Chess engines list and download links

This page will be updated from time to time. Here you will find best chess engines and settings for different purposes: strongest play, human-like playstyle, fast engines for short time controls, etc.

We will try to provide direct download links for most programs without any crappy file-hosting websites.

For shareware chess engines, we will

provide links to official websites.

All links will be for Windows versions, because ChessBotX is available for Windows only.

If you would like to suggest good chess engine or specific config for it, please send us a message and it will appear on this page.

Stockfish is a free and very strong chess
engine. It is well-rounded and good for
any purposes. However default versions of
Stockfish don't support books usage.

Direct download Stockfish 16

Official website: https://stockfishchess.org/

More versions of Stockfish (bmi2, popcnt, etc.)

Latest Stockfish Dev                  Stockfish Polyglot

Brainfish is the clone of the
Stockfish with support of
polyglot (.bin) opening
books.

It is especially designed to
work with very good opening book called "Cerebellum".

Brainfish was a really good and strong chess engine. But now it is quite outdated.

Direct download Brainfish

Official website: zipproth.de

Houdini is a legendary chess engine by
Robert Houdart. Latest version (Houdini 6)
is pretty strong, however it is a bit weaker
than current versions of Stockfish.

But we recommend to try Houdini 4
along with the advisor mode. Houdini 4 Pro has unique style
and can provide good moves even at low depth. Try to use advisor at Depth = 8, you will get fast and pretty strong calculation. ELO: 3399

Official website

Direct download free Houdini 1.5 version

Komodo is another very strong engine.
However, instead of depth, it more relies
on evaluation.

That is why Komodo is known for its
positional style and human-like play.

This chess engine is also recommended to use with advisor mode. Also you can give it a try in solving puzzles.

Official website

Direct download Komodo 12
More downloads            Direct download Komodo 13
                                    Direct download Komodo 14

Fire is a free program with decent
evaluation and solid moves.

Fast as Stockfish, but slightly weaker.
However, it has different style. Always been in the top 5 of recent years at TCEC.

Maybe you will be interested in trying it at blitz and bullet games. Unfortunately, doesn't support opening books by itself.
Website
Direct download Fire 9.2 chess engine
Also, this version is good for advisor mode: Fire_trap_32x

Surprised? Clarabit is not well known
indeed. It is also very weak in playing
against other engines.

However, this program is good, if your want to simulate 1500-1800 ELO player. Recommended to use along with advisor mode in blitz chess under 2000 rating at chess.com.

Optimal engine depth = 8.

Official website

Clarabit direct download

Rybka is a legendary chess engine
created by Vasik Rajlich. In times past
it was the strongest program in the
world.

Today it is still pretty strong, maybe in top-20 rank. Rybka has many configurable parameters which allow to achieve different playstyles - from defensive to very aggressive.

ELO: 3148

Official website

Direct download Rybka 2.3.2

Gull is an open source engine from
Vadim Demichev.

The latest version of Gull 3 was released
in 2014, but it is always striking in its ability to fight to the end against modern engines.

It is like a honey badger in the world of computer chess.

ELO: 3181

Website

Gull 3 download

Ethereal is a very strong open source
chess engine written by Andrew Grant.

Although Ethereal is greatly influenced
from Crafty, Stockfish and Fruit, it has pretty unique style.

It is in the top-10 best programs at the
moment. If you would like to test some good alternatives for Stockfish, then Ethereal 14 is your choice.

ELO: 3550

Website        Direct download Ethereal
Github

WildCat is a free UCI compliant chess
engine by Igor Korshunov.

It is very outdated, but can be
succesfully used for advisor mode at blitz 2000-2500 rating.

Better to use this engine instead of the default Stockfish, because it less strong, which make it more human-like.

Latest version is WildCat 8, it has 2629 ELO according to CCRL 40/15.

Website                   Download WildCat 8 chess engine

Recommended package:

engine + Cerebellum opening book + Syzygy endgame tablebases!

Stockfish Polyglot, Raubfisch, Kayra, Blue Marlin are clones of the Stockfish.

These engines support books (BIN).

They are strong, fast and stable!

