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https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish

A free and strong UCI chess engine
https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish

chess chess-engine cpp stockfish uci

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A free and strong UCI chess engine

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README 

        



  [![Stockfish][stockfish128-logo]][website-link]



  
Stockfish



  A free and strong UCI chess engine.

  


  [Explore Stockfish docs »][wiki-link]

  


  


  [Report bug][issue-link]

  ·

  [Open a discussion][discussions-link]

  ·

  [Discord][discord-link]

  ·

  [Blog][website-blog-link]



  [![Build][build-badge]][build-link]

  [![License][license-badge]][license-link]

  


  [![Release][release-badge]][release-link]

  [![Commits][commits-badge]][commits-link]

  


  [![Website][website-badge]][website-link]

  [![Fishtest][fishtest-badge]][fishtest-link]

  [![Discord][discord-badge]][discord-link]






## Overview



[Stockfish][website-link] is a **free and strong UCI chess engine** derived from

Glaurung 2.1 that analyzes chess positions and computes the optimal moves.



Stockfish **does not include a graphical user interface** (GUI) that is required

to display a chessboard and to make it easy to input moves. These GUIs are

developed independently from Stockfish and are available online. **Read the

documentation for your GUI** of choice for information about how to use

Stockfish with it.



See also the Stockfish [documentation][wiki-usage-link] for further usage help.



## Files



This distribution of Stockfish consists of the following files:



  * [README.md][readme-link], the file you are currently reading.



  * [Copying.txt][license-link], a text file containing the GNU General Public

    License version 3.



  * [AUTHORS][authors-link], a text file with the list of authors for the project.



  * [src][src-link], a subdirectory containing the full source code, including a

    Makefile that can be used to compile Stockfish on Unix-like systems.



  * a file with the .nnue extension, storing the neural network for the NNUE

    evaluation. Binary distributions will have this file embedded.



## Contributing



__See [Contributing Guide](CONTRIBUTING.md).__



### Donating hardware



Improving Stockfish requires a massive amount of testing. You can donate your

hardware resources by installing the [Fishtest Worker][worker-link] and viewing

the current tests on [Fishtest][fishtest-link].



### Improving the code



In the [chessprogramming wiki][programming-link], many techniques used in

Stockfish are explained with a lot of background information.

The [section on Stockfish][programmingsf-link] describes many features

and techniques used by Stockfish. However, it is generic rather than

focused on Stockfish's precise implementation.



The engine testing is done on [Fishtest][fishtest-link].

If you want to help improve Stockfish, please read this [guideline][guideline-link]

first, where the basics of Stockfish development are explained.



Discussions about Stockfish take place these days mainly in the Stockfish

[Discord server][discord-link]. This is also the best place to ask questions

about the codebase and how to improve it.



## Compiling Stockfish



Stockfish has support for 32 or 64-bit CPUs, certain hardware instructions,

big-endian machines such as Power PC, and other platforms.



On Unix-like systems, it should be easy to compile Stockfish directly from the

source code with the included Makefile in the folder `src`. In general, it is

recommended to run `make help` to see a list of make targets with corresponding

descriptions. An example suitable for most Intel and AMD chips:



```

cd src

make -j profile-build

```



Detailed compilation instructions for all platforms can be found in our

[documentation][wiki-compile-link]. Our wiki also has information about

the [UCI commands][wiki-uci-link] supported by Stockfish.



## Terms of use



Stockfish is free and distributed under the

[**GNU General Public License version 3**][license-link] (GPL v3). Essentially,

this means you are free to do almost exactly what you want with the program,

including distributing it among your friends, making it available for download

from your website, selling it (either by itself or as part of some bigger

software package), or using it as the starting point for a software project of

your own.



The only real limitation is that whenever you distribute Stockfish in some way,

you MUST always include the license and the full source code (or a pointer to

where the source code can be found) to generate the exact binary you are

distributing. If you make any changes to the source code, these changes must

also be made available under GPL v3.



[authors-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/blob/master/AUTHORS

[build-link]:         https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/actions/workflows/stockfish.yml

[commits-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/commits/master

[discord-link]:       https://discord.gg/GWDRS3kU6R

[issue-link]:         https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/issues/new?assignees=&labels=&template=BUG-REPORT.yml

[discussions-link]:   https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/discussions/new

[fishtest-link]:      https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests

[guideline-link]:     https://github.com/official-stockfish/fishtest/wiki/Creating-my-first-test

[license-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/blob/master/Copying.txt

[programming-link]:   https://www.chessprogramming.org/Main_Page

[programmingsf-link]: https://www.chessprogramming.org/Stockfish

[readme-link]:        https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/blob/master/README.md

[release-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/releases/latest

[src-link]:           https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/tree/master/src

[stockfish128-logo]:  https://stockfishchess.org/images/logo/icon_128x128.png

[uci-link]:           https://backscattering.de/chess/uci/

[website-link]:       https://stockfishchess.org

[website-blog-link]:  https://stockfishchess.org/blog/

[wiki-link]:          https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki

[wiki-compile-link]:  https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki/Compiling-from-source

[wiki-uci-link]:      https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki/UCI-&-Commands

[wiki-usage-link]:    https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki/Download-and-usage

[worker-link]:        https://github.com/official-stockfish/fishtest/wiki/Running-the-worker



[build-badge]:        https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/official-stockfish/Stockfish/stockfish.yml?branch=master&style=for-the-badge&label=stockfish&logo=github

[commits-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/github/commits-since/official-stockfish/Stockfish/latest?style=for-the-badge

[discord-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/discord/435943710472011776?style=for-the-badge&label=discord&logo=Discord

[fishtest-badge]:     https://img.shields.io/website?style=for-the-badge&down_color=red&down_message=Offline&label=Fishtest&up_color=success&up_message=Online&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftests.stockfishchess.org%2Ftests%2Ffinished

[license-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/github/license/official-stockfish/Stockfish?style=for-the-badge&label=license&color=success

[release-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/official-stockfish/Stockfish?style=for-the-badge&label=official%20release

[website-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/website?style=for-the-badge&down_color=red&down_message=Offline&label=website&up_color=success&up_message=Online&url=https%3A%2F%2Fstockfishchess.org