for pleasant relaxation. SK: TFC is relatively inexpensive: 10$. Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate is definitely worth a look, and has a demo downloadable from the game page. Start in your own way to make order on the chessboard with a shotgun ;) If you like, you can buy it for from: the developer website GOG Steam You can also get it by supporting Delicieux's PUNKCAKE studio through its Patreon page. In the Files area you will find free chess engines for download.

A mysterious free open source engine that is quiet on the internet and in the ratings lists... The author of this engine, Mr Rui Coelho publishes Pawn under the GNU General Public License v3.0. And although it is available, for reasons unknown to me, only little information can be found about this chess engine. Pawn is "a UCI alpha-beta chess engine, largely inspired by Stockfish". Pawn is a strong "pawn" playing at around 3200 Elo! Source: MCERL (ongoing) It is worth adding that the source code provided by the author, is so excellently written that it allows seamless compilation for popular operating systems. And this is commendable, because - as attentive readers of this blog have probably noticed - I like it when chess engines are available to a wide audience and chess enthusiasts. Pawn has considerable configuration capabilities and uses advanced chess techniques, here are some information from the GitHub page: " UCI Options The following UCI options are supported: Hash Size of the Hash Table, in MB (defaults to 16). Threads Number of threads to use during search (defaults to 1). MultiPV Number of principal variations (PV) to search (defaults to 1). This should be kept at 1 for best performance. Ponder Allow the engine to think during the opponent's move (defaults to false). This requires the GUI to send the appropriate go ponder. Furthermore, the following non-standard commands are available: board - show representation of the current board; eval - print some of the evaluation terms; test - test the move generation, transposition tables, move orderers and legality checks of the engine; bench - search a set of positions to obtain a signature. Optionally, the following syntax is available: bench depth threads hash. By default, calling bench is equivalent to bench 13 1 16. go perft depth - do the perft node count for the current position at depth depth. Main Features Board representation Bitboard representation (with GCC builtin bitscan and popcount) Magic numbers for slider move generation Staged move generation for captures and quiet moves Evaluation Tapered evaluation Material and Piece-square tables (incrementally updated) Basic pawn structure Mobility Per-piece bonuses King safety Search Principal Variation Search in a negamax framework Quiescence search with SEE MultiPV search Transposition Tables Aspiration Windows Late move reductions Null-move pruning Singular and check extensions Futility pruning Mate distance pruning Basic Lazy SMP threading Move Ordering MVV-LVA move ordering for captures Killer moves and countermoves Quiet move ordering History heuristic with butterfly and piece-to boards " If anyone knows more about Pawn, it would be great if they shared this information in the comments section. Feel free to download Linux and Mac – Compiled by Darius Update 2023-01-22 Due to the unstable performance of the Pawn chess engine in a Windows environment, and out of concern for user convenience, I have decided to remove this chess engine from the Files area until the author has fixed it. I apologize for the inconvenience. The next version of the Pawn chess engine if it runs stably in a Windows environment, then I will make this engine available for download from the Files area.

You have chosen a chess engine for your Mac. You intend to download it or have already done so. But... you have never used a chess engine downloaded from the Internet before. How to do it ? Will the chess engine work ? What should you pay attention to ? I will answer these and other questions in this How-to. How-To was prepared for users of macOS Ventura and newer operating systems. Users of macOS Monterey & previous are invited here. How-To is intended for inexperienced users. Was written in such a way that anyone willing after reading it will be able to run a chess engine downloaded from the web. Millions of Macs are in use around the world. Macs have a reputation for being among the most secure. They are also stable, fast, quiet and energy efficient. Why not to use Macs for computer chess, for analysis and playing chess engines, for training and playing online ? Nothing stands in the way. For Macs, there is a lot of excellent software for all kinds of chess applications. It is worth using the best, strongest, most versatile and interesting chess engines together with good software. And they are available for Mac :) You can learn more from the article: Tools in a chess player's workshop - Mac Always download chess engines from safe places on the web with a good and established reputation. For starters, the good news is that getting the Chess Engine ready to run on your Mac is very easy. As you become practiced, it will literally take you seconds :) Koivisto, Lc0, Stockfish, RubiChess, MadChess, Velvet - these are just a few examples of notable and popular chess engines that you can download for free from the Files section and use on your Mac. There is the award-winning, unique and versatile Dragon by Komodo Chess. One of the few commercial chess engines that is worth its price. And it is available for Mac to download from the manufacturer's website. And finally, there is also Berserk - a powerful and free open source chess engine to which I dedicated a separate page on my blog. Using the Berserk chess engine as an example, I will show you how to run the chess engine on