Chess engines are the brains of any chess program. Most modern engines come as separate entities to be added to your favorite GUI (Graphical User Interface). This post is aimed at helping you get some free chess engines and prepare them to install in your favorite GUI. Ill cover the GUI installation in separate posts.

How do you know what engines are the best?

Here is a list of the top rated free engines. http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/rating_list_pure_free.html

Where can I get these engines? Well you can Google them by name. Komodo Chess Engine for example. Just Google Komodo and youll get a lot of links to the lizard.

Below are links to the current top three free engines. After you download them. You will need to unzip them. I recommend keeping them in their own folder. First I would make a folder called chess engines somewhere easy to find. Because you may want to use these engines in more than one program. Example c:chess enginesFire5

Komodo https://komodochess.com/Stockfish https://stockfishchess.org/Fire https://chesslogik.wixsite.com/fire

The engines will often come in 32 bit and 64 bit versions. They may have both versions inside the zipped file. If you have to select at the time of download you need to know which kind of computer you have. This is how you can tellhttps://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001121.htm.

So there may be a x32 (32 bit) version a x64 (64 bit) version. Also you may see bmi2 and popcnt versions. These additional versions are compiled to take advantage of special features built into specific microprocessors. The speed gained by running these versions are small but feel free to try them. If they dont run just switch back to the plain version. The BMI version may require changing settings in your computer bios. If you you want to do that here is a thread on that topic.http://www.chess2u.com/t10505-bmi2-or-popcnt

All about chess engines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_engine

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Chess Engines Chess Tech

By Catherine Graham

The player approaches the ball and prepares to score the goal. The crowd waits anxiously.

The player isn't David Beckham or Cristiano Ronaldoit's a small, blue EduMIP mobile robot. And it's not the final moments of the World Cup. Instead, it's a robotics demonstration in a lab on the campus of Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering.

While the stakes aren't quite as high, these demonstrations are still nerve-wracking for students in the graduate-level Robot Systems Programming course.

"Not all the demos work out perfectly, and that's OK. But you have to try," said Louis Whitcomb, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering who created and has taught the course for the past four years. Despite many hours of planning, building, and testing the robots, students know that at any given moment, things may not go as planned.

Students in his course spent the last five weeks of the spring semester building and programming their own independent robotic projects. Whitcomb provides equipment and instruction but encourages students to experiment and set their own project goals. On Monday and Tuesday, 12 student teams demonstrated their robots in labs across the Homewood campus.

Students Andrew Dykman, Saurabh Singh, and Allen Jiang built a system that allows five separate EduMIP robots to communicate, move into a swarm formation, and work together to achieve complex tasks. During the demonstration, the team explained how, with some fine tuning, this technology could have many real-world applications.

"Take, for example, self-driving cars," Dykman said. "If every car on the road is running automated systems and communicating with cars around it, we could move cars at a higher speed without crashing, or reduce traffic jams by eliminating human errors."

For their project, students Kevin Yee and Nicole Ortega decided to take a favorite pastime to the next level.

"We know people already like to play chess against a computer, so we wanted to see what it'd be like to play chess against a robot," Yee said.

The pair created a platform that allows users to play chess against a chess engine on a physical board. They built a mobile robot, equipped with an end effector, that can make strategic moves and place chess pieces on target locations. According to Ortega, the robot usually wins.

Other demos included robots that can locate a soccer ball and score goals, a ball-catching robotic arm, a "self-standing" robot that can leap across obstacles, a team of robots that can map a location, and autonomous quadcoptors.

The Robot Systems Programming course gives students the tools to create their own unique vision of what a robot can do. Some will graduate next week and enter the field, and some will continue graduate work in robotics. Either way, Whitcomb said he hopes his students will use these skills to continue to explore what's possible in robotics.

"This course is intended to be a capstone experience for our advanced undergraduate and graduate robotics students," he said, "in which they use and apply the knowledge they have learned in the mathematics, engineering, and physics of robotics to develop real-world robots that can sense and interact with people and the world."

