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I am using eboard for playing chess with automatically supported engines like gnuchess4, crafty etc. My question is:

How can I run strong engines like stockfish, Rykba on eboard?

Chandrasekhar
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2 Answers2

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Stockfish mentions that it can be run with eboard, but it took me a while to figure out how.

Stockfish uses the UCI chess protocol, but eboard speaks xboard. You need to use the polyglot package to play stockfish on eboard.

To install the software:

sudo apt-get install eboard polyglot stockfish

Then you need to create a polyglot.ini in your home directory:

[PolyGlot]

EngineDir = .
EngineCommand = /usr/games/stockfish

Book = false
BookFile = book.bin

Log = false
LogFile = stockfish.log

Resign = true
ResignScore = 600

[Engine]

Use Search Log = false
Search Log Filename = SearchLog.txt
Book File = book.bin
Best Book Move = false
Contempt Factor = 0
Mobility (Middle Game) = 100
Mobility (Endgame) = 100
Passed Pawns (Middle Game) = 100
Passed Pawns (Endgame) = 100
Space = 100
Aggressiveness = 100
Cowardice = 100
Min Split Depth = 4
Max Threads per Split Point = 5
Threads = 1
Use Sleeping Threads = true
Hash = 128
Ponder = true
OwnBook = false
MultiPV = 1
Skill Level = 20
Emergency Move Horizon = 40
Emergency Base Time = 200
Emergency Move Time = 70
Minimum Thinking Time = 20
UCI_Chess960 = false
UCI_AnalyseMode = false

Then when you open eboard, go to: Play against engine > Generic Engine > Engine Command

Type in "polyglot" in the part called "Engine command line".

That should allow you to play against stockfish using eboard.

Gustav Bertram
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    Gustav, thank you. I've included this also in the new eboard :-) https://gitorious.org/eboard/eboard/blobs/master/Documentation/Stockfish.txt –  Jan 31 '13 at 09:54
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    My post lead to a useful contribution to open source software? Woohooooo! \o/ – Gustav Bertram Jan 31 '13 at 13:12
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    To make it work, I had to put the config file not in ~/polyglot.ini but in ~/.eboard/eng-out instead, as by default the engine is configured to run from that folder... – landroni Nov 16 '16 at 20:36
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To create a polyglot.ini file.

Open a text editor, copy and paste the text:

[Polyglot] ... UCI_AnalyseMode = false

Before you save the text file, you need authorization to save in /usr/games. So open a terminal, type:

sudo chmod 777 /usr/games

Once you enter your password. Leave the terminal open.

When you are getting ready to save the text file, the file name needs to be polyglot.ini

You need to save polyglot.ini in the same folder as polyglot.exe So save the file in /usr/games

If you don't know how to find that folder. On the left-hand side of the save window, press computer. Go to the folder usr. Then go to games. And save polyglot.ini in that folder.

It took me a couple hours to figure that out. I am still new to Linux. I hope that helps.

techraf
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octane234
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  • The other post says the ini file is to be created in your home directory. Why are you doing chmod 777 /usr/games/? – muru Mar 27 '16 at 14:17
  • /usr/games is the folder for your home directory. It should be the folder where polyglot.exe is located. polyglot.ini needs to be in the same folder as polyglot.exe in order to work. Which is what he means by home directory. –  Mar 29 '16 at 07:11