Stockfish Polyglot 15 direct download

Blue Marlin 15.7 download
Kookaburra 1.03 direct download link
Kayra 1.7 download
Raubfisch x48e download

Opening book with many lines. Must have for fast play in debut.

Put path to this book into the BookFile parameter at Engine Settings - see how to do it here.

Cerebellum direct download link

Syzygy is precalculated endgame tables (aka EGTB).

Chess engine with EGTB will play stronger than without it.

Put path to the unzipped folder with tablebases into the "Syzygy" parameter. See more info here.

5-men Syzygy tables download

Watch video example #1 (Ultrabullet) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPim0DiXNHk

Watch video example #2 (Bullet with crazy debuts) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb_WGSabEnM

Eman is a Stockfish based UCI chess
engine by Khalid Omar.

Eman playing style is both aggressive
and optimistic. The engine always
assumes that it will find something
(and it often does) in drawing or losing positions.

Interesting chess engine, worth trying.

ELO: 3573

Website      Direct download Eman 8.60 chess engine

Leela chess (aka "LcZero" or "lc0")
is an open source neural network
based chess engine.

6-times TCEC finalist. In April 2019, Leela won the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship 7: Blitz Bonanza, becoming the first neural-network project to take the title.

Very strong and very interesting engine. Must have.

Website    Download for newest NVidia GPUs
Download for Nvidia GPUs from 2014 to 2018
Download for Radeon and other GPUs
Download for modern CPUs              Download for old CPUs

Hakkapeliitta is an UCI chess engine
written in C++11/14 with support
for Syzygy tablebases.

Version 3.0 has a rating of around 2950 at CCRL and 2820 at CEGT, making it approximately the 20th strongest chess engine in the world on a single thread.

Website  Chess engine direct download

Igel is a free UCI chess engine forked
from GreKo 2018.01

Booot is an open source UCI compatible
chess program written in Delphi 6
by Alex Morozov.

Booot has played in many chess tournaments including TCEC. It showed good attacking chess and a good game in general.

If you like active and aggressive chess program - Booot is your engine.

Website    Direct download

Schooner is a chess engine by
Dennis Sceviour running under
Windows.

The hobby project already started
in the late 70s and was revived using Magic Bitboards in 2015.

Absolutely awesome engine with unique style. Also, it's pretty strong for an old engine (can defeat Stockfish 8 LVL at lichess). Recommended to test!

Website   Direct download

Gaviota (Spanish word for Seagull) is a
chess engine available for Windows,
Linux, Android, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X.

When It was released in 2001, it was the first Argentinian engine available. Gaviota supports its own endgame tablebases, book, and can use several processors (SMP). It has the ability to learn by remembering book lines and positions that were not good. Gaviota avoids them in following games.

Website      Direct download

Laser is a UCI-compliant chess engine
written in C++11 by Jeffrey An
and Michael An.

Engine that started as a project from scratch in July 2015 as a hobby engine between two brothers, Jeffrey and Michael An. It had its first 1.0 release in December 2015

Laser is a participant of TCEC Season 9. It showed good performance with a good attacking chess. Give it a try.

Website     Direct download

RubiChess is a pretty strong UCI open
source chess engine by Andreas Matthies.
Latest version uses NNUE evaluation.
Rubi started in 2016 as a private hobby
project to practise programming in C++ and to see the engine improving compared to earlier releases.

Meanwhile some years later RubiChess got pretty competitive and is listed in most of the rankings and plays a lot of even big tournaments.

Website    Direct download RubiChess 20230918

GreKo is a chess engine by Vladimir
Medvedev, written in C++.

First version was released in 2002.

Estimated playing strength of GreKo is about 2600-2700 points, depending on hardware and time control.

You will find 2 versions in the downloaded archive: GreKo 9 (2011 year) and the latest Greko (2021).

Website     Direct download

Tornado is an UCI compliant chess
engine by Engin Ustun.

First released in 2004.

Latest Tornado uses NNUE with the Stockfish net. You will find both Tornado_NNUE and classic Tornado_8 versions in the downloaded file.

Use Tornado_8 to feel unique style of the engine.

Tornado 9.1 is the latest version.

