Stockfish 18

[Peter Eßer]

Hello. Can anyone say when Stockfish 18 for Raspberry Pi 5 will be released here? Regards, Esser

[RandyR]

I'll compile this today.

Randy

[RandyR]

Here's the x86_64 version.

[RandyR]

Here is the aarch64 version.

On Monday, February 9, 2026 at 9:54:39 AM UTC-6 RandyR wrote:

[Peter Eßer]

Hallo. Gibt es das auch für Windows/Rasberry 5 ?

[RandyR]

The aarch64 version is for the Raspberry Pi. The x86_64 version is for Linux PC's. Windows (and Linux) versions are available from stockfishchess.org.

[Håkan Löfgren]

On my Pi4 the aarch64 version did not work, but the x86_64 version worked ok. Strange

/Håkan

[RandyR]

That IS strange. Did I mix up the executables? I'll re-check.

[RandyR]

Nope. Just downloaded from the links in the messages above and they are correct.

[Aldo Bleeker]

Could that be Box64?

Aldo

[Randy Reade]

Yes. Box64 would run the x86_64 build. Native aarch64 would probably run better though.

[Håkan Löfgren]

I downloaded x86_64 version BEFORE Randy put up the aarch64 version, so it is quite certain I used the x86_64 version as I put it in the aarch64/NNUE folder after renaming version 17.1. Tested and it worked immediately. 

When Randy put up the aarch64 version, I realised I had made a silly mistake; removed this version, downloaded and installed the correct version. Unfortunately it wouldn’t start. 

Well, I reverted to version 17.1 and is happy with that :-)

/Håkan

[Randy Reade]

Ok. I'm going to download the aarch64 zip file and see if it runs on my clean v4. Note that I compiled it on my Pi5 using profile-build. Are you guys testing on a Pi5?

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[RandyR]

Also, try running it in a terminal. What is the error?

You can check if it is compiled for x86_64 or aarch64 using the command 'file StockfishNN'.

[RandyR]

It takes a bit of time to load SF18 - the embedded NNUE nets are quite large. I'm testing on a Pi5 and it took 20 seconds before I received "OK Engine". This might be related to the analysis code? The log shows this (the engine was selected at 2026-02-10 15:04:11.639):

2026-02-10 15:04:14.645   DEBUG     engine - get_analysis: caller has forgot to start analysis
2026-02-10 15:04:14.645 WARNING     engine - start_analysis: start analysis requested but no engine loaded
2026-02-10 15:04:15.646   DEBUG     engine - get_analysis: caller has forgot to start analysis
2026-02-10 15:04:15.647 WARNING     engine - start_analysis: start analysis requested but no engine loaded
2026-02-10 15:04:16.647   DEBUG     engine - get_analysis: caller has forgot to start analysis
2026-02-10 15:04:16.648 WARNING     engine - start_analysis: start analysis requested but no engine loaded
2026-02-10 15:04:17.649   DEBUG     engine - get_analysis: caller has forgot to start analysis
2026-02-10 15:04:17.649 WARNING     engine - start_analysis: start analysis requested but no engine loaded
2026-02-10 15:04:18.649   DEBUG     engine - get_analysis: caller has forgot to start analysis
2026-02-10 15:04:27.360 WARNING     engine - start_analysis: start analysis requested but no engine loaded
2026-02-10 15:04:28.361   DEBUG     engine - get_analysis: caller has forgot to start analysis
2026-02-10 15:04:28.361 WARNING     engine - start_analysis: start analysis requested but no engine loaded
2026-02-10 15:04:29.362   DEBUG     engine - get_analysis: caller has forgot to start analysis
2026-02-10 15:04:29.362 WARNING     engine - start_analysis: start analysis requested but no engine loaded
2026-02-10 15:04:30.363   DEBUG     engine - get_analysis: caller has forgot to start analysis
2026-02-10 15:04:30.363 WARNING     engine - start_analysis: start analysis requested but no engine loaded
2026-02-10 15:04:31.185   DEBUG     engine - startup: setting engine with options {'UCI_LimitStrength': 'true', 'UCI_Elo': '1320', 'Hash': '192', 'Threads': '1', 'SyzygyPath': '/opt/picochess/tablebases/syzygy', 'Move Overhead': '2000'}

Try the aarch64 build again and wait a bit for it to load.