The rest is here:
See bots run - The Hub at Johns Hopkins

Hackaday

Chess AI, Old School Hackaday If you've ever wondered how to make a computer play chess [FreeCodeCamp] has an interesting post that walks you through building a chess engine step-by-step. The code is in JavaScript, but the approach struck us as old school. However, it is ... and more »

The rest is here:
Chess AI, Old School - Hackaday

Latest Date Engine Site Latest Version Author Alternate Download Protocol Comment 2014/12/24 Firenzina 2.4.3 unknown + Norman Schmidt + Dmitri Gusev + Mathew Brades alt homepage 2.4.3 MH (Linux64) 2.4.3 (Win64) 2.4.3 source alt source code repo SDChess UCI C source; mp; Win32/64, Linux64; supports Robbobase egtbs; engine is based on Fire, which is an IvanHoe derivative 2014/12/24 GopherCheck DJ Stephen J Lovell GopherCheck DJ UCI Go source; mp; Win32/64; only fixed-time per move is supported 2014/12/24 Phalanx XXIV Duan Dobe Kirill Kryukov JA builds Julien Marcel Mac builds WB C source; Win32; older versions available for Linux32, Mac64 2014/12/24 Shutranj TM Okash Khawaja Shutranj TM UCI C# source; Win32/64 2014/12/22 DisasterArea 1.54 Jochen Peussner - UCI Win32/64; smp (4 threads max); multiPV; eval is tunable 2014/12/15 Equinox 3.30 Giancarlo Delli Colli and, formerly, Stefano Rocchi 3.30 UCI Win32/64; mp 2014/12/15 Fire 4 Norman Schmidt alt homepage Kirill Kryukov JA builds UCI mp(64 threads); multiPV; Win32/64; Syzygy egtbs; original engine name was Firebird, renamed to Fire due to a trademark naming conflict 2014/12/07 JikChess 0.01 Janne I Kokkala - WB Win32/64, Linux64; can use Polyglot opening books and Gaviota egtbs 2014/12/03 P4wn Javacript Chess 2.02 Douglas Bagnall & & Oliver Merkel - UCI JavaScript source; requires jsUCI, see instructions 2014/11/24 Deuterium 14.3.34.130 Ferdinand Mosca - UCI old versions were WB-only; Win32/64; MultiPV; supports Polyglot books 2014/11/24 GNUchess5 5.60 Chua Kong Sian, Stuart Cracraft, Michel Van den Bergh, Antonio Ceballos, Simon Waters Kirill Kryukov JA builds Julien Marcel Mac builds WB, UCI C source; Win32/64, Linux32/64, Mac64; bugfixed & improved by MVdB; MVdB version supports Gaviota tablebases 2014/11/24 NoraGrace 2.0 Eric Oldre exes WB C# source; Win32/64 2014/11/20 Gambit (Gupta) 1.0.3 Jelle Geerts - WB C++ source; own GUI; limit strength; Win32; requires extra dlls (included in package); includes build instructions for Unix-like operating systems 2014/11/18 CyberPagno 2.2 Marco Pagnoncelli G-sei WB Win32/64 2014/11/18 Elektro 1.2 Roberto Munter - UCI Win32/64; mp (16 threads max); Igorrit derivative 2014/11/12 Soldat III 0.178 Marco Giusfredi Kirill Kryukov JA builds WB C source (Italian comments); Win32/64, Linux32/64 2014/11/10 Ecce 0.33 (r508) Denis Gruzdev & M. Melnikov SDChess UCI Win64 2014/11/03 Dreamer 0.21, RC 2 Kris McAulay, Walter van Niftrik & Lawrence Sebald old site WB C source; own GUI; Linux, Mac; engine is part of DreamChess 2D/3D GUI 2014/10/31 pChess 2.0 John Roland Penner download UCI FutureBasic source; own GUI; FRC; Mac32/64 only, no builds for Windows or Linux; engine portion of project is called 'peaBrain' 2014/10/28 Ghost 2.0.2 Philipp Claen - WB Win32/64, Linux32/64 2014/10/23 Fairy-Max 4.8V Harm G. Muller Win32 Linux32 Julien Marcel Mac builds WB Win32, Linux32, Mac64; variants 2014/10/23 Numpty Recharged Chris Tatham - WB Basic source (FreeBasic); Win32/64 2014/10/21 Capivara LK 0.09b02f Loureno Araujo de Oliveira Jr latest version UCI Win32/64; TSCP derivative; requires MSVC runtime 2014/10/18 Conqueror 1.2 Aditya Pande engine+Winboard GUI WB, UCI C++ source; Win32; WB support is buggy 2014/10/07 Waxman 2014 Ivan Bacigal - WB Win32 2014/10/02 Crafty 24.1 JA Bob Hyatt alt Jim Ablett site Kirill Kryukov JA builds old Julien Marcel Mac builds 24.1 DJ (Win32/64) WB C++ source; mp; limit strength; Win32/64, Linux32/64, Mac 2014/10/02 CvpChessEngine ??? Codrin-Victor Poienaru - WB Java source; cross-platform jar file; weak random-moving engine 2014/09/30 Delphil 3.2 Philippe Fabiani Norbert Raimund Leisner UCI Win32/64; mp (up to 32 threads) 2014/09/30 Naum 4.6 Aleksandar Naumov 4.6 WB, UCI Commercial version is dead, it is now free; mp; FRC; Win32/64 2014/09/22 Rhetoric 1.4.1 Alberto Sanjuan - UCI Win32/64; multiPV; limit strength; uses a genetic algorithm to 'train' the playing style towards human GM style 2014/09/19 Sjakk 2.2 Jacob Brs Lind - WB, UCI ownGUI (old versions only); Win32/64 2014/09/06 iCE 2.0 v2240 Thomas Petzke blog UCI Win32/64; own GUI; iCE = 'improved chess engine'; successor to the mACE engine 2014/09/04 Smirf MS-180g Reinhard Scharnagl Norbert Raimund Leisner See comment a donationware engine, it is Winboard compatible using HG Muller's Smirfoglot adapter; own GUI, but engine can be downloaded separately (as dll); variant play 2014/09/01 NG-Play 9.8.6 George Georgopoulos - WB C source; Win32/64 2014/09/01 Tucano 5.00 Alcides Schulz - WB C source; Win32/64 2014/08/25 DiscoCheck 5.2.1 Lucas Braesch 5.2.1 (OpenChess) Tony Mokonen 5.1 Mac Kirill Kryukov JA builds (DiscoCkeck + DoubleCheck) Julien Marcel Mac builds UCI C source; Win32/64, Linux32/64, Mac64; engine formerly named 'DoubleCheck' 2014/08/15 Betsab II 1.47 Juan Benitez, Dieter Steinwender, & Chrilly Donninger 1.47 Kirill Kryukov JA builds Julien Marcel Mac builds WB, UCI C source w/ Spanish comments & var names; Win32; JA: Win32/64, Linux32/64; JM: Mac64; this is a MiniMAX derivative 2014/08/11 AdaChess 2.0 Alessandro Iavicoli - WB Ada source; Win32, Linux64 2014/08/11 Unidexter f5fb866 PN Michael Aherne f5fb866 PN UCI Java source; cross-platform jar file 2014/08/04 DeepSaros_eXp rev. 6h many + Roberto Munter old site UCI older versions had C source; mp (12 