Increases the use of NNUE evaluation in positions without captures/pawn moves,
by increasing the NNUEThreshold threshold with rule50_count.
This patch will force Stockfish to use NNUE eval more and more in materially
unbalanced positions, when it seems that the classical eval is struggling to
win and only manages to shuffle. This will ask the (slower) NNUE eval to
double-check the potential fortress branches of the search tree, but only
when necessary.
passed STC:
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f36f1bf11a9b1a1dbf192d8
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.50,1.50}
Total: 51824 W: 5836 L: 5653 D: 40335
Ptnml(0-2): 264, 4356, 16512, 4493, 287
passed LTC:
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f37836111a9b1a1dbf1936d
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 29768 W: 1747 L: 1590 D: 26431
Ptnml(0-2): 33, 1347, 11977, 1484, 43
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3011
Bench: 4173967
Do not show the details of the default architecture for a simple "make help"
invocation, as the details are most likely to confuse beginners. Instead we
make it clear which architecture is the default and put an example at the end
of the Makefile as an incentative to use "make help ARCH=blah" to discover
the flags used by the different architectures.
```
make help
make help ARCH=x86-64-ssse3
```
Also clean-up and modernize a bit the Makefile examples while at it.
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2996
No functional change
Adds support for Vector Neural Network Instructions (avx512), as available on Intel Cascade Lake
The _mm512_dpbusd_epi32() intrinsic (vpdpbusd instruction) is taylor made for NNUE.
on a cascade lake CPU (AWS C5.24x.large, gcc 10) NNUE eval is at roughly 78% nps of classical
(single core test)
bench 1024 1 24 default depth:
target classical NNUE ratio
vnni 2207232 1725987 78.20
avx512 2216789 1671734 75.41
avx2 2194006 1611263 73.44
modern 2185001 1352469 61.90
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2987
No functional change
fails to build on that target, because of missing Intel Intrinsics.
macOS has posix_memalign() since ~2014 so we can simplify the code and just use that for all Apple platforms.
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2985
No functional change.
this workaround is possibly rather a windows & gcc specific problem. See e.g.
https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=54412#c25
on Linux with gcc 8 this patch brings roughly a 8% speedup.
However, probably needs some testing in the wild.
includes a workaround for an old msys make (3.81) installation (fixes#2984)
No functional change
Change condition from three friendly pieces to two. This now means that we only extend castling on the king side if there are no other friendly pieces aside from king and rook. For the queen side, we only extend if there is only a rook and another friendly piece or if there is only a single rook and no other friendly piece but this is very rare.
STC:
LLR: 3.20 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.50,1.50}
Total: 31144 W: 4086 L: 3903 D: 23155
Ptnml(0-2): 227, 2843, 9278, 2968, 256
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f31487f9081672066537516
LTC:
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 57816 W: 3786 L: 3538 D: 50492
Ptnml(0-2): 92, 2991, 22488, 3251, 86
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f3167c3908167206653753d
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2980
Bench: 4244812
Joint work gvreuls / vondele
* Download the default NNUE net in AppVeyor
* Download net in travis CI `make net`
* Adjust tests to cover more archs, speedup instrumented testing
* Introduce 'mixed' bench as default, with further options:
classical, NNUE, mixed.
mixed (default) and NNUE require the default net to be present,
which can be obtained with
```
make net
```
Further examples (first is equivalent to `./stockfish bench`):
```
./stockfish bench 16 1 13 default depth mixed
./stockfish bench 16 1 13 default depth classical
./stockfish bench 16 1 13 default depth NNUE
```
The net is now downloaded automatically if needed for `profile-build`
(usual `build` works fine without net present)
PGO gives a nice speedup on fishtest:
passed STC:
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.50,1.50}
Total: 3360 W: 469 L: 343 D: 2548
Ptnml(0-2): 20, 246, 1030, 356, 28
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f31b5499081672066537569
passed LTC:
LLR: 2.97 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 8824 W: 609 L: 502 D: 7713
Ptnml(0-2): 8, 430, 3438, 519, 17
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f31c87b908167206653757c
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2931
fixes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/issues/2907
requires fishtest updates before commit
Bench: 4290577
This patch allows old x86 CPUs, from AMD K8 (which the x86-64 baseline
targets) all the way down to the Pentium MMX, to benefit from NNUE with
comparable performance hit versus hand-written eval as on more modern
processors.
