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Setting Up Stockfish in SCID-vs-PC

Setting Up Stockfish in SCID-vs-PC

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Mouselip
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Chess is a game fraught with mistakes. Savielly Tartakower, one of the first International Grandmasters, is reported to have said that “the winner is the one who makes the next-to-last mistake.” Modern chess engines are very good at finding those mistakes, much like the “Game Review” function on chess.com. That feature is nice, but I have a strong Do-It-Yourself streak. I prefer to analyze games on my own computer, and in this post I’ll show how to set up my favorite chess database application, SCID-vs-PC, to use Stockfish for analysis.

SCID-vs-PC is a free chess database application available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. I use Linux, and ChessBase does not run natively there. Besides, while ChessBase is powerful, it is expensive and overkill for most amateur players. The only cost of SCID-vs-PC is the time you spend learning to use it well, and my goal here is to show you how to set up Stockfish inside it.

I also have a fledgling YouTube channel with introductory videos on SCID-vs-PC called Mouselip’s Chess Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@ChessWithMouselip

This post will eventually be adapted into a video showing more advanced ways to use Stockfish within SCID-vs-PC to help improve your chess skill.

This post will not cover how to download or install Stockfish because I don’t know what kind of computer you use. You can download the correct version for your system from:

https://stockfishchess.org/

Likewise, I can’t cover installation of SCID-vs-PC for the same reason, but its home page is here:

https://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/

Some of my introductory YouTube videos can help you get started. Once you have both programs installed, you’ll want to configure Stockfish for use inside SCID-vs-PC, and that’s what this post covers.

Configuring Stockfish in SCID-vs-PC

Assuming you’ve already installed and performed the basic setup for SCID-vs-PC and Stockfish, follow these steps:

  1. From the main menu, select Tools → Analysis Engines.
    A dialog window titled Analysis Engines appears.

  2. Click New. A new dialog titled Configure Engine opens.

  3. In the Name field, type stockfish.
    In the Command field, specify where Stockfish is installed.

    • On Windows or macOS, click Browse and navigate to the Stockfish executable (usually stockfish.exe).

    • On Linux, Stockfish is typically installed in your PATH (for example /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin), so simply type stockfish.

  4. Click Configure. This opens another dialog titled UCI Configure.

    The only settings worth adjusting here are Threads and Hash.
    Modern CPUs have multiple cores and plenty of RAM. My mini-PC, for example, has a Ryzen 7 CPU with 8 cores (16 threads) and 32 GB of RAM.

    The more threads you assign to Stockfish, the faster it analyzes each position. Likewise, increasing hash memory lets it remember more positions. There’s no single correct setting; use what you’re comfortable giving Stockfish while still leaving resources for other programs.

    The defaults (1 thread and 16 MB hash) are too small to be useful. On my 16-thread, 32 GB system, I allocate 12 threads and 16384 MB hash. If I push it higher, my desktop’s memory manager complains, so that’s my limit.

    Note: The hash memory you assign is allocated when SCID-vs-PC starts, so avoid running other memory-intensive programs at the same time.

  5. When finished, click Save, then OK on the previous dialog.
    You’ll return to the Analysis Engines window. Move Stockfish to the top of the list using the up-arrow button so it’s your default engine.

  6. Optionally, set a hotkey.
    F2 and F3 may already be in use. To free F2, highlight the engine using it and click Edit.
    At the bottom of the Configure Engine dialog, change the hotkey to F3, F4, or None.
    I usually set it to None because I rarely use other engines (besides Lc0 with the Maia-1900 network).
    Click OK, then highlight Stockfish, click Edit again, assign F2, click OK, and finally close the Analysis Engines window.

You’ve now configured SCID-vs-PC to use Stockfish with sensible settings.

Testing the Configuration

From the main SCID-vs-PC window, use the database switcher to select the clipbase.
Enter the first moves of the Najdorf:

  1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6

Press F2 to start Stockfish.
A tab opens showing engine analysis.

By default, engine information may be hidden. Above the engine-analysis moves, find the row of icons and click the blue lowercase i. This opens a panel below the move list displaying useful details such as:

  • Depth: search depth in plies; the deeper the number, the further ahead the engine is looking.

  • Nodes searched: total number of nodes the engine has evaluated so far.

  • kN/s (kilo nodes per second): thousands of nodes searched per second, equal to NPS divided by 1,000.

  • NPS (Nodes Per Second): raw nodes per second, the engine’s instantaneous node throughput.

  • Hash-table usage: amount of hash memory in use, shown as bytes or megabytes and often as a percentage of the assigned hash.

  • Current move being considered: the move the engine is actively evaluating, usually shown as part of the principal variation.

I hope this helps you set up Stockfish with SCID-vs-PC. I plan to write more on getting the most from its analysis features in future posts and videos.