threads); FRC, own GUI, multi-pv; Win64, Linux64; this is an IvanHoe derivative 2014/07/23 Coiled 0.2b Oscar Gavira Hispanic engine pack UCI Win32/64, Linux32/64 2014/07/21 SmarThink 1.70 Sergei Markoff SDChess old site WB, UCI Win32/64; multiPV; formerly commercial 2014/07/16 SilChess 3.1 Oliver Hamann 3.1 Eagle Mode + SilChess Github (older code) WB C++ source; Win32, Linux; engine is part of Eagle Mode own GUI 2014/07/11 MiniChessAI 1.20 Marcin Gardyjan 1.20 Guenther Simon WB Win32; own GUI (SimpleChess) 2014/07/07 Arabian Knight 1.5.4 Marcin Gardyjan 1.5.4 Kirill Kryukov JA builds Polish Engine List WB Java source, cross-platform Java jar; own GUI; Win32(JA); mp 2014/07/05 Oberon 0.04 Pawel Koziol 0.04 WB Win32; variant play 2014/07/02 Eia 0.3 Nikita Kurgin 0.2 SDChess Kirill Kryukov JA builds UCI C++ source; Win32/64, Linux32/64 2014/06/30 BlackAndRight Dev 05-11-2011 Jet JA Matei Chiperi, Alexandra Vintila, Andrei Danescu, Alexandru Bujor Dev 05-11-2011 Jet JA WB Java source; Win32(JA) 2014/06/30 Protej 0.5.8c Alex Brunetti 0.5.8c w/128MB hash WB, UCI Win32 2014/06/27 Calculon r258 PN Barry Smith r258 PN UCI Java source, cross-platform Java jar 2014/06/27 CaveChess r61 PN Tim Declercq r61 PN WB Java source, cross-platform Java jar 2014/06/27 JChess 1.0 PN Tomasz Michniewski 1.0 PN Kirill Kryukov JA builds WB Java source, cross-platform jar; mp 2014/06/25 Deep Bug 1.0 Ben-Dean Kawamura WayBack Machine WB Win32; variant play 2014/06/23 Minnow w32 DJ Kyle Davis w32 DJ UCI Win32 2014/06/18 Orion 0.2 David Carteau - UCI Win64 2014/06/09 Chess4J 2.0 James Swafford Kirill Kryukov JA builds WB Java and Groovy source; cross-platform jvm jar file 2014/06/02 Defeo 0.4.2 Duan kaloud 0.4.2 B007 WB Win32; engine based on Sjeng 8.5.1 2014/05/25 Ares 1.005 Charles Roberson Thorsten Czub WB, UCI Win32/64; WB support is minimal 2014/05/25 Claudia 0.2 Antonio Garro - UCI C source; uses Polyglot books; Win32/64 2014/05/21 Napoleon 1.6.0 Beta Marco Pampaloni Julien Marcel Mac builds Italian page alt downloads UCI C++ source; Win32/64, Linux32/64, Mac 2014/05/13 Rodin 7.0 Fermin Serrano - WB Win32 2014/05/02 Strelka 6 Beta Yuri Osipov SDChess Strelka 5 Kirill Kryukov JA builds WB, UCI Win32/64; older versions were Win32/64, Linux32/64; a Houdini/Critter/Rybka/Stockfish derivative; older versions were Rybka clones; older versions with C source from SDChess 2014/04/18 GullChess 3 Vadim Demichev SDChess Kirill Kryukov JA builds UCI C++ source; mp; multiPV; Win32/64; test version supports Syzygy egtbs 2014/04/12 Djinn 1.021 Tom Likens - WB Win64, Linux64 2014/04/12 Madchess 1.4 Erik Madsen - UCI C# source; multiPV; limit strength; requires .NET 3.5 SP1 or later; requires extra dlls (included); successor to RumbleMinze engine 2014/04/07 Gaviota 1.0 Miguel A. Ballicora - WB, UCI Win32/64, Linux32/64, Mac64, BSD; mp (up to 64 