What is Reddit's opinion of Stockfish?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

> A 2009 cellphone is as powerful as Deep Blue? I know mobile phones pack quite a punch, but that is hard to believe. Could it be that Fritz' algorithm is much better?

There have been significant changes in the algorithms too, not just the raw processing power. Since we don't have the source code for Deep Blue we can't really make a comparison, but generally chess software is much better now at selecting which branches to search, and the algorithms generally have improved making the engine overall faster. Modern algorithms search far less positions than old algorithms because the pruning is much better. And they don't do "computer moves" (moves that seem good to its algorithm but aren't) nearly as much anymore.

(For those interested in looking at specifics, Stockfish is currently the top engine on the CCRL 40/4, and it's completely open source.)

So, yes, algorithms have improved significantly and it's likely that a common smartphone running Stockfish will outperform grandmasters.

Edit: still, that doesn't mean the average chess app is as good as Stockfish.

edit: see also rwbj's answer: http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2d55fx/what_have_been_the_major_advancements_in_computer/cjm8jhx

You should look into getting Tarrasch and a chess engine called Stockfish, both free. Tarrasch isn't an engine itself (although it comes with some basic ones) but it is a very nice interface, and you tell it to play/analyze with whatever engine you like (I believe Stockfish to be the best open source one). You can download or copy and paste the PGNs of your games from chess.com, hit the 'kibitz' button, and it will give you a score, and any better variations for every move.

Stockfish has an OS X version, but Tarrasch doesn't. You can technically run Stockfish on its own but it will be a command line interface and not very easy to use at all. I've never tried to do it. There's probably a free 'chess GUI' for Mac out there somewhere though.

EDIT: You're in luck, it looks like the mac version of Stockfish comes with its own interface, and it looks pretty sexy too.

Stockfish is far ahead from any player in the world

> Stockfish is one of the strongest chess engines in the world. It is also much stronger than the best human chess grandmasters.

CCRL ratings

You have a way bigger advantage in the second variant. Also it will be very hard to find a fitting ai difficulty because the skill of players varies a lot. The player will either win it really easy or he will get stomped every single time.

Maybe scaling difficulty in the last game? If you want to play against an engine today you usually limit their calculation time and the search depth. Also the currently strongest chess engine is open source: http://stockfishchess.org/

ok some things i've clearly missed....

here's how to add engines stronger than fritz if you want 2nd or 3rd opinions.

First you have to find an engine:

http://stockfishchess.org/download/

(the link takes you to a pretty good engine, its #3 on the rating list at present)

Download the engine and save it in the engines folder of fritz.

then go to engines, create UCI engine, and then in the engine box, click on the little "..." box to the right, navigate your computer and add the engine you just downloaded.

some useful engines i've appended to mine include

Komodo: found here: http://komodochess.com/downloads.php

i also have rybka 2.32 (might be a newer free one available), and houdini 1.5...

some other things you can do... is create your own opening databases.

home, file, new, new openings book. name a book.

then in the analysis menu, import games.

this can be useful for selectively importing games.

fritz also integrates with playchess, so i can look at my stats on e4 vs d4, and apparently in blitz i do better against d4 than e4, which is the opposite of over a real board.

more thing im missing im sure that can cause you to directly improve.

my personal favorite, is to take the database, select some random games with a decisive result (maybe your favorite famous player), and take the positions from where the losing player resigns.

set the clock to 10 minutes and try to beat the computer on the max setting with a "won" game. it can't always be done and i have plans on making a bigger project out of this when i run into a decent chunk of free time.

Go to http://chessx.sourceforge.net/ and download the software! (I find Arena to look horrible and be terribly confusing)

Get http://stockfishchess.org/ here!

Unzip stockfish, and start ChessX. Go to Preferences---> engines and select the stockfish file. Under "view" select "Analysis 1" and you should be ready to go.

If you happen to be on OS X, I can heartily recommend their Mac app:

http://stockfishchess.org/mac/

Doesn't have the evaluation graph you seem to like, but it's one of the simplest tools for analysis I've ever found.

