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 ## The UCI protocol
  63
  64 The [Universal Chess Interface][uci-link] (UCI) is a standard text-based protocol
  65 used to communicate with a chess engine and is the recommended way to do so for
  66 typical graphical user interfaces (GUI) or chess tools. Stockfish implements the
  67 majority of its options.
  68
  69 Developers can see the default values for the UCI options available in Stockfish
  70 by typing `./stockfish uci` in a terminal, but most users should typically use a
  71 chess GUI to interact with Stockfish.
  72
  73 For more information on UCI or debug commands, see our [documentation][wiki-commands-link].
  74
  75 ## Compiling Stockfish
  76
  77 Stockfish has support for 32 or 64-bit CPUs, certain hardware instructions,
  78 big-endian machines such as Power PC, and other platforms.
  79
  80 On Unix-like systems, it should be easy to compile Stockfish directly from the
  81 source code with the included Makefile in the folder `src`. In general, it is
  82 recommended to run `make help` to see a list of make targets with corresponding
  83 descriptions. An example suitable for most Intel and AMD chips:
  84
  85 ```
  86 cd src
  87 make -j profile-build ARCH=x86-64-avx2
  88 ```
  89
  90 Detailed compilation instructions for all platforms can be found in our
  91 [documentation][wiki-compile-link].
  92
  93 ## Contributing
  94
  95 __See [Contributing Guide](./.github/CONTRIBUTING.md).__
  96
  97 ### Donating hardware
  98
  99 Improving Stockfish requires a massive amount of testing. You can donate your
 100 hardware resources by installing the [Fishtest Worker][worker-link] and viewing
 101 the current tests on [Fishtest][fishtest-link].
 102
 103 ### Improving the code
 104
 105 In the [chessprogramming wiki][programming-link], many techniques used in
 106 Stockfish are explained with a lot of background information.
 107 The [section on Stockfish][programmingsf-link] describes many features
 108 and techniques used by Stockfish. However, it is generic rather than
 109 focused on Stockfish's precise implementation.
 110
 111 The engine testing is done on [Fishtest][fishtest-link].
 112 If you want to help improve Stockfish, please read this [guideline][guideline-link]
 113 first, where the basics of Stockfish development are explained.
 114
 115 Discussions about Stockfish take place these days mainly in the Stockfish
 116 [Discord server][discord-link]. This is also the best place to ask questions
 117 about the codebase and how to improve it.
 118
 119 ## Terms of use
 120
 121 Stockfish is free and distributed under the
 122 [**GNU General Public License version 3**][license-link] (GPL v3). Essentially,
 123 this means you are free to do almost exactly what you want with the program,
 124 including distributing it among your friends, making it available for download
 125 from your website, selling it (either by itself or as part of some bigger
 126 software package), or using it as the starting point for a software project of
 127 your own.
 128
 129 The only real limitation is that whenever you distribute Stockfish in some way,
 130 you MUST always include the license and the full source code (or a pointer to
 131 where the source code can be found) to generate the exact binary you are
 132 distributing. If you make any changes to the source code, these changes must
 133 also be made available under GPL v3.
 134
 135
 136 [authors-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/blob/master/AUTHORS
 137 [build-link]:         https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/actions/workflows/stockfish.yml
 138 [commits-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/commits/master
 139 [discord-link]:       https://discord.gg/GWDRS3kU6R
 140 [issue-link]:         https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/issues/new?assignees=&labels=&template=BUG-REPORT.yml
 141 [discussions-link]:   https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/discussions/new
 142 [fishtest-link]:      https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests
 143 [guideline-link]:     https://github.com/official-stockfish/fishtest/wiki/Creating-my-first-test
 144 [license-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/blob/master/Copying.txt
 145 [programming-link]:   https://www.chessprogramming.org/Main_Page
 146 [programmingsf-link]: https://www.chessprogramming.org/Stockfish
 147 [readme-link]:        https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/blob/master/README.md
 148 [release-link]:       https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/releases/latest
 149 [src-link]:           https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/tree/master/src
 150 [stockfish128-logo]:  https://stockfishchess.org/images/logo/icon_128x128.png
 151 [uci-link]:           https://backscattering.de/chess/uci/
 152 [website-link]:       https://stockfishchess.org
 153 [website-blog-link]:  https://stockfishchess.org/blog/
 154 [wiki-link]:          https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki
 155 [wiki-usage-link]:    https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki/Download-and-usage
 156 [wiki-compile-link]:  https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki/Compiling-from-source
 157 [wiki-commands-link]: https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/wiki/Commands
 158 [worker-link]:        https://github.com/official-stockfish/fishtest/wiki/Running-the-worker
 159
 160 [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
 161 [commits-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/github/commits-since/official-stockfish/Stockfish/latest?style=for-the-badge
 162 [discord-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/discord/435943710472011776?style=for-the-badge&label=discord&logo=Discord
 163 [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
 164 [license-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/github/license/official-stockfish/Stockfish?style=for-the-badge&label=license&color=success
 165 [release-badge]:      https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/official-stockfish/Stockfish?style=for-the-badge&label=official%20release
 166 [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