CUTECHESS-CLI(6) Games Manual CUTECHESS-CLI(6)

NAME
cutechess-cli - Automate chess engine tournaments

SYNOPSIS
cutechess-cli -engine engine-options -engine engine-options
[-engine engine-options ...] [options]

DESCRIPTION
The cutechess-cli utility automates chess engine tournaments.

Its options are as follows:

-engine engine-options
Add an engine defined by engine-options to the tournament. See
Engine Options.

-each engine-options
Apply engine-options to each engine in the tournament. See
Engine Options.

-variant variant
Set the chess variant, where variant is one of:

3check Three-check Chess

5check Five-check Chess
ai-wok Ai-Wok (Makruk variant)
almost Almost Chess
amazon Amazon Chess
andernach Andernach Chess
antiandernach Anti-Andernach Chess
antichess Antichess / Losing Chess
asean ASEAN-Chess
atomic Atomic Chess
berolina Berolina Chess
cambodian Ouk Chatrang (Cambodian Chess)
capablanca Capablanca Chess
caparandom Capablanca Random Chess
cfour Cfour (7x6, line up 4 to win)
chancellor Chancellor Chess (9x9)
changeover Change-Over Chess
checkless Checkless Chess
chessgi Chessgi / Drop Chess
chigorin Chigorin Chess
circulargryphon
Circular Gryphon Chess
codrus Game of Codrus (Losing Chess Variant)
coregal Co-regal Chess
courier Courier Chess (Medieval)
crazyhouse Crazyhouse (Drop Chess Variant)
displacedgrid Displaced Grid Chess
dobutsu Dobutsu Shogi (3x4)
embassy Embassy Chess
euroshogi EuroShogi (8x8)
extinction Extinction Chess
fischerandom Fischer Random Chess / Chess 960
giveaway Giveaway Chess (Losing Chess)
gomoku Gomoku (15x15, exactly 5 in a row to win)
 gomokufreestyle
Gomoku Free-Style (5 in a row to win)
gothic Gothic Chess
grand Grand Chess
grid Grid Chess
gridolina Berolina Grid Chess
gryphon Gryphon Chess
gustav3 Gustav III's Chess
hoppelpoppel Hoppel-Poppel (has N/B hybrids)
horde Horde Chess (v2)
janus Janus Chess
jesonmor Jeson Mor
judkins Judkins Shogi (6x6)
karouk Kar Ouk (One-check Ouk)
kinglet Kinglet Chess
kingofthehill King of the Hill Chess
knightmate Knightmate
knightrelay Knight-Relay Chess
loop Loop Chess (Drop Chess Variant)
losalamos Los Alamos Chess
losers Loser's Chess
makruk Makruk (Thai Chess)
minishogi Minishogi (5x5)
modern Modern Chess (9x9)
newzealand New Zealand Chess (has N/R hybrids)
placement Placement Chess
pocketknight Pocket Knight Chess
racingkings Racing Kings Chess
rifle Rifle Chess
seirawan S-Chess (Seirawan Chess)
shatranj Shatranj
shogi Shogi
shoot Shoot Chess
simplifiedgryphon
Simplified Gryphon Chess
sittuyin Sittuyin (Myanmar Chess)
slippedgrid Slipped Grid Chess
suicide Suicide Chess (Losing Chess Variant)
superandernach
Super-Andernach Chess
threekings Three Kings Chess
tictactoe Tic-tac-toe
twokings Two Kings Each Chess (Wild 9)
twokingssymmetric
Symmetrized Wild 9
standard Standard Chess (default)

-concurrency n
Set the maximum number of concurrent games to n.

-draw movenumber=number movecount=count score=score

Adjudicate the game as draw if the score of both engines is
within score centipawns from zero for at least count consecutive
moves, and at least number full moves have been played. Captures
and pawn moves will reset the counters.

-resign movecount=count score=score [twosided=value]

Adjudicate the game as a loss if an engine's score is at least
score centipawns below zero for at least count consecutive moves.
 If value is true (default: false) then activate two-sided resign
adjudication. The winning side's scores must be at least score
centipawns above zero for at least count consecutive moves

-maxmoves n
Adjudicate the game as a draw if at least n full moves have been
played without result. Ignored if n equals zero (default).

-tb paths
Adjudicate games using Syzygy tablebases. Paths should be
semicolon-delimited list of paths to the compressed tablebase
files. Only the WDL tablebase files are required.

-tbpieces N
Only use tablebase adjudication for positions with N pieces or
less.

-tbignore50
Disable the fifty move rule for tablebase adjudication.

-tournament type
Set the tournament type, where type is one of:

round-robin Round-robin tournament (default)

gauntlet First engine(s) against the rest
knockout Single-elimination tournament
pyramid Every engine plays against all of its
predecessors

-event arg
Set the event name to arg.

-games n
Play n games per encounter. This value should be set to an even
number in tournaments with more than two players to make sure
that each player plays an equal number of games with white and
black pieces.

-rounds n
Multiply the number of rounds to play by n. For two-player
tournaments this option should be used to set the total number of
games to play.

-sprt elo0=E0 elo1=E1 alpha=<alpha> beta=<beta>

Use a Sequential Probability Ratio Test as a termination
criterion for the match.

This option should only be used in matches between two players to

test if engine P1 is stronger than engine P2. Hypothesis H1 is
that P1 is stronger than P2 by at least E0 ELO points, and H0
(the null hypothesis) is that P1 is not stronger than P2 by at
least E1 ELO points. The maximum probabilities for type I and
type II errors outside the interval [ E0, E1 ] are <alpha> and
<beta>.

