Russell Sherwood Tuesday, July 21, 2020
- Go to https://github.com/nodchip/Stockfish/releases and download the latest copy – about 11mb in size and with a lot of different versions included
- Confirm what your CPU can handle – use CPU Z if unsure about which one you have.
- Go to https://discord.com/channels/435943710472011776/733547343319924808 and download the network of choice
- Unzip the download from (1) in a folder of your choice
- Add a subfolder to that directory called eval
- Unzip or place the file nn.bin into the eval directory
- From Step 2 determine which version of the engine you need. For modern Ryzen machines avx2
| filename | CPU instructions | Supported CPUs |
|---|
| sse2 | Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 | >= AMD Athlon 64 |
| sse3 | Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 | >= Intel Pentium 4 (Prescott model F) |
| sse3-popcnt | Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 + POPCNT | >= AMD Phenom |
| ssse3 | Intel Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 | >= Intel Core 2 Duo (Merom) |
| sse41 | Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.1 | >= Intel Core 2 Duo (Penryn) |
| sse42 | Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.2 | >= Intel Core i7 (Bloomfield), AMD FX (Bulldozer) |
| avx2 | Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 2 | >= AMD APU (Carrizo) |
| bmi2 | Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 2 + BMI2 | >= Intel Core i7 (Haswell) |
| avx512 | Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 512 | >= Intel Core i9/i7 (Skylake-X) |
- Go into Fritz or Chessbase and “Create UCI Engine”
- Click on the three dots and navigate to the folder you created in (4)
- Select the file – you want the section after stockfish to be the correct one you identified in (7). So in my case a avx2. You then want the file with .profile in the name. This should have reduced the list to two choices – either a 256 or 384 file. You need the correct one to match the network. At this point select the 256
- The engine will now populate the details
- Click OK
- The engine should now be installed
- Click Add kibitzer to check the engine – it should be running at a decent rate
- If get zero evals you don’t have a network!
- If it wont run at all its probably the wrong version for your machine
- Parameter Setting: Click on the Engine/ Advanced and Parameter
- Hash – half of your total ram should be max, generally a little less
- Contempt – set to zero
- Analysis Contempt – Off
- 50 Move rule off – ICCF don’t use it as of a couple of years ago
- Threads – set to your total minus a couple if you want to concentrate on chess analysis
- Latest versions have Eval File, older ones Eval Folder – if you want to switch nets this is the place to do it.
Notes of Caution
- Generally, NNUE nets are built on quite shallow evaluations and testing have been in very rapid games – its benefits are unknown in deep search. Cross check with vanilla SF any interesting moves it suggests
- The net needs to be kept up to date.
- If you go wrong installing to remove the engine you need to go to your Users/Logonname/app folder/Roaming/Chessbase/Engines.UCI and delete the offending File before trying again
Download
Stockfish NNUE
