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Stockfish CLI Updated 2025-10-14

www.maketecheasier.com/use-stockfish-cli-master-chess is a good source.

Most of what follows is part of the Universal Chess Interface. Tested on Ubuntu 22.10, Stockfish 14.1.

After starting stockfish on the command line, d (presumably display) contains:

 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | r | n | b | q | k | b | n | r | 8
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | 7
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 6
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 5
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 4
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 3
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | 2
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | R | N | B | Q | K | B | N | R | 1
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h

Fen: rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
Key: 8F8F01D4562F59FB

Sweet ASCII art. where:

Fen: FEN notation
Key: TODO

Move white king's pawn from e2 to e4:

position startpos moves e2e4

Then display again:

gives:

 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | r | n | b | q | k | b | n | r | 8
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | 7
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 6
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 5
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   |   |   | P |   |   |   | 4
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 3
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | P | P | P | P |   | P | P | P | 2
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | R | N | B | Q | K | B | N | R | 1
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h

Fen: rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1
Key: B46022469E3DD31B

so we see that the pawn moved.

Now let's make Stockfish think for one second what is the next best move for black:

go movetime 1000

gives as the last line:

bestmove c7c5 ponder g1f3

TODO:

what is ponder? Something to do with thinking on the opponent's turn: permanent brain.
understand the previous lines

To make the move it as suggested for black, we have to either repeat the entire sequence of movements:

position startpos moves e2e4 c7c5

d:

 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | r | n | b | q | k | b | n | r | 8
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | p | p |   | p | p | p | p | p | 7
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 6
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   | p |   |   |   |   |   | 5
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   |   |   | P |   |   |   | 4
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 3
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | P | P | P | P |   | P | P | P | 2
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 | R | N | B | Q | K | B | N | R | 1
 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h

Fen: rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/2p5/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2
Key: 4CA78BCE9C2980B0

or alternatively we could also use the previous FEN notation as a starting point;

position fen rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1 moves c7c5

Note how the Universal Chess Interface interface is very simple: we just load a state and then decide what to do next for that one state. The engine holds only one and exactly one state at a time, and you can't even modify it differentially without loading new one from scratch.

Let's move white again with our brain with either:

position startpos moves e2e4 c7c5 d2d3
position fen rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/2p5/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2 moves d2d3

Set a specific position from fen:

position fen rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1