threads); multiPV; own egtbs; separate egtb integrity check & compression programs 2014/04/01 MyTeacheR 0.2 Mickael Faivre-Maon old site blog (French) WB Ruby source; requires installation of a compatible Ruby interpreter 2014/03/28 JFresh 0.1a TM Christian Daley Tony Mokonen UCI C source; Win32, Linux, Mac 2014/03/24 Exacto 0.e JV Daniel Sparks 0.e JV Julien Marcel Mac builds WB C++ source; Win32/64, Mac 2014/03/24 Senpai 1.0 JV Fabien Letouzey Steve Maughan 1.0 JV UCI C++ source; Win32/64, Linux, Mac; mp 2014/03/18 Javalin 2.0 Andrew Brooks alt source WB Java source (old program); Win, Linux, Mac 2014/03/12 Sunfish 2014.03.12 Thomas Dybdahl Ahle - WB Python source; requires Python2 interpreter with '-u' option invoked (to disable i/o buffering); didactic engine 2014/03/03 ExCE r167 Denis Gruzdev SDChess Julien Marcel Mac builds UCI C++ source; Win32, Mac 2014/03/03 Godel 3.4.9 Juan Manuel Vzquez - WB, UCI Win32/64, Linux32/64 2014/02/17 Robocide Feb13 TM Daniel White Tony Mokonen UCI C source; Win32 2014/02/14 BlackMamba 2.0 Matteo D'Annibale + Maurizio Platino - UCI Win32/64/64SSE2, Linux32/64; mp; multiPV; limit strength; support for Polyglot opening books 2014/02/07 RedQueen 1.1.97 TM Ben-Hur Carlos Langoni Jnior Tony Mokonen alt source Kirill Kryukov JA builds UCI C++ source; mp; Win32/64, Linux32/64; requires extra dlls (included) 2014/02/06 Small Potato 0.7.0 Alejandro Dubrovsky - WB C source; Win32 2014/01/28 ProDeo 1.88 Ed Schrder old versions WB, UCI Win32 2014/01/27 The Turk 0.3 Alpha Yakup Ipek, 'raja4567' & 'webdaud' - WB C# source; Win32/64; requires .NET framework 4.0 2014/01/26 Cinnamon 1.2b Giuseppe Cannella old downloads Kirill Kryukov JA builds UCI C++ source; package comes with Tarrasch Chess GUI (Windows only); Win32/64, Linux32/64, Mac32/64; perft with source also available; engine formerly known as Butterfly 2014/01/25 Firefly 2.7.0 Andrew Fan - WB, UCI Win32/64; mp 2014/01/25 Testina 3c Sandro Corsini - UCI Basic source (Italian names and comments); Win32 2014/01/25 Vice 1.1 anonymous - WB, UCI C source; Win32, Mac; supports Polyglot opening books; didactic engine; VICE == Video Instructional Chess Engine 2014/01/19 Deep Smash 1.0.3a Maurizio Sambati 1.0.3 JV Julien Marcel Mac builds Norbert Raimund Leisner UCI C++ source; mp; Win32/64, Mac 2014/01/14 Minace 1.0 TM 'zekyll', aka 'T.A.' Tony Mokonen 1.0 JS Julien Marcel Mac builds UCI C++ source; Win32, Linux64, Mac 2014/01/13 Raffaela 2.1.5 Stefano Gemma - WB ownGUI; Win32 2014/01/13 Toga II 280513 JV Fabien Letouzey, Thomas Gaksch, C. Formula, Michel Van den Bergh, Jerry Donald 3.0 JA 280513 JV Michel Van den Bergh Julien Marcel Mac builds WB, UCI C++ source; multiPV; Win32/64, Linux32, Mac64 2014/01/02 Numbit 01.2 Nuvit Bayurgil source + engine w/GUI WB Visual Basic source; own GUI; Win32/64 2014/01/01 EveAnn 1.72 Andres Valverde - WB Win32