Website    Direct download

Hermann is a UCI engine by Volker
Annuss. Hermann is Arena GUI partner
engine.

Program participated in many chess tournaments in the past. Pretty legendary engine, try it someday. Elo: 2528 (ccrl).

Website

Direct download Hermann 2.8

Pedone is UCI chess engine by Fabio
Gobbato. It progressed rapidly,
and already won the IGT 2014 and
the IGT 2015.

With the release of its commercial successor Revenge in July 2021, Pedone is no longer under development.

Latest release is 25/04/2021 version.

ELO: 3327

Website    Download the latest 3.1.7z version

Nemorino is a UCI chess engine written
by Christian Guenther. First released
in September 2016 under the GPLv3
license.

Nemorino's board representation and move structure are taken from Stockfish. Latest Nemorino uses NNUE evaluation. Engine participated in TCEC tournament.

ELO: 3346 (ccrl)

Website     Direct download (NNUE)

Latest version with classic evaluation

Nirvana is a chess engine by Thomas
Kolarik, written in C++, first released
in April 2013.

Latest version (2.5) was released on
December 6, 2020.

ELO: 3225 (ccrl).

Pretty good, well-known and respected engine.

TCEC participant.

Website      Download NirvanaChess 2.5

Crystal is a UCI chess engine derived
from Stockfish. Crystal seeks to address
the following issues where engines
often have trouble:

1) Positional or tactical blindness due to over reductions or over pruning.
2) Draw blindess due to the move horizon (50 move rule).

Example: classic Stockfish cannot correctly evaluate this position. Crystal quickly finds a draw.

Website            Direct download Crystal 7.0 CMB
                        Download Crystallite 1.1

SugaR - Stockfish clone by
Marco Zerbinati.

First released in 2014. Very strong.

Supports up to 2 opening books in BIN (polyglot) format.

Unfortunately, this project is no longer active.


Direct download the last version Sugar 2.50 + Net

Zevra - UCI open source chess engine
by Oleg Smirnov, written in C++.
Interesting hobby project with own
style.

ELO: 2300

Play against Zevra on lichess


Website      Direct download Zevra chess engine

Maia is a human-like neural
network chess engine.

The main goal of this net is to
play the human move - not
necessarily the best one.

Maia is trained on millions of games, and tries to predict the human move played in each position seen.

Website      GitHub with more Nets (from 1100 to 1900 ELO)

Download Ready-To-Use 1800 ELO Maia chess engine
[Important: always use Engine Depth = 1 with this engine]

Koivisto is a very interesting chess
engine made primarily by Kim Kåhre
and Finn Eggers in C++ language.

One of the strongest non-neural engines by this moment.

Try it in bullet, blitz and rapid time controls.

Website

Direct download Koivisto 9.2

Chess-System-Tal-NNUE-2 is a UCI
chess engine written in C++ by
Chris Whittington and Ed Schröder.

CSTal is designed to play in the
romantic and dangerous style of Michael Tal, famous for his daring and aggressive style of play.

ELO: around 3650

Website

Direct download Chess System Tal 2.0

Berserk is an open source chess
engine by Jay Honnold written in C.

First released in February 2021.

Very strong top-10 chess engine.

ELO: around 3680 (see CCRL rating list)

Website

Direct download Berserk 12

Caissa -

Black Marlin - UCI compatible open
source chess engine by Doruk
Sekercioglu, written in Rust.

Released in October 2021.

Pretty interesting chess engine with own style.

ELO: around 3500

Website

Direct download Black Marlin 8

Simplex - UCI open source chess
engine by Antonio Torrecillas,
written in C++ and licensed under
the GNU General Public License.

Simplex was first published with sources in 2010, while its development already started at least in 2007.

ELO: around 2300 (equal to Stockfish Level 6 at lichess).

Website

Direct download Simplex 0.9.8

Fairy-Stockfish is an engine that can
play chess variants like Crazyhouse,
Antichess, Atomic, Horde, Three
Checks, Racing Kings and many others.

Fairy-Stockfish is free, and distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPL v3).

Website

Example: ChessBotX + FairyStockfish playing Atomic

Direct download Fairy-Stockfish-14