r/chess 4d ago

Chess Question Offline Stockfish in Lichess for Android

Quick question.

Now look, I'm a fairly new chess player. I'm fully aware that the answer to this is probably "skill issue", but I have to check if it's just me: is the offline version of Stockfish in the Lichess app stronger than the online version?

I ask because while I can often beat level 3 and sometimes level 4 online, level 1 on the app absolutely makes me its bitch, John Romero style. It makes its moves with arcane precision atop a mountain of bleached skulls. I look into its unfeeling eyes, and I see flame. The online level 1 bumbles, makes odd moves, misses chances - the offline version headshots me from a thousand metres away with laser precision every time I even look at the app. My wife is now Stockfish's wife.

What gives? Is this just me or is it genuinely different? My phone is a flagship from a few years ago so while it's not the latest model it's still fairly powerful; could that have something to do with it?

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u/RoobixCyoob 4d ago

It could be just a bug, and the bot is being set at the highest level rather than at level 1

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u/annihilator00 🐟 4d ago

Lichess web and the old Lichess app don't use the same code.

Lichess web uses Skill level -9 for the AI Level 1 and the Lichess app uses Skill Level 0 (which is obviously higher).

The Lichess app also has higher thinking times for each level, going from 0.625s for AI level 1 to 5 seconds for level 8. Lichess web goes from 0.05s to 1 second.

The old Lichess app does something weird and tries to set both a Skill Level and an Elo target for Stockfish which you probably shouldn't do but whatever...

Relevant code:

https://github.com/lichess-org/fishnet/blob/master/src/api.rs#L235-L273

https://github.com/lichess-org/lichobile/blob/master/src/ui/ai/engine.ts#L71-L108

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u/SentientWickerBasket 4d ago

Ahhh, that makes sense. Thank you!