The match is stopped if either H0 or H1 is accepted or if the

maximum number of games set by -rounds and / or -games is
reached.
-ratinginterval n
Set the interval for printing the ratings to n games.

-outcomeinterval n
Set the interval for printing outcomes to n games.

-debug Display all engine input and output.

-openings file=file format=[epd | pgn] order=[random | sequential]

plies=plies start=start policy=[default | encounter | round]
Pick game openings from file. The file can be either in epd
(Extended Position Description) or pgn (Portable Game Notation)
format. The default format is pgn. Openings can be picked in
random or sequential (default) order. The opening depth is
limited to plies number of plies. If plies is not set the
opening depth is unlimited. In sequential mode start is the
number of the first opening that will be played. The minimum
value for start is 1 (default).

The value of policy rules when to shift to a new opening. If set

to encounter a new opening is used for any new pair of players,
round shifts when a new round begins. The default shifts for any
new pair of players and also when the specified number of opening
repetitions is reached.

-bookmode mode
Set Polyglot book access mode, where mode is either ram (the
whole book is loaded into RAM) or disk (the book is accessed
directly on disk). The default mode is ram.

-pgnout file [min] [fi]

Save the games to file in PGN format. Use the min argument to
save in a minimal PGN format. Only finished games will be saved
if argument fi is given.

-epdout file
Save the games to file in FEN format.

-recover
Restart crashed engines instead of stopping the game.

-repeat [n]
Play each opening twice (or n times). Unless the -noswap option
is used, the players swap sides after each game. So they get to
play the opening on both sides. Please note that a new encounter
will use a new opening.

-noswap
Do not swap sides of paired engines.

-reverse
Use schedule with reverse sides.

-seeds n
Set the first n engines as seeds in the tournament. The default
is 0.

-site arg
Set the site / location to arg.
 -srand seed
Set the random seed for the book move selector.

-wait n
Wait n milliseconds between games. The default is 0.

-resultformat format
Specify the format of result lists. Format can either be a comma
separated list of fields or a format name. Format help shows
available named formats. The default format lists rank, name,
elo, elo error, number of games, score percentage, and draw
percentage of every player.

-version
Display the version information.

-help Display help information.

-engines
Display a list of configured engines and exit.

Engine Options
conf=arg
Use an engine with the name arg from engine configuration file.

name=arg
Set the name to arg.

cmd=arg
Set the command to arg.

dir=arg
Set the working directory to arg.

stderr=arg
Redirect standard error output to file arg.

proto=[uci | xboard]
Set the chess protocol.

tc=[tcformat | inf]
Set the time control. The format is moves/time+increment, where
moves is the number of moves per tc, time is time per tc (either
seconds or minutes:seconds), and increment is the time increment
per move in seconds.

Infinite time control can be set with inf.

option.name=value
Set custom engine option.

arg=arg
Pass arg to the engine as a command line argument.

initstr=arg
Send arg to the engine's standard input at startup.

restart=[auto | on | off]
 Set the engine restart mode. auto means the engine decides
whether to restart (default), on means the engine is always
restarted between games and off means the engine is never
restarted between games. Setting this option does not prevent
engines from being restarted between rounds in a tournament
featuring more than two engines.

trust Trust result claims from the engine without validation. By

default all claims are validated.

st=n Set the time limit for each move to n seconds. This option
cannot be used in combination with the tc option.

timemargin=n
Let engines go n milliseconds over the time limit.

book=file
Use file (Polyglot book file) as the opening book.

bookdepth=n
Set the maximum book depth (in fullmoves) to n.

whitepov
Invert the engine's scores when it plays black. This option
should be used with engines that always report scores from
white's perspective.

ponder Enable pondering if the engine supports it.

depth=plies
Set the search depth limit.

nodes=count
Set the node count limit.

EXAMPLES
Play ten games between two Sloppy engines with a time control of 40 moves
in 60 seconds:

$ cutechess-cli -engine cmd=sloppy -engine cmd=sloppy -each

proto=xboard tc=40/60 -rounds 10

Play a single game between Atak and Glaurung engines with a time control
of 40 moves in one minute and 30 seconds with one second increment:

$ cutechess-cli -engine name=Atak cmd=Atak32.exe dir=C:\atak

proto=xboard -engine cmd=glaurung proto=uci option.Threads=1 -each
tc=40/1:30+1

o Use the name=Atak parameter because it's a Xboard protocol 1 engine

and doesn't tell its name.

o Use the dir=C:\atak parameter to point the location of the

executable.

o Glaurung can tell its name and is in the PATH variable so only the
command is needed.

o Set Glaurung to use 1 thread.

 o Set the time control to 40 moves in one minute and 30 seconds with
one second increment.

Play a Round-Robin tournament between Fruit, Crafty, Stockfish and

Sloppy:

$ cutechess-cli -engine conf=Fruit -engine conf=Crafty -engine

conf=Stockfish -engine conf=Sloppy -each tc=4 book=book.bin -games
2 -rounds 10 -repeat

o Play two games per encounter, effectively multiplying the number of

games by 2.

o Play 10 times the minimum amount of rounds (3). So the total number
of rounds to play will be 30, and the total number of games 120.

o In each two-game encounter colors are switched between games and the
same opening line is played in both games.

SEE ALSO
cutechess-engines.json(5)

AUTHORS
The cutechess-cli utility was written by Ilari Pihlajisto,
Arto Jonsson and contributors. See the project page for more details.

RESOURCES
o Project page: http://github.com/cutechess/cutechess

Debian June 28, 2020 Debian