Randy

[Ro Bert]

compiled stockfish 18 on my raspi5. its up an running.

i left the NNUE to the defaults so i hope the engine will use them:

option name EvalFile type string default nn-3dd094f3dfcf.nnue

option name EvalFileSmall type string default nn-37f18f62d772.nnue

so i copied the NN* from the src folder.

Robert

[RandyR]

Interestingly, switching to a different engine, playing a bit, then switching back to Stockfish 18 and it loaded quickly.

[RandyR]

It will use the embedded nets unless you specify them in the .uci file. My build shows these:

option name EvalFile type string default nn-c288c895ea92.nnue

option name EvalFileSmall type string default nn-37f18f62d772.nnue

[Håkan Löfgren]

file command says it is an ARM aarch64 file. Tried to start it and waited around 8 minutes in my Rpi4 but it just hang. 

I stopped picochess service and entered ./StockfishNN in the NNUE folder; is that the way to start from terminal? Anyway output was:

Stockfish 18 by Stockfish developers……….

Illegal instruction

Perhaps I should start from the beginning again by downloading the directory and reinstall it tomorrow….

/Håkan

[Randy Reade]

Ok. Thanks. It may be that it is compiled for the Pi5 only (doubtful). Are you using the latest Trixie OS files?

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[Randy Reade]

And, yes, you started it correctly.

On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 4:04 PM Håkan Löfgren <hawk...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Håkan Löfgren]

I am using your latest v3.4 Trixie image 14 Dec 2025 with only a change in autoexec to get the the correct display. 

/Håkan

[Randy Reade]

Ok. I'll check using my Pi4 and may have to compile a more compatible version. Thanks. 

Randy

[RandyR]

Confirmed. The aarch64 version I compiled on the Pi5 does not run on the Pi4 under the latest Trixie. I suspect it may have been the profile-build. I will upload a compatible version shortly and let you know when it is available.

[Aldo Bleeker]

I've compiled stockfish 18 on RPi 5, and it's running well. However, I've noticed that profile-build detects an ARM 8 with dot product support (armv8-dotprod). I don't know if the RPi 4 supports dot products, but that might explain why it's not running. In that case it probably can be made to run by selecting another build, possibly armv8 or armv7.

I've checked the Download page, and you can actually download a couple of versions for ARM. They mention Android in the description, but there's for instance one called Android ARMv8 Dot Product that runs on the RPi 5. I bet the ARMv8 (without Dot Prod), or the ARMv7 will run on earlier RPi's.

So if you don't want to compile your own version, I believe you can download and run the ARM versions on the RPi.

Aldo

[Randy Reade]

Yeah, I normally compile on the Pi4 but I only had the Pi5 available at the time so used that. I didn't even notice it was using -march=armv8.2-a+dotprod. I've just compiled a couple other versions on the Pi5 using:

make -j profile-build ARCH=armv8

make -j build ARCH=armv8

to compare.

I'm now trying to sort out a slow boot issue on the Pi5 with the SD card I use as my Trixie compile environment that was made on the Pi4. fsck showed no issues. I'll now check the bootloader and if that doesn't help will move it to the Pi4 and see how it boots. Eventually I'll get Stockfish tested on the Pi4.

[Randy Reade]

I see about a 6% benchmark speed increase (nps) on the Pi5 using the armv8.2-a+dotprod profile-build vs the armv8 profile-build. Will now test on the Pi4.

[Randy Reade]

Updating the bootloader didn't help my Pi5 boot that SD card any better. :^( Must be something else.

On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 11:02 AM Randy Reade <randy...@gmail.com> wrote:

[RandyR]

I have updated the aarch64 version of StockfishNN 18. The link is the same.

Randy

[RandyR]

Moving the SD card back to the Pi4 solved the slow boot issue. There was a bit of slowdown on the Pi5 that was caused by too many/large journal logs and tmp files but the main slowdown was using the SD card on different hardware which caused a file system check (via e2scrub_reap.service) on each boot. Lesson learned - best not to switch SD cards between different hardware revisions.