I always install DroidFish Chess on my Android devices. It's a completely free and open-source port of the very powerful and also open-source Stockfish chess engine.

According to the Wikipedia article, no. Compared to a computer used in a competition in 2006, Deep Blue surpassed it's computing power by 25 times (200 million positions per second as opposed to 8), and yet the program (Deep Fritz) was better than Deep Blue efficiency wise. Note that this was in 2006, and chess programs have evolved significantly from then. If you're interested, you can run the current leader, Stockfish 5, on your own PC for free.

EvilNalu was probably referring to

http://stockfishchess.org/

> Stockfish is the strongest chess engine in the world. Period. You're getting the best-of-the-best in chess analysis.

List of best engines (link found on linked page):

http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404/

............................

Huh. Odd.

http://stockfishchess.org/download/

There is apparently no Windows application yet that uses this engine. Unbelievable. Wouldn't any developer jump to create at least a simple program that uses the engine, I mean, to fill this quite prominent hole?

The interesting thing is, Stockfish, the open source chess engine which claims to be the strongest one in the world, is not listed on that page. Why aren't there any important tournaments against open source chess engines?

Chess engine ELO rating list:

http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404/

The current world champion computer software is Stockfish - it's open source. Have a gander, help out.

Also a fantastic example of good code, even if you don't care about the chess part.

http://stockfishchess.org/

Open Jin, go to Preferences, click Game Logger, select "log to one file", bingo instant database. Play a gang of games. Go to http://stockfishchess.org, install Stockfish, find your FICS pgn database of games, open in Stockfish, analyze the shiz out of that whaz. Works!

I just did some tests. The exact same engine works flawlessly without any hanging on other UIs.

On Arena, I face the issue with any engine. I'll email the developer.

>A few months later, I noticed I could have got it paired up with a UI that works fine with it for basically the same price Stockfish is the strongest engine now. It's free too: http://stockfishchess.org

Chessmaster is dead (or 95% of the way there I guess.) Friz is OK but it is pricy.

A lot of people such as me run free engines such as the free version of Houdini (strongest engine in the world) or thew newest version of Stockfish (which is completely free regardless of through a variety of programs such as winboard or GNU chess.

Sites:

http://stockfishchess.org/ (Easiest to setup, strongest free, opensource, HIGHLY recommended)

http://vlasak.biz/critter/ Critter (the next Strongest free, moderately recommended)

http://www.cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm (strongest engine, period, as in free or not free)

Here is what I do:

I use FICS and the Babas chess client http://www.babaschess.net/ to host the engine(s) and import the PGN files (you can also play people live on the FIC Server there). The engine I use to evaluate positions is Stockfish http://stockfishchess.org/; it is a powerful open-source engine that is on par with Houdini and the other top engines. Stockfish, Houdini, or any other engine needs to be tied to your Babas client but that is easy and people on the server can help you do it quickly and easily. Once all that is done you are ready to analyze your games with a powerful chess engine!

When you finish a game, if there is an option to export to PGN you should always do that if you want to analyze it. Or you can write down the moves manually and enter them into the analysis board. Stockfish will evaluate the current position and you will be able to see lists of best moves for each situation.

Analyzing games is a big step toward improving your chess skills, but only if you do it carefully. Take time to consider the position before resorting to the chess engine for guidance.

edit: I've used Arena before and I did not like the interface. That is why I use Babas for play and analysis (both post game and PGN import)

I've tried SCIDvsMac and I just find it incomprehensible. You may want to give ChessX a try—not the easiest program either, but seems easier to use.

I haven't tried the Stockfish GUI, so I don't know if you'll need to download the plain (no GUI) version of Stockfish as well to use with ChessX. Then you configure ChessX to point at the location of Stockfish and you should be ready to go. (If you're a computer guy these instructions will be easy, if you're not they might not be...)

I just Googled Stockfish Mac app and found this: http://stockfishchess.org/mac/

It has a pretty sexy interface but as /u/unfoundable notes, it doesn't actually have very many features.

I'll check out SCIDvsMac, thanks!