See more here:
computer_chess:wiki:lists:chess_engine_list - Computer ...

These are the engines with no activity in the last 5 years. These engines are probably dead.

November 2012: added Durandal, Leonidas, Nebula, Serena, and WhiskySoda; removed LUCI, it is replaced by Durandal

May 2012: added Tang; removed Magic, it is now public

April 2012: added Anubis; removed Rhetoric, it is now public

March 2012: added Cryptic

February 2012: added Amaia and Rhetoric

January 2012: added Ikarus, Falcon, and CrazyChips; removed Nemo, it is now public

November 2011: added Arminius, Blackmail, DCP, LUCI, Rasbojnik, Satana, Sidonia, and Sweetleaf; removed Deep Noob, it is abandoned

October 2011: removed Chiron, Mentally Challenged, NaltaP312 and Stallion Chess Engine, all of them are now public

August 2011: added Anaconda (but ChessBase-Native is free to download) and Magic

July 2011: added Nemo

March 2011: removed Purple Haze and Bobcat, both are now public

February 2011: added Jazz; removed Jazz & Zeta, they were released publicly

January 2011: added Bunny & Equinox; removed Scaramanga, it is a clone of the Now engine

October 2010: added Scaramanga, Goldbar and Rueno; removed Vapor it is now public

September 2010: added Rick48, Ditw, ChessTraining, Fridolin, Bolt, Chexa & Bursche

August 2010: added Kirby & Nightmare

July 2010: removed Hannibal: it is now public

June 2010: added Vapor, Bobcat, Fantod, Wombat & Rondo; removed Zilch: it is declared dead; removed Vajolet: it is now public; MemeChess renamed to Puca

May 2010: added Vajolet

April 2010: added Cowrie, PurpleHaze & Sibyl; added link for NaltaP312; Removed ChessMind: it is now public

March 2010: added Spandrel & Zeta; removed MatMoi & Darmenios, they are now public; removed Quadrox, it was renamed to ChessV and released publicly

February 2010: added Hannibal, Almond, EGM & Darmenios

January 2010: removed Jabba, Rainbow Serpent & Redqueen: they are now public; removed Manado Chess, it is a source-code-only engine; removed Nimrd, it is a retreated engine

November 2009: Ancalagon is dead, it is replaced by Rainbow Serpent

October 2009: added ChessMind; Goldentree renamed to Olympus

September 2009: added Jabba

August 2009: added Freccia; removed goaT(Toga CMLX) and Algebar(Rocinante): these engines changed names and became public

July 2009: added Nimrod, Zilch, and NaltaP

June 2009: added Sillycon, Plisk, EtaBeta, Cipollino, Manado Chess and Mentally Challenged. Removed Plisk, Bubble and Chesley the Chess Engine, they are now public. Removed Onno, it is now commercial

May 2009: added Chesley the Chess Engine, TwilightChess, Bubble, Pandix, Vlad Tepes, ChessV, and TuttiFruity. ChessV and n2 removed, they are now public

April 2009: added Moneypenny, Quadrox, RedQueen, n2, Cheetah, ApiChess, and Carnivor; Centurion and CTD removed, they are both retired; Demon renamed to Crimson and then deleted from this list - it is now publicly available

March 2009: added Goldentree; removed Myrddin, it is freely available now

February 2009: Added Myrddin; removed Anaconda, it is a free download from ChessBase with a CB-only interface

January 2009: added Algebar, Anaconda and Demon; KMTChess removed, it is no longer private

December 2008: added Cogito, EdlChess, Chimp, KMTChess, Flywheel, Cipollino, Eichhoernchen, Kallisto, and Tzunami; Glass removed, it is no longer private; Nexus replaced with Argonaut; Comeback is removed, it was not a private engine, but an engine beta; Ikarus removed, it is commercial; Grok, Hossa, Jake, Phark, and Qalat transferred to the inactive list. Dolphin and Cipollino removed, they are clones

November 2008: added Dolphin, MeneChess, WaDuuttie, and Z; Zzzzzz, Caligula, and RBrChess removed: they are no longer private; private engine Chronos renamed to Glass; Styx removed it seems to be a clone

October 2008: added Hal, Pebble, and Matmoi; Brainless removed: it is no longer private

August 2008: removed Rodin, it is no longer private

July 2008: added goaT, Onno, and HansDamf; XyclOps and Oxygen removed both are clones!

June 2008: added Ancalagon, Dr. Theopolis, and Rodin; Comeback author identified; Sorgenkind and Cerebro removed, they are no longer private

Apr 2008: added Comeback; Anatoli and ZCT removed, they are no longer private

March 2008: added Achilles/Axon, Anatoli, Azral, Bird, Brainless, Caligula, Centurion, CTD, Oxygen, Rascal, RBrChess, Sorgenkind, Styx, XyclOps; Engines with 2002 dates shifted to inactive list; Bright, Clarabit, and Dirty are no longer private. Some dates changed to 2008

Assistance in creating this list: Tony Thomas, Guenther Simon, Olivier Deville, Robert Allgeuer, Dr. Wael Deeb, Zach Wegner, Norbert Raimund Leisner, and Gerhard Schwager. Thanks guys!

Original post:
Computer-chess Wiki: Private Engine List