git.sesse.net Git - stockfish/blob - README.md

   1 <div align="center">
   2
   3   [![Stockfish][stockfish128-logo]][website-link]
   4
   5   <h3>Stockfish</h3>
   6
   7   A free and strong UCI chess engine.
   8   <br>
   9   <strong>[Explore Stockfish docs »][wiki-link]</strong>
  10   <br>
  11   <br>
  12   [Report bug][issue-link]
  13   ·
  14   [Open a discussion][discussions-link]
  15   ·
  16   [Discord][discord-link]
  17   ·
  18   [Blog][website-blog-link]
  19
  20   [![Build][build-badge]][build-link]
  21   [![License][license-badge]][license-link]
  22   <br>
  23   [![Release][release-badge]][release-link]
  24   [![Commits][commits-badge]][commits-link]
  25   <br>
  26   [![Website][website-badge]][website-link]
  27   [![Fishtest][fishtest-badge]][fishtest-link]
  28   [![Discord][discord-badge]][discord-link]
  29
  30 </div>
  31
  32 ## Overview
  33
  34 [Stockfish][website-link] is a **free and strong UCI chess engine** derived from
  35 Glaurung 2.1 that analyzes chess positions and computes the optimal moves.
  36
  37 Stockfish **does not include a graphical user interface** (GUI) that is required
  38 to display a chessboard and to make it easy to input moves. These GUIs are
  39 developed independently from Stockfish and are available online. **Read the
  40 documentation for your GUI** of choice for information about how to use
  41 Stockfish with it.
  42
  43 See also the Stockfish [documentation][wiki-usage-link] for further usage help.
  44
  45 ## Files
  46
  47 This distribution of Stockfish consists of the following files:
  48
  49   * [README.md][readme-link], the file you are currently reading.
  50
  51   * [Copying.txt][license-link], a text file containing the GNU General Public
  52     License version 3.
  53
  54   * [AUTHORS][authors-link], a text file with the list of authors for the project.
  55
  56   * [src][src-link], a subdirectory containing the full source code, including a
  57     Makefile that can be used to compile Stockfish on Unix-like systems.
  58
  59   * a file with the .nnue extension, storing the neural network for the NNUE
  60     evaluation. Binary distributions will have this file embedded.
  61
  62 ## Contributing
  63
  64 __See [Contributing Guide](CONTRIBUTING.md).__
  65
  66 ### Donating hardware
  67
  68 Improving Stockfish requires a massive amount of testing. You can donate your
  69 hardware resources by installing the [Fishtest Worker][worker-link] and viewing
  70 the current tests on [Fishtest][fishtest-link].
  71
  72 ### Improving the code
  73
  74 In the [chessprogramming wiki][programming-link], many techniques used in
  75 Stockfish are explained with a lot of background information.
  76 The [section on Stockfish][programmingsf-link] describes many features
  77 and techniques used by Stockfish. However, it is generic rather than
  78 focused on Stockfish's precise implementation.
  79
  80 The engine testing is done on [Fishtest][fishtest-link].
  81 If you want to help improve Stockfish, please read this [guideline][guideline-link]
  82 first, where the basics of Stockfish development are explained.
  83
  84 Discussions about Stockfish take place these days mainly in the Stockfish
  85 [Discord server][discord-link]. This is also the best place to ask questions
  86 about the codebase and how to improve it.
  87
  88 ## Compiling Stockfish
  89
  90 Stockfish has support for 32 or 64-bit CPUs, certain hardware instructions,
  91 big-endian machines such as Power PC, and other platforms.
  92
  93 On Unix-like systems, it should be easy to compile Stockfish directly from the
  94 source code with the included Makefile in the folder `src`. In general, it is
  95 recommended to run `make help` to see a list of make targets with corresponding
  96 descriptions. An example suitable for most Intel and AMD chips:
  97
  98 ```
  99 cd src
 100 make -j profile-build ARCH=x86-64-avx2
 101 ```
 102
 103 Detailed compilation instructions for all platforms can be found in our
 104 [documentation][wiki-compile-link]. Our wiki also has information about
 105 the [UCI commands][wiki-uci-link] supported by Stockfish.
 106
 107 ## Terms of use
 108
 109 Stockfish is free and distributed under the
 110 [**GNU General Public License version 3**][license-link] (GPL v3). Essentially,
 111 this means you are free to do almost exactly what you want with the program,
 112 including distributing it among your friends, making it available for download
 113 from your website, selling it (either by itself or as part of some bigger
 114 software package), or using it as the starting point for a software project of
 115 your own.
 116
 117 The only real limitation is that whenever you distribute Stockfish in some way,
 118 you MUST always include the license and the full source code (or a pointer to
 119 where the source code can be found) to generate the exact binary you are
 120 distributing. If you make any changes to the source code, these changes must
 121 also be made available under GPL v3.
 122
 123
 124 [authors-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/blob/master/AUTHORS
 125 [build-link]:         https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/actions/workflows/stockfish.yml
 126 [commits-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/commits/master
 127 [discord-link]:       https://discord.gg/GWDRS3kU6R
 128 [issue-link]:         https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/issues/new?assignees=&labels=&template=BUG-REPORT.yml
 129 [discussions-link]:   https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/discussions/new
 130 [fishtest-link]:      https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests
 131 [guideline-link]:     https://github.com/official-stockfish/fishtest/wiki/Creating-my-first-test
 132 [license-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/blob/master/Copying.txt
 133 [programming-link]:   https://www.chessprogramming.org/Main_Page
 134 [programmingsf-link]: https://www.chessprogramming.org/Stockfish
 135 [readme-link]:        https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/blob/master/README.md
 136 [release-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/releases/latest
 137 [src-link]:           https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/tree/master/src
 138 [stockfish128-logo]:  https://stockfishchess.org/images/logo/icon_128x128.png
 139 [uci-link]:           https://backscattering.de/chess/uci/
 140 [website-link]:       https://stockfishchess.org
 141 [website-blog-link]:  https://stockfishchess.org/blog/
 142 [wiki-link]:          https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki
 143 [wiki-compile-link]:  https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki/Compiling-from-source
 144 [wiki-uci-link]:      https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki/UCI-&-Commands
 145 [wiki-usage-link]:    https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki/Download-and-usage
 146 [worker-link]:        https://github.com/official-stockfish/fishtest/wiki/Running-the-worker
 147
 148 [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
 149 [commits-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/github/commits-since/official-stockfish/Stockfish/latest?style=for-the-badge
 150 [discord-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/discord/435943710472011776?style=for-the-badge&label=discord&logo=Discord
 151 [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
 152 [license-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/github/license/official-stockfish/Stockfish?style=for-the-badge&label=license&color=success
 153 [release-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/official-stockfish/Stockfish?style=for-the-badge&label=official%20release
 154 [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