New Stockfish - How To Get & Activate It

A NEW version of the free but powerful engine Stockfish has been released, and I have been asked to explain how to get it to work with ChessBase on a laptop or home PC.

STEP ONE

Go to the Stockfish website and download the AVX2 version (unless your computer is very ancient, in which case you will have to make do with the POPCNT version).

The download may take around a minute or so, but then you should be able to find it on your computer under File Explorer.

STEP TWO

Drag Stockfish on to your computer screen, ie the Desktop, where it should appear as a yellow folder with a zip across the middle.

STEP THREE

Double-click on the folder, which should open a new window with Stockfish in it.

Double-click on that and a list should come up, including one with "stockfish" in the title and the word Application.

Double-click on it and you will be asked if you want to extract all the files, to which you do.

STEP FOUR

Open ChessBase and call up a game.

I use ChessBase 9.0 (I have the more-modern version 16, but I much prefer the uncluttered appearance, larger windows and user-friendly features of the earlier version - indeed I wish I had not got rid of ChessBase 6.0, which was best, in my view).

The precise details of what follows may differ slightly, depending on which version of ChessBase you have.

With 9.0 I click on the menu-option Engine, and then on Create UCI, opening a new window.

I then click on Browse, find Stockfish on my Desktop, and continue clicking on it until it appears in the box File Name, and then I click on Open.

STEP FIVE

Click again on the menu-option Engine and select Stockfish 17, which should appear either below the game board or, preferably, below the game notation.

Adjust Stockfish until it is placed exactly where you want it on the screen, is displaying however many lines you want (I choose two) and is displaying a grey button that turns green for satisfactory moves, yellow for dubious ones and red for mistakes.

STEP SIX

Click on the menu-option Window and then on Save.

STEP SEVEN

Close the game board, and call up another game, click on the menu-option Window and then on Load - Stockfish should appear exactly as you want it.

If anyone spots any errors in the above, or bits that, while correct, could be worded less clumsily, please let me know.