Stockfish is a free and open-source chess engine, available for various desktop and mobile platforms. It can be used in chess software through the Universal Chess Interface.
Stockfish has been one of the strongest chess engines in the world for several years. It has won all main events of the Top Chess Engine Championship (TCEC) and the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship (CCC) since 2020 and, as of October 2026, is the strongest CPU chess engine in the world with an estimated Elo rating of 3650 in a time control of 40/15 (15 minutes to make 40 moves), according to CCRL.
The Stockfish engine was developed by Tord Romstad, Marco Costalba, and Joona Kiiski, and was derived from Glaurung, an open-source engine by Tord Romstad released in 2004. It is now being developed and maintained by the Stockfish community.
Stockfish historically used only a classical hand-crafted function to evaluate board positions, but with the introduction of the efficiently updatable neural network (NNUE) in August 2020, Stockfish 12 adopted a hybrid evaluation system that primarily used the neural network and occasionally relied on the hand-crafted evaluation. In July 2023, Stockfish removed the hand-crafted evaluation and transitioned to a fully neural-network-based approach.
From the Wikipedia article “Stockfish (chess)”, CC BY-SA 4.0
What is Stockfish?
Stockfish by Stockfish (developed by Marco Costalba) is open-source Windows software in the pc games category. It ranks 10th by popularity among pc games in this catalogue. The first release dates back to 2008. It is written in C++. Besides Windows, it is available for macOS, Linux, iOS and Android.
Installation and requirements
The publisher provides Portable installers for 64-bit and ARM64 Windows. It runs without installation (portable).
Updates and version history
The current version is 19.0, released on September 5, 2026. The version history goes back to July 3, 2023: 6 releases, all linked to the official files. That is about 1.9 releases a year.
Popularity and file types
The Chocolatey package has been downloaded 608 times. The source code on GitHub (official-stockfish/Stockfish) has 17,043 stars. Wikipedia has an article about it in 29 of our languages. Similar programs include OpenTTD, RetroArch and Steam.
Project description on GitHub: “A free and strong UCI chess engine”
Pros / Cons
Pros
- Open source: the code can be inspected and built by anyone
- Native ARM64 build for Windows on Arm
- Portable: runs without installation
- Updated in the last two months
- Also runs on macOS, Linux and iOS
- Large user base
- Mature project (since 2008)
In short: Stockfish is an open-source pc game tool for 64-bit and ARM64 PCs.
Is Stockfish safe to download?
- The file is served by github.com, the publisher’s own domain
- The download link uses HTTPS
- A SHA256 hash is published, so you can verify the file:
3C8BF1F9EA66A09350A40DF4F632288285AC206D99F33AB5842C408FC30B48A7· Open the VirusTotal report for this hash - The link has not been checked yet
- The source code is public
- ExeAtlas does not host, wrap or modify installers
Related guide: How to check a file’s SHA256 hash on Windows
Recent versions
All 6 versions ›6 versions over 3 years · about 1.9 a year
| Version | Date | Size | Files |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19.0Latest | September 5, 2026 | — | ARM64 ZIP64-bit ZIP |
| 18.0 | February 3, 2026 | — | ARM64 ZIP64-bit ZIP |
| 17.1 | March 30, 2025 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
| 17.0 | January 10, 2025 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
| 16.1 | February 24, 2024 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
| 16.0 | July 3, 2023 | — | 64-bit ZIP |
Install from the command line
Silent install ›winget install --id Stockfish.Stockfish -echoco install stockfish -yRelated guide: How to use winget: install and update apps
Also for other systems
brew install stockfishInformation
- Publisher
- Stockfish
- Developer
- Marco Costalba
- Category
- PC games
- Licence
- GPL-3.0
- Price
- Free
- Source code
- github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish
- Written in
- C++
- Requires
- Windows 11 / 10
- Architecture
- 64-bit, ARM64
- Installer
- Portable
- Other platforms
- macOS, Linux, iOS, Android
- Version
- 19.0
- Released
- September 5, 2026
- First release
- 2008
- Added to the catalogue
- July 3, 2023
- Versions listed
- 6
- Updates / year
- 1.9
- Chocolatey downloads
- 608
- GitHub stars
- 17,043
- GitHub forks
- 3,103
- Website
- stockfishchess.org
- winget ID
- Stockfish.Stockfish
- Chocolatey package
- stockfish
Ratings and reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to rate it.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Stockfish free?
Yes. Stockfish is open-source software under the GPL-3.0 licence.
Is Stockfish safe to download?
The download comes from github.com, which belongs to the publisher; ExeAtlas does not host or change the file. Compare its SHA256 hash with the one shown here, or open the VirusTotal report for that hash.
How do I install Stockfish with winget?
Open PowerShell or Windows Terminal and run the winget command shown on this page. winget downloads the official installer and checks its SHA256 hash before running it.
Does Stockfish run on ARM (Windows on Arm)?
Yes, there is a native ARM64 installer.
Where can I download an older version of Stockfish?
The versions page lists all 6 versions with links to their official installer files, back to July 3, 2023.
Can I use Stockfish without administrator rights?
Yes, it is portable: unpack and run it.
What are alternatives to Stockfish?
OpenTTD, RetroArch, Steam, Celestia and PPSSPP. The alternatives page compares them.
