How to connect chess engine and opening book.

You can make ChessBotX much stronger than with default settings. It is especially useful for bot-vs-bot games (for example against chess.com computer level 10 or lichess stockfish level 8).

First of all, you need to understand that

. For example, a chess engine on 8-core CPU will win most of the games against itself on 2-core CPU. However, there are a few other important things you should know.

If you need to achieve really good gameplay, you need to use:

- opening book (for example, Goi.bin)
- endgame tablebases (EGTB, Syzygy 5-men for example)
- strong chess engine (Stockfish family or LcZero)
- proper settings for chess engine
- proper settings for chess bot
- proper system settings

Firstly, pay attention to website settings and system settings. Chess bot will work faster on a smaller chessboard, so try to decrease board size, if possible. Make sure to

, if possible - this will also allow to increase speed of moves recognition.

Additionally, you can even try to decrease your screen resolution. For example, if you have 1920x1080, you can try to set 1440x900 or even 1366x768 resolution. Chess bot will work faster on a smaller screen.

Make sure to close all other applications / web pages / programs when using bot against other chess programs or chess computers. And make sure that chess bot is not blocked by your antivirus / firewall / system settings. Always use battle mode in the game.

We recommend to try a good chess engine, called "

". It is a clone of Stockfish with support of opening books in ".bin" format. Alternative variants - Stockfish Polyglot, Blue Marlin, Kayra.

"

" is an opening book. It is pretty outdated now, but it is free and good for a start.

Opening book is a database of chess positions that can occur during first 10-15 moves of the game. These positions are already pre-calculated and provided with the suggested best next move. So ChessBot will play next move immediately, without calculating the current position (and this will be a very good move). Good opening book will increase strength of play drastically.


So first of all we need to download all the stuff.

1. Download archives and unpack them with some program like WinRAR.

2. Create a folder

on the desktop.

3. Copy Raubfisch.exe and NNUE net (nn-file) to this new "Book" folder.

4. Also copy "Cerebellum3Merge.bin" to the same folder.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now we need to load engine and book into the chess bot. Launch ChessBotX (run ChessBot.exe as administrator) and go to the Advanced tab. And follow these steps:

1.

.
2. Press on the engine name -> Press Add button in the Engine Manager -> select "Raubfisch.exe" from the "Book" folder, which you created previously.
3. After that press "Engine Settings". Window with the engine configuration will appear.
4. Set following parameters:
   

=

Another important thing for good quality computer chess is so called EGTB - endgame tablebases.

All you need to know is that ChessBotX with EGTB will play stronger than without it. We recommend to try Syzygy 5-men tablebases. However, there are also 6-men and even 7-men tables (Lomonosov). Update: Syzygy now also have 7-men tables:

6-men and 7-men are better of course, than 5-men, but they require a lot of free space on your hard drive. Just take a look at this comparison table.

So here is how to connect EGTB with chess bot, follow these steps:

1. Download Syzyge 5-men tablebases: direct link.

2. Create new folder called "EGTB" on disk C:\

3. Unzip all downloaded files to

folder.

4. Launch ChessBotX and go to Advanced tab.

5. Click on the engine name to open configuration window.

6. Find "SyzygyPath" parameter and set it to "

"

7. Press Save button.

That's all - now ChessBotX will use endgame tablebases.

When only 5 or less pieces will left on the board,
ChessBotX will make only best next moves without thinking.

Also EGTB will allow chess engine to analyse positions
during the game more precisely.

However,

, because calculations are always a bit slower
with the EGTB.

When playing with the bot against other chess programs, use following settings to increase strength and speed:

1. Turn off "Simulate human moves" option. This will allow bot to move cursor instantly.

2. Use "

" mode. Set time a bit lower than actual time control. For example, for bullet games (1+0) use 45 seconds instead of 60 seconds, etc.
   For super-short time controls, like ultrabullet (15 seconds per game) - use "

" method. It is weaker, but faster.

3. Turn on "

" option (pondering).

4. Set

parameter as higher as possible. For example, if you have 8-core CPU, Threads must be = 8.

5. Set

parameter to 256mb for bullet games, 512 mb for blitz games and 1024 mb for classic.

6.  And don't forget that you can experiment with different chess engines and opening books. Raubfisch and Cerebellum are not the only ones in the world.

Try this config:

    Latest

,

chess engine. Download here.

For blitz, rapid and classic games - you can use chess engine

.
    For bullet, hyperbullet and ultrabullet games -

opening book. Buy here.
   

    Threads =

    Hash size =

    Leave other settings

.

    For blitz and longer - use

tables.
    For bullet and shorter -

, it slows down the bot.

    For bullet, blitz and longer - use "

" calculation method.
    For hyperbullet and ultrabullet - use "

" method. Try different depth values.

    Simulate human moves

    Use

. 1366x768 or similar gives best performance.
   

. But do not make it too small.
   

, tabs, everything except website with the chessboard and chessbot.
   

, but not Wi-Fi, if possible.
   

power plan.