NPS of the bench with NNUE enabled on a Pentium III 1.13 GHz (using the
MMX code):
master: 38951
this patch: 80586
NPS of the bench with NNUE enabled using baseline x86-64 arch, which is
how linux distros are likely to package stockfish, on a modern CPU
(using the SSE2 code):
master: 882584
this patch: 1203945
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2956
No functional change.
Makefile targets x86-64-sse42, x86-sse3 are removed; x86-64-sse41
is renamed to x86-64-sse41-popcnt (it did enable popcnt).
Makefile variables sse3, sse42, their associated compilation flags
and code in misc.cpp are removed.
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2922
No functional change
despite usage of alignas, the generated (avx2/avx512) code with older compilers needs to use
unaligned loads with older gcc (e.g. confirmed crash with gcc 7.3/mingw on abrok).
Better performance thus requires gcc >= 9 on hardware supporting avx2/avx512
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2969
No functional change
The idea of this patch is that positions are usually more complex and hard to evaluate even if there are more pawns.
This patch adjusts NNUE threshold usage depending on number of pawns in position, if pawn count is <3 we use the
classical evaluation more often, for pawn count = 3 patch the is non-functional,
with pawn count > 3 NNUE evaluation is used more often.
passed STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f2f02d09081672066536b1f
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.50,1.50}
Total: 36520 W: 5011 L: 4823 D: 26686
Ptnml(0-2): 299, 3482, 10548, 3594, 337
passed LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f2f4c329081672066536b5c
LLR: 2.98 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 39272 W: 2630 L: 2433 D: 34209
Ptnml(0-2): 53, 2066, 15218, 2229, 70
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2960
bench 4084753
This patch tries to run multiple LTO threads in parallel, speeding up
the build process of optimized builds if the -j make parameter is used.
This mitigates the longer linking times of optimized builds since the
integration of the NNUE code. Roughly 2x build speedup.
I've tried a similar patch some two years ago but it ran into trouble
with old compiler versions then. Since we're on the C++17 standard now
these old compilers should be obsolete.
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2943
No functional change.
This patch increases LMRdepth threshold for futility pruning at parent nodes so it can apply more often.
With radical change to evaluation approach it seems that search is really far from optimal state, especially it parts that use static evaluation of position.
passed STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f2da75661e3b6af64881fd0
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.50,1.50}
Total: 8744 W: 1305 L: 1156 D: 6283
Ptnml(0-2): 75, 789, 2500, 928, 80
passed LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f2dcb2a61e3b6af64881ff3
LLR: 2.98 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 17728 W: 1256 L: 1117 D: 15355
Ptnml(0-2): 22, 961, 6774, 1070, 37
Bench: 4067325
Allow any pawn in front of a minor piece to replace the pawn protection
requirement for outposts.
+-------+ +-------+
| . . o | | o . . | o Their pawns
| . o x | | o . . | x Our pawns
| o N . | | x o B | N,B New (reachable) outpost
| . . . | | . _ . | _ Reachable square behind a pawn
+-------+ +-------+
N outpost B reaches
outpost
We want outposts to be secured by pawns against major pieces. If
a minor is shielded by any pawn from above, it is rarely at the same
time protected by our pawn attacks from below. However, the pawn shield
in itself offers some degree of protection.
A pawn shield will now suffice to replace the pawn protection for the
outpost (and reachable outpost) bonus.
This effect stacks with the existing "minor behind pawn" bonus.
STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f2bcd14b3ebe5cbfee85b2c
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.50,1.50}
Total: 27248 W: 5353 L: 5119 D: 16776
Ptnml(0-2): 462, 3174, 6185, 3274, 529
LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f2bfef5b3ebe5cbfee85b5a
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 99432 W: 12580 L: 12130 D: 74722
Ptnml(0-2): 696, 8903, 30049, 9391, 677
Closes#2935
Bench: 4143673
This patch ports the efficiently updatable neural network (NNUE) evaluation to Stockfish.
Both the NNUE and the classical evaluations are available, and can be used to
assign a value to a position that is later used in alpha-beta (PVS) search to find the
best move. The classical evaluation computes this value as a function of various chess
concepts, handcrafted by experts, tested and tuned using fishtest. The NNUE evaluation
computes this value with a neural network based on basic inputs. The network is optimized
and trained on the evalutions of millions of positions at moderate search depth.
The NNUE evaluation was first introduced in shogi, and ported to Stockfish afterward.
It can be evaluated efficiently on CPUs, and exploits the fact that only parts
of the neural network need to be updated after a typical chess move.
[The nodchip repository](https://github.com/nodchip/Stockfish) provides additional
tools to train and develop the NNUE networks.
This patch is the result of contributions of various authors, from various communities,
including: nodchip, ynasu87, yaneurao (initial port and NNUE authors), domschl, FireFather,
rqs, xXH4CKST3RXx, tttak, zz4032, joergoster, mstembera, nguyenpham, erbsenzaehler,
dorzechowski, and vondele.
This new evaluation needed various changes to fishtest and the corresponding infrastructure,
for which tomtor, ppigazzini, noobpwnftw, daylen, and vondele are gratefully acknowledged.
The first networks have been provided by gekkehenker and sergiovieri, with the latter
net (nn-97f742aaefcd.nnue) being the current default.
The evaluation function can be selected at run time with the `Use NNUE` (true/false) UCI option,
provided the `EvalFile` option points the the network file (depending on the GUI, with full path).
The performance of the NNUE evaluation relative to the classical evaluation depends somewhat on
the hardware, and is expected to improve quickly, but is currently on > 80 Elo on fishtest:
60000 @ 10+0.1 th 1
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f28fe6ea5abc164f05e4c4c
ELO: 92.77 +-2.1 (95%) LOS: 100.0%
Total: 60000 W: 24193 L: 8543 D: 27264
Ptnml(0-2): 609, 3850, 9708, 10948, 4885
40000 @ 20+0.2 th 8
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f290229a5abc164f05e4c58
ELO: 89.47 +-2.0 (95%) LOS: 100.0%
Total: 40000 W: 12756 L: 2677 D: 24567
Ptnml(0-2): 74, 1583, 8550, 7776, 2017
At the same time, the impact on the classical evaluation remains minimal, causing no significant
regression:
sprt @ 10+0.1 th 1
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f2906a2a5abc164f05e4c5b
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-6.00,-4.00}
Total: 34936 W: 6502 L: 6825 D: 21609
Ptnml(0-2): 571, 4082, 8434, 3861, 520
sprt @ 60+0.6 th 1
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f2906cfa5abc164f05e4c5d
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) {-6.00,-4.00}
Total: 10088 W: 1232 L: 1265 D: 7591
Ptnml(0-2): 49, 914, 3170, 843, 68
The needed networks can be found at https://tests.stockfishchess.org/nns
It is recommended to use the default one as indicated by the `EvalFile` UCI option.
Guidelines for testing new nets can be found at
https://github.com/glinscott/fishtest/wiki/Creating-my-first-test#nnue-net-tests
Integration has been discussed in various issues:
https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/issues/2823https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/issues/2728
The integration branch will be closed after the merge:
https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2825https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/tree/nnue-player-wip
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2912
This will be an exciting time for computer chess, looking forward to seeing the evolution of
this approach.
Bench: 4746616