Mac. You can download the Berserk chess engine from the Files section. The Berserk chess engine and other related files (e.g. logos) are placed in a 7-Zip archive. This is to reduce the volume of downloaded files. Your Mac has a pre-built 7-Zip archive decompression tool. You don't need to install an additional application to support 7-Zip. By default, your web browser (e.g. Safari, Firefox, Chrome) should download Berserk to the Downloads directory on your Mac. After double-clicking on the icon of the downloaded chess engine, the archive will be unpacked and a directory with the same name will appear. When you enter the newly created directory (double-click it), you will see the contents. At this point you should choose the version of the chess engine you intend to use. The chess engine, which has the Apple Silicon in its name, is designed for Macs equipped with the M1, M1 Max, M2, ... CPU (see Wikipedia for details). In this case, it will be: Berserk-10_Mac_Apple_Silicon The chess engine, which has Intel in its name, is designed for Macs equipped with an Intel CPU (see Apple Wiki for details). In this case, it will be: Berserk-10_Mac_Intel To quickly check what CPU your Mac is equipped with, click on the apple icon, which is at the top left of the screen. Now click on About This Mac In the newly displayed window, you will find the symbol of your CPU (Chip). Good to know: Macs with Apple Silicon CPUs are in most cases able to use chess engines compiled for Intel-based Macs. If successful, the same engine in the Intel version will be slightly slower than the same engine natively compiled for Apple Silicon CPUs. This is a difference of up to a few % in speed. Macs with Intel CPUs are not able to use the chess engine compiled for Macs with Apple Silicon CPUs. Now, it is time to give the chess engine the rights to run. We will open a program called Terminal. Click the magnifying glass icon, which is in the upper right corner of the screen. The Spotlight search engine window will open. Find the search field... ...type terminal and press the Enter key. Below the window, where the directory with the Berserk chess engine is located, the Terminal program window will open. On macOS (and in other systems, such as Linux, Android and Windows), 99.9% of chess engines have an executable attribute, which allows you to simply run them and use them for your own purposes. Sometimes, in order for a chess engine to run, it must be given the executable attribute. Regardless of whether the engine has this execute attribute or not, it never hurts to give it. It is a very simple and quick action. In the terminal window, type chmod +x press the Spacebar and click on the engine icon appropriate for your Mac. While holding down the mouse button, drag the Chess Engine icon to the Terminal field. Then release the mouse button. If your Mac has an Intel processor, then you should select Berserk-10_Mac_Intel. I chose Berserk-10_Mac_Apple_Silicon because the Mac I'm using has an M1 CPU from the Apple Silicon family. Press the Enter key. Excellent. The executable attribute has been given to the chess engine. This is important because macOS, when working with this chess engine, will "know" that it is a program and not, for example, an image or sound file. Now we are going to try the chess engine for the first time. For your Mac, this will mean trying to run a program from outside the App Store. Taking care of security, by default macOS is configured in such a way that in case of just such an attempt, an appropriate prompt will be issued. And this is what we mean, because we will make it so that the Mac always accepts this chess engine. Again, click on the chess engine icon and drag and drop it onto the Terminal program window. Press the Enter key. The mentioned prompt is displayed. Confirm by clicking on the OK button. The chess engine will not be started. Don't worry about it. Everything is fine - this is normal macOS behavior to ensure the security of the system and data on your computer. To authorize the chess engine to run, we will enter the system settings. Click on the apple icon in the upper left corner and then select System Settings.... Go to Privacy & Security and in the Security section click on Allow Anyway. In the newly opened window, enter the password for this account you are using on your Mac. This is done to unlock access to changes in the Security section. Click on the Unlock button. Good. You have unlocked access to changes in system settings. Click on the Allow Anyway button again. Enter the password for your account. And click Modify Settings button. Excellent! In the Security section, the prompt regarding the launch of the chess engine has disappeared. You can now close the system settings window. Go back to the Chess engine and Terminal windows. Click, drag and drop the chess engine into the Terminal window. Press the Enter key. In the newly opened window, click on the Open button. Has the chess engine been started ? Let's check it by typing in the terminal window: uci Press the Enter key. It is working! The chess engine works :) The engine reports its readiness for operation. Congratulations, you did all the steps very well :) Now you can close the Terminal window or type: quit (Enter key) The chess engine has been turned off. Your Mac will no longer warn you to run this chess engine, because you have authorized it in your system settings. That's the end of this How-To. Here are some examples of using the Berserk chess engine. Berserk 10 & Banksia GUI Berserk 10 & Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro Berserk 10 & Scid vs. Mac Always download chess engines from safe places on the web with a good and established reputation. I wish you a successful hunt for chess engines :) In the Files area you will